Albuquerque owner's move may benefit LV

Expect those rumors about the Los Angeles Dodgers moving their triple-A operations to Las Vegas next year to begin heating up again.

Bob Lozinak of Churchville, Md., the owner of the Albuquerque Dukes for the past 21 years, announced earlier this week that he was selling his club for almost $12 million to a group called Portland Family Entertainment.

That group plans to move the Dukes, who have been the Dodgers' triple-A affiliate since 1972, to Portland for the 2001 season when $37 million in improvements to Portland's old Civic Stadium are scheduled to be completed.

Meanwhile, Albuquerque will likely be without a triple-A team in 2001 and is already looking into the prospect of passing $30 million in bonds to help build a new state-of-the-art stadium to try to lure another triple-A team into that city.

There's one big catch. The deal doesn't include any kind of affliation rights with the Dodgers after this season when a number of triple-A affiliation deals, including one between the Las Vegas Stars and the San Diego Padres, expire.

"That affiliation process doesn't change at all," Stars general manager Don Logan said. "Everybody goes through the (affiliation) process at the end of the season."

Logan just chuckled when asked if the ownership switch could open the door for a Dodgers' move to Las Vegas.

"I can't comment on those kinds of things," he said. "We just have to wait until the end of the season when the affiliation contracts are all up and see what happens."

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