Elliot Price!

In article <420a0f75$0$29491$c0de3616@dsl.net>,
FSogol <FSogol RemoveThis @nospamplease.org> wrote:

> Tavares is in talks to bring Elliot Price to DC ...

I know Elliot will do this with mixed feelings, being a long-time
announcer and fan, and there are visa issues. But congratulations to him
if he gets an official offer. (Wahington fans: Elliot does a great job
and yyou'll be lucky to have hime!)

The full story:

washingtonpost.com Nats Set Ticket Options, Work on FM Radio Deal

By Barry Svrluga Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 9,
2005; Page D01

The Washington Nationals, who are still without a radio deal to
broadcast their inaugural season in Washington, are considering hiring
Elliott Price, who served as the voice of the Montreal Expos, to be
their play-by-play man, team president Tony Tavares said.

"I'm waiting for them to make a deal, but I'm very interested," Price
said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I've seen or listened to every
game in the history of the franchise."

With the team's pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training next
Tuesday and position players to follow on Feb. 20, the decision on a
play-by-play broadcaster is among the most intriguing to the team's
nascent fan base. But there are several areas of importance that both
Nationals and MLB officials must deal with over the coming weeks,
ranging from the continuing sale of tickets to working out a
compensation package with Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos.

The Nationals are still trying to finalize a radio deal after an
apparent pact with Clear Channel Communications fell apart nearly two
weeks ago. The leader is Infinity Broadcasting, two sources said, which
would likely put the games on one of its FM stations. Infinity
Broadcasting's WJFK-FM-106.7, already serves as home to the Washington
Redskins.

"There's nothing I'm doing that's more important," Tavares said
regarding radio.

Yesterday, the Nationals announced that mini-season ticket packages of
41 or 20 games will go on sale at 12:01 a.m. Thursday for those fans who
have already registered their interest in tickets through the team's Web
site, www.nationals.com. Fans who have not yet registered on the site
will have until 11 a.m. today to do so to be eligible to purchase
tickets Thursday morning. That pre-registered group will receive an
e-mail later today with instructions -- including passwords -- to enable
them to purchase the plans over the Internet or by phone beginning
Thursday.

The packages will be available to the general public beginning at 12:01
a.m. Monday on the Web site, and by phone beginning at 8 a.m. Monday at
(202) 675-NATS.

The 41-game plan offers a $2 discount off the prices that will be
charged for a single game ticket. They range in price from $205 to $738,
and include the home opener at RFK Stadium, April 14 against the Arizona
Diamondbacks.

The 20-game packages don't offer a discount from single-game tickets,
but both partial plans will include other perks, such as the right to
purchase a parking pass and a 10 percent discount off merchandise at the
team store.

Single-game tickets won't go on sale until mid-March. The club has sold
more than 17,000 full season tickets.

"We've had almost three months now, and we've tried to listen to our
fans, to talk to our fans, to see what they wanted," said David Cope,
the team's vice president for sales and marketing. "We think they'll
respond favorably to this, and I think this market is going to be able
to support these plans financially."

Meanwhile, Angelos and MLB President Robert DuPuy met in New York
yesterday afternoon to discuss a financial package that would offset the
effect the Nationals will have on the Baltimore club.

The two sides have been negotiating since September, and are moving
closer to a deal. Both DuPuy and Angelos declined to comment when
reached yesterday. More discussions are planned in the next few days.

Finalizing a deal with Angelos has an impact on any television deal the
Nationals are able to strike, but not on radio. Tavares spoke at a forum
on baseball's return to Washington Monday night at the National Press
Club, and said there that "conventional wisdom" used to be that baseball
broadcasts were better off on AM.

"We don't believe that's the case anymore," Tavares said. He said a
strong FM signal could carry to West Virginia to the west and
Pennsylvania to the north.

Should Infinity, which runs five stations in the Washington market, get
the deal, its officials would likely have some say over who is involved
in the broadcast team, though Nationals officials want their influence
to be heavily felt.

Price offers both advantages and disadvantages. He grew up in Montreal,
and it's likely that no candidate knows more about the history of the
franchise. He began working on the team's broadcasts as a pre- and
postgame host in 1989, and took on regular play-by-play responsibilities
in 1991 when games were on television and the radio voice moved over to
do TV. He was the full-time radio voice of the Expos from 2001 to '04.

But Tavares said yesterday that because Price is Canadian, the club must
secure a visa for him to be able to work in the United States.

"He's definitely in the mix," Tavares said. "But we'd have to get past
this visa issue, and we have to do it quickly."

Staff writer Thomas Heath contributed to this report.