April 12, 2004
The Charade Continues
Since I was out of town over the weekend, I missed the announcement first broken in the Washington Times on Friday, that Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams was ready to forward a proposal to Major League Baseball that provided for the city to build a 100 percent publicly funded baseball park on a site near RFK Stadium.
Much of the local reaction was fairly predictable, with Ward 2 Democrat Jack Evans, chairman of the D.C. City Council's Finance and Revenue Committee, leading the charge:
"Unless baseball makes a commitment to Washington, D.C., I am not spending another minute on this project," D.C. Council member Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat, said in an interview on WTOP Radio. "If they make a commitment to us, I'll build the stadium."
For the most part, during this entire charade with Major League Baseball, Evans has been one of the voices of sanity and fiscal restraint -- and it's clear that he and the rest of the City Council weren't terribly happy with Williams' launching a trial balloon without consulting them first. But given the other obstacles that I've gone to pains to outline over the last few years, even this gambit on the part of Williams to get Bud Selig and his relocation committee to put up or shut up will probably be met with indifference on the part of MLB.
Why? Because Washington is simply more valuable to MLB without a team, as a bargaining chip to blackmail other cities into paying for publicly funded stadiums, than it is as a home for the wayward Montreal Expos.
As for how a city that doesn't have enough money to keep its schools in good repair come up with better than $300 million to build a baseball stadium:
Mark Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, said there will be no broad-based tax on residents to pay for a new stadium.
"Our financing is more creative," said Tuohey, who declined to be specific.
Which ought to be code for "hold onto your wallets."
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» DC and the Extortion Game from Transition Game
Great stuff from Sabernomics and Off Wing Opinion on the to-ing and fro-ing over a baseball team for DC. OWO thinks DC is more valuable as an extortion tool for MLB. Washington is simply more valuable to MLB without a... [Read More]
Tracked on April 22, 2004 10:56 AM
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