RICHMOND, Va. -- A group trying to bring major league baseball to northern Virginia revised upward Monday the expected economic benefits a team and a stadium would generate.

The Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority, a state agency charged with bringing a team to Virginia, said the figures "provide a compelling case'' for the state to work with private companies to build a stadium and lure the Montreal Expos to Virginia.

Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., are considered leading candidates for getting the Expos. The team is temporarily owned and operated by the other 29 teams while relocation plans are uncertain.

The analysis, revising a similar one done in 2000, estimates that 3,384 jobs would be created and $8.9 million in tax revenue generated during the two-year construction of a $300 million stadium.

Following completion, the stadium would create 3,938 full-time jobs and $20.8 million in annual tax revenue to the state and localities, said Stephen S. Fuller, the George Mason University economist who conducted the study. The figures show an increase in the amount of the projected economic benefits by between about 9 percent and 33 percent from the 2000 study.

The study released Monday estimates that Virginia residents will spend $71.5 million in Washington if the team and stadium go there. In that case, Fuller said, Virginia and northern Virginia localities could lose $266.4 million in the team's first 30 years.

In October, the authority selected the architecture firm HKS Inc. to design a stadium for northern Virginia. The firm has designed stadiums in Milwaukee and Arlington, Texas.