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July 24, 2004
The Expos Endgame
If we accept the ESPN report that MLB’s relocation committee will recommend moving the Expos to D.C., then the endgame has begun. But the committee’s word is hardly final. There’s still the matter of convincing the owners, including Peter Angelos, to approve the location and a new ownership group; and then D.C. actually has to, well, build a stadium. Contrary to popular view, the least pressing concern is Angelos. He makes for an easy media villain, but the reality is that he holds no magic power over the other owners. Think about it. If the other owners genuinely feared Angelos or the impact of putting a team in D.C. on the Orioles, the D.C and Northern Virginia bids would never have made the relocation committee’s first cut. As for this idea that Angelos will file a lawsuit to stop a move, I have yet to hear anyone explain what such a lawsuit would argue. It can’t be an antitrust complaint—baseball is exempt, and Angelos couldn’t argue in favor of creating a monopoly. But more importantly, a lawsuit would alienate every other owner. Angelos would become baseball’s Al Davis, and there’s little in Angelos’ persona or actions that suggest he’s that crazy. If the owners raise an objection to relocation, I think it will come over the ownership group. There hasn’t been much discussion about this subject in the public debate. Fred Malek has assembled a nice group of names behind the Washington Baseball Club, but we don’t know much about the financial details. The 29 current ownership groups haven’t thrown all this money away on the Expos just to let anyone take control of the team. Even if a majority of owners favor a D.C. location, they might want to look beyond Malek’s group for ownership. Then there’s the still-to-be-settled stadium location. I will tell you know, wherever they put it, there will be organized opposition in the community. One thing I’ve learned after eight years in D.C.: People in this city oppose change for the sake of opposing change. The zoning battles in this town rival most nations’ civil wars. And while Mayor Williams may be pushing hard for baseball, there are a lot of people, especially among the “community activists,” who don’t like Williams and would love to deal him a potentially crippling political blow. One other thing to keep in mind: Any stadium financing plan has to go through the D.C. Council’s finance committee, which is chaired by Jack Evans, who I could easily see sabotaging the mayor’s baseball victory in order to position himself for a mayoral run in 2006. 
08:49 PM
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsAs with the rest of DC sports, I find it hard not to give in to the resignation that a baseball team in the city is just never going to happen. I almost think the location in Northern Virginia would be worse than no team at all since it would mock Washingtonians with remoteness little better than Baltimore. As anyone who's been there can attest, there's not much that beats strolling into Wrigley or Fenway and then hitting a local bar round the corner after the game. The Senators could lose 100 games a year and I'd never get tired of going -- if the stadium was in the city. Skip's right though -- the anti-development whiners in DC are as oppressive as they are insufferable. Combine them with the staggering incompetence of the DC government and you can bet your bottom dollar we'll never see the likes of Griffith Stadium again. Posted by: at July 25, 2004 08:05 PM I live in the neighborhood of the proposed NY Ave Stadium; it's a great location in a developing neighborhood with two close subway locations to get you to and from the game However, I can attest to the influence of the "neighborhood activists"...our condo association is trying to build an add on to a parking lot in this neighborhood. Talk about pulling teeth...these "activists" have nothing but rage and time on their hands to sabotage any potential construction. Why? To quote Mrs. Lovejoy: "Won't someone please think about the children?" That's all I heard at our board meeting. The worst. Posted by: at July 26, 2004 09:42 AM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |