Tampa Bay's 11-year wait for a major league team was set to end today, and Phoenix's five-year quest also was due to be fulfilled.
Baseball owners gathered this morning and were scheduled to vote on the recommendation that St. Petersburg and Phoenix get franchises for the 1998 season. Approval was expected."I think we will enjoy the same level of success Colorado and Florida enjoyed in their expansion years, and I think it will be true for Tampa Bay also," said Jerry Colangelo, who heads the Phoenix group.
Expansion committee chairman John Harrington on Wednesday confirmed the two sites, which the committee formally recommended on Tuesday night. A three-quarters vote from each league was required for approval.
"Tampa Bay and Phoenix came in a little ahead of the others under the wire," Harrington said.
Two groups from northern Virginia and one from Orlando, Fla., also were seeking teams.
Colangelo, president of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, is expected to call his team the Arizona Diamondbacks. Vincent Naimoli, who heads the St. Petersburg group, is calling his team the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Baseball officials said it was unlikely the expansion teams, expected to cost $140 million each, would be assigned to leagues today, but Harrington said it was possible.
According to Harrington, the recommendation also says owners will add two more teams no earlier than 2000.