Posted on 12/15/2004 7:04:10 AM PST by ZGuy
I thought DC already had a baseball stadium.
DC always has to shoot itself in the foot with these silly provisions.
Las Vegas is a perfect location for a National League team, which could replace Colorado (and miserable Coors Field) in the NL West. It has been suggested that the Florida Marlins are interested in moving there. San Francsico, Los Angeles, San Diego, Arizona and Las Vegas would make up a great, low-travel division.
MLB doesn't want them playing at RFK for very long, so they stipulated that they build a new stadium in order to get the team. They even outlined how it would be paid for and the mayor agreed: city taxes. Linda Cropp didn't raise any serious objections until it came up for vote earlier last month and now the final vote last night. It's a mess.
Obviously, Linda is not getting a sufficient cut from the deal since that's how things are done with the DC city council. Nothing is done in DC unless there is money to go around for the council member and their friends. The cost per student for their public school system is the highest in the US and yet they get such a sub-standard education it's pathetic.
Northern Virginia is the only other legitimate site for the team since the other sites don't have the kind of television coverage that DC/Northern Virginia has.
Damn. Leave it to the DC Council to kill a sure thing.
Mind you, the uniforms for the Nationals are set to be unveiled today.
I wasn't aware that DC had the tax base for this kind of thing.
Say Bye Bye to the Nationals.
DC really does not want a team.
Good. I'm tired of cities and states taking it in the shorts to build the "manufacturing plants" for professional sports. The ticket price and TV/radio contracts should cover the stadium along with the team's salaries. The taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook any more than they should pay for movie theaters for Hollywood's profit. Once a few cities refuse to pay, then maybe the rest will start driving better deals with teams.
That is exactly right. Liberals on the DC council have killed more development than anyone I know.
Who wants to play baseball in the desert all summer? Norfolk VA is standing by, we already have a financing deal approved and the Expos can play in Harbor Park in 2005.
Silly provision? Asking for 50% private financing? It is good use of DC's tax revenue to 100% finance a baseball stadium? I guess that is because the city is so well run, and crime rate is so low they have tons of money laying around with nothign to spend it on?
Puzzling . . . isn't this the same bunch of socialist nut cases that want to raise people's taxes for everything else under the sun. Since when did they start being so fiscally responsible?
You've nailed it.
Cities do this all the time, and not just with pro sports teams. They legislate tax breaks to bring in big business, and they subsidize manufacturing and construction for them too.
It is done with the understanding that having a business (in this case a baseball team) is going to generate far more revenue for the city in the long run than it's going to pay out to build that $200 million stadium. Hotel revenue, restaurants, employment, public transportation will all see sharp increases. And the renovation of the Anacostia Waterfront in this case is going to lead to a bunch of high-end housing units being built in the area, luxury suites will be sold, and so on down the line.
It's easy to say that the tax-payers shouldn't have to foot the bill for this, but it's way more complex than that. DC can't afford to NOT build that stadium. If baseball leaves they'll take countless millions of dollars out of the pockets of DC residents.
Exactly. Suddenly the DC City Council have become deficit hawks? That's laughable. This is nothing more than a personal powerplay by Linda Cropp because Major League Baseball didn't kiss the ring.
If this deal gets derailed DC will have missed its best opportunity ever to become a real city. Right now DC is a joke. A crime ridden joke that ran itself SO poorly that Congress had to take over. It looks like they're sliding back down that slope.
Maybe. I think this is merely a gambit to see if MLB will renegotiate the agreement. The city has until Dec. 31 to pass an ordinance consistent with the agreement. They can still do that. I don't think that this one, with the 50% private financing, was passed on December 14th for no reason.
I think they think they are putting pressure on baseball, and if baseball shows that they are willing to walk, then you'll see a new ordinance in the next 16 days.
Tactically, it is a smart move for the city, with no down side. They aren't necessarily killing the deal, and they are handing the MLB a bit of a PR mess. They probably think baseball won't pull out at this late date because they will have PR problems and a backlash. Thus, they think they have some leverage, and may be able to get something back from the MLB. I think, however, that baseball will stand firm on this one. If, in the end, MLB does stand firm, they just go back and pass another ordinance.
I don't think the DC City Council is nearly creative enough to come up with a scheme like that. Besides, all of the proceedings yesterday were open to the public, and there were plenty of reporters. None of them said anything about Cropp devising such a plan. She herself admitted that she just came up with the ammendment at the last minute after hearing the debate all day.
Yes. DC ran off the redskins due to breach of contract (witholding tax revenues).
They have been desperate for years to get a team in there.
Now, if they wanted this provision in, they should said so BEFORE they agreed with the league.
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