[DC] Area baseball fans see best shot at a team

Washington Times ^ | 7/7/03 | Eric Fisher

[foreverfree]

Charlie Brotman knows a few things about the District's 32-year quest to bring Major League Baseball back to the city.

There was the time in late 1973 the San Diego Padres almost moved to town. There were the pushes to get an expansion team in 1976, 1987, 1991 and 1995. There was the nearly finished deal, also in 1995, that would have relocated the Houston Astros to Northern Virginia.

[foreverfree]

I did a FReep search under "baseball" and didn't find this article, so I'm posting it.

foreverfree

[Tijeras_Slim]

Go Senators!...and they went.

[jpl]

Washinton D.C. is not going to get a baseball team. Selig and MLB are jerking everyone around to make it look like they're serious about addressing the problem of the Expos. They're going to wait until the CBA expires, and then they're going to contract the Expos out of existence along with one other team (probably the Florida Marlins).

[KarlInOhio]

Maybe Clinton could be the owner of the Washington Expose.

[Alberta's Child]

A $338.7 million public-sector financing package . . .

Where the heck does a city that functions like a third world toilet come up with this kind of money?

[KarlInOhio]

Where the heck does a city that functions like a third world toilet come up with this kind of money?

From us.

[admiralsn]

I was hoping that Bush could help bring the Senators back. But I suppose that would be some sort of a conflict of interest.

[Doctor Stochastic]

On the other hand, can Bush get a football team for Washington?

[colorado tanker]

Washington has had and lost two teams already. Where's that "Oh no, not this s__t again" picture?

[N. Theknow]

would depend primarily on taxes from ballpark-related commerce and a tax on the gross receipts of large D.C. businesses. Northern Virginia, touting a $400 million stadium plan with $285 million in public-sector support, plans to fund it in part with a tax on the income of ballplayers from visiting teams. Other elements include ballpark-related sales taxes and rental income from a planned retail center at the ballpark. The state, home to the region's most robust economic growth of the late 1990s, also is eyeing potential income from taxes on nearby hotel stays and car rentals.

Both the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers found the DC area lacking in terms of supporting a MLB team. IMO, after two years of fairly good attendence, the Expos in DC would long for the good old days of 6,000 fans in the seats.

[winodog]

whats wrong with sinawhores?
On another note we need a team in Vegas. I know we have never supported a team yet but I love baseball.
Some in Vegas are talking about a basketball team and there is no way I would go to a single game but I would support baseball.

[Young Werther]

We, in the the DFW area, would certainly give the Senators back!

[kb2614]

The Washington TrafficJam would be more accurate.

[discostu]

The only way DC is getting a team is to annex Baltimore, even with that they'd have to kill the current owner of the Orioles first or he'd move the team just to spite them.

[Hatteras]

Ahhh, Where have you gone, Frank Howard?

Del Unser, Eddie Brinkman, Paul Casanova, Mike Epstein, Denny McClain, Aurelio Rodriguez, Ken McMullen, Jim French, Darold Knowles, Horacio Pina and the Splendid Splinter as manager... and Bat Night when they gave out real little league Louisville Sluggers? Thems were the days...

We were in Maryland in '68 through '72(ish) and my dad, who lived and breathed baseball took us to the games at RFK on many occasions. Though my loyalties layed just up the BW Parkway on 33rd Street where we went more often (I was a Brooks Robinson fan through and through), every outing to D.C. Stadium/RFK, for this kid, was like going to the circus.

[admiralsn]

I thought Daniel Snyder was supposed to do that.

[MinorityRepublican]

This article is further proof that Bud Selig is unfit to lead baseball. He would not move teams to appropriate markets which NBA and NFL did.

[steve-b]

In March, the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority announced five prospective stadium sites, three of which were in Arlington. Within days of that announcement, anti-development activists rallied against the proposals, and the landowners of those sites made their strong opposition known.
The owner of the authority's preferred site in Pentagon City, the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, wrote two terse letters to MLB's central office, team owners and stadium authority executives seeking removal of their land from any list of prospective stadium sites.
"We remain confident we will be able to negotiate a [land] deal," said Gabe Paul, stadium authority executive director.

It ain't just a river in Egypt, Gabe....

[steve-b]

Where the heck does a city that functions like a third world toilet come up with this kind of money?

Surely you aren't suggesting that trifles such as sound roads and effective policing are more important than the people's bread and circuses?