ARLINGTON, Va. — Potomac Nationals owner Art Silber says he’s already gotten several calls from local governments and developers about a new stadium for his team in Northern Virginia.
“We’ve been contacted by — and I’m not going to specifically identify who or where — by a number of different government entities,” Silber told WTOP.
The team owner wouldn’t offer any hints about where that interest is coming from, however there are a few places that have already been ruled out.
Silber says it is very unlikely that a new stadium would be built in Prince William County, noting that trying to work with the county on a different project would be difficult and there aren’t many appealing sites within the county for him.
He also noted that Maryland is extremely unlikely because of the number and proximity of minor league baseball stadiums already in the state.
There is also a possibility that the team could leave the region all together.
If it were to do that, it would need to stay within the Carolina League area.
“We could go to North Carolina, we could go to South Carolina, there are parts of Pennsylvania we could go to,” Silber explained.
Silber says his preference is to stay in Northern Virginia and that he’d sell the team if it were to move.
The Washington Business Journal reported Friday that Alexandria may have some interest in wooing the team back to the city, its previous home before moving to Prince William County in the 1980s.
Other areas with a history of talking to baseball teams could also be interested.
Arlington County was a possible home for the then-Montreal Expos before they settled on the District at the start of the 2005 season.
There have been ongoing efforts to bring a minor league team to Loudoun County’s One Loudoun development that would play in the independent Atlantic League — which also features Waldorf’s Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania could make a play for the Nationals after a deal to bring the Hagerstown Suns to the region fell through, leading the Suns to sign a two-year lease extension with Hagerstown.
Unlike the Suns, the Nationals are facing a deadline.
They must be out of Pfitzner Stadium by the end of 2018 because it doesn’t meet Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball standards.
“We’re going to take the time to explore them and to see if there is something that could be a real possibility,” stated Silber.
