COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- When it came time to vote on Miles Prentice's bid to purchase the Kansas City Royals, baseball owners balked Wednesday.

Instead of giving the team a real live owner for the first time since 1993, baseball voted 29-1 to table consideration of the $75 million deal, saying baseball economics were too uncertain for small-market teams.

"I was hopeful we would be approved," Prentice said after listening to commissioner Bud Selig announce the decision. "We were not rejected. They did not turn us down. That's the important thing."

Prentice, 57, has owned the Midland RockHounds of the Double-A Texas League since 1990 and headed a group of more than 40 investors willing to buy the team and keep it in Kansas City.

Following the death of founding owner Ewing Kauffman in 1993, the team wound up being owned by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated Trusts, which must sell it by June 2001.

For the past four months, some baseball officials said privately they were concerned Prentice's group did not have enough money to operate the team. Others said they worried it had too many investors, making it unwieldy to operate.

In the end, Selig said consideration would be put off until after baseball's latest economic study committee makes its report, with only the Royals dissenting. While Selig said he expected the report in about three months, baseball often fails to meet its own deadlines.

"The hardships of baseball economics is making all our decisions when it comes to franchises," Selig said.

Twenty-one of the 30 controlling owners have entered the game since the start of 1992, an unprecedented turnover. Baseball has resisted moving franchises since the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers after the 1971 season.

"Moving franchises was a solution in the '40s, '50s and '60s," Selig said. "Today it merely switches problems from one area to another."

There also are few options for teams wishing to move. Charlotte, N.C., hasn't indicated a willingness to fund a stadium, and any team wanting to move to northern Virginia would face a court fight from Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos.

Selig shrugged off talk of contraction, an idea discussed by Colorado Rockies owner Jerry McMorris, saying it hadn't been given serious consideration.

Prentice, wearing a red necktie with images of baseballs on it, said he remained optimistic, focusing on Selig's hopeful comments and doing his best to overlook the remarks about the viability of small-market teams.

"He is committed to keeping the Royals in Kansas City," Prentice said.