NEW YORK -- Robert Johnson wants MLB to keep a 49 percent stake in the Montreal Expos if he reaches a deal to buy the team and move it to the Washington area.

Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, said Wednesday he would be interested in owning the team if it is moved to either downtown Washington or suburban Northern Virginia.

He said he would only want to buy 51 percent, with baseball having the right to sell the rest to him several years after the team moves into a new ballpark.

"They don't need to put money in their pockets right now," he said after a panel discussion at the World Sports Congress, a two-day business gathering. "Baseball's goal should be to relocate a team out of a failing market to a market that's going to make money."

Johnson paid $300 million for an NBA franchise that will start play in the 2004-05 season. He called the price "top of the market."

Baseball's committee on the Expos is meeting first with government officials rather than potential owners. Washington, Northern Virginia and Portland, Ore., will present their bids to the committee on March 20 and 21 in Phoenix.

Baseball owners want financing for a new ballpark in place before they decide to move the Expos to another area, but financing is unclear in all three areas.

Johnson said he would want to know particulars of ballpark financing before deciding whether he wants the Expos, saying he needs to know "pouring rights, naming rights, parking revenue."

"For me, it's a waiting game," he said. "I will not bid for a team. I will look at the numbers and if the numbers make sense, I will raise my hand and say I'm a candidate."

The other 29 clubs bought the Expos before the 2002 season from Jeffrey Loria for $120 million. Because the team has drawn poorly in recent years at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, baseball moved 22 of the Expos' 81 home games this season to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Baseball hopes to make a decision by midsummer, but commissioner Bud Selig won't put a timetable on determining the Expos' future.