Baseball? What Baseball.
DC is, as I feared, a city run by liars and cheats. The City Council, after they had a deal with Major League Baseball, went back on their word yet again tonight and rejected the lease as it was presented to the Council. There was a fucking deal here, people. It was done and it was ready to go. Deal on lease means we get new ownership. New ownership means we get a team that might not finish just barely at .500 or less. New ownership means revenues at the stadiums rise, and the money comes back into the city coffers. More revenues means millions of dollars that the District can spend on crumbling infrastructure.
And the council, in familiar fashion, lead by a drug-addled former mayor, did what was in the interest of the politicians, and NOT in the interest of the District, or her residents, or the people who come into town every day and support the city through other taxation measures. Way to go, you crazy crackhead, you’ve run baseball straight out of DC.
Next step is binding arbitration and lawsuit after lawsuit.
Right, real easy for someone from Northern Virginia to bitch and moan about a stadium deal not being put together. Yeah it’s great for DC to have a baseball team but the deal was something that the city could flat out NOT AFFORD.
The use of city funds to build a stadium is an absolutely ludicrous idea. Taxes should only go to fund things such as infrastructure, schools, emergency services, health care, defense, etc., things that are so important that you go to JAIL if you don’t pay them. Stadiums for a league drunk with power do NOT fall into that category.
Baseball’s great and all but it’s not worth the city getting absolutely raped.
Stay on your side of the river, jackass. What the hell do you know about the best interest of the District or its residents?
The deal for the city was pretty damn phenomenal, Rob. In exchange for the city putting up the bond, which could only be done FOR a stadium, they get a large stream of income in perpetuity beginning in 2008. The money the city would make on the stadium and associated taxes is a guaranteed source that will continue well into the future until after the bonds are paid BY PEOPLE LIKE ME.
MLB has a product that people want. 2 million plus people filed past the turnstiles just to see our fledgling franchise win half its games. With a new stadium, that could be 3 million, quite easily, all of whom will pay for the stadium with their purchases at the ballpark and around it.
I love DC, Rob, but I can’t afford to live inside her borders. I work in DC, I spend a lot of time and money there, because she is a great city. And certainly a city that deserves to be served better by her politicians, who are shortsighted and ignorant to the longterm benefits.
Now she will pay the price as binding arbitration will likely come back in favor of Major League Baseball and the city will be left holding a heftier bill. Worse, if they bail on the deal, all this money will have been spent for naught and Northern Virginia might end up with the stadium AND ALL THE MONEY.
Unlike many of the people who are so adamant that the city bend over and take it like a cheap prostitute from Major League Baseball, I actually live in the District — in fact, I was born here — and pay property and income taxes through the nose. I also proudly wear my Nationals cap. And I applaud the City Council for struggling to find the proper balance between fiscal responsibility — I thought y’all Virginia and Maryland Republicans liked it when government didn’t spend its money on what the private sector can and should do — and encouraging economic development. That is especially true since it is now clear that the earlier vote for the “deal” that many people now want the city to be bound to was based on what we now know is false information about its actual cost. I am watching the City Council work on this issue well past 11 p.m. to come up with a deal that satisfies RESIDENTS concerned about a potential backdoor raid on their taxpayer dollars. I would like to see the stadium built and the Nationals to flourish here, but I find the greed and arrogance reflected in the bargaining position of Major League Baseball to be disgusting. And as one of more than a half-million District residents who have to live with the results, I would rather see the city lose because it tried to be principled and responsible than to lose by winning through giving away the store.
Having grown up in Miami I’ve seen that “guaranteed source” of revenue turn out to be a massive screwing for the taxpaying public on multiple occasions. Nobody has yet stood up with a detailed economic analysis demonstrating that corporate welfare for organized sports really turns into a local economic boon, much less one that exceeds in benefit what that money could have done directly. Instead we get hand waving and “trust us” about how the stadium will be a Good Thing. Trust is what you have with your hairdresser. With tax dollars I’ll take proof.
“Right, real easy for someone from Northern Virginia to bitch and moan about a stadium deal not being put together. Yeah it’s great for DC to have a baseball team but the deal was something that the city could flat out NOT AFFORD.
The use of city funds to build a stadium is an absolutely ludicrous idea. Taxes should only go to fund things such as infrastructure, schools, emergency services, health care, defense, etc., things that are so important that you go to JAIL if you don’t pay them. Stadiums for a league drunk with power do NOT fall into that category.
Baseball’s great and all but it’s not worth the city getting absolutely raped.
Stay on your side of the river, jackass. What the hell do you know about the best interest of the District or its residents?”
Hi. Have you asked your DC Council Members what exactly they are doing with the THREE HUNDRED MILLION dollars in Surplus that they have?
also, did you notice the 2 HUNDRED MILLION PER YEAR Schools Funding that Passed today?
just asking.
oh, don’t worry, I’ll stay in Maryland. no problems there, if there is no baseball. apparently my money, and the money of the 2.7 Million Baseball Attendees, isn’t good enough to be spent in DC.
Here’s to hoping VA steps up to the plate, like I’d heard. then I can drive happily through DC, without stopping, on my way to Virginia to give them my money to watch baseball.
I’m not surprised to see this from the people who told the Redskins to fuck off, when they wanted to build their OWN STADIUM WITH THEIR OWN MONEY.
have a nice one.
also, I suppose it’s really nice to know that you are governed by people who don’t know how to Honor their Business Agreements, yeah?
well, looks like the DC Folks are gonna have to deal with us “unclean suburbanites” invading their City to watch baseball still.
Late Night Emergency session leads to a Revised Lease, which Passed 9-4, with Marion barry of all people counted among the “Yes” Votes.
MLB has 30 days to accept the revised Lease or the deal is off.
Woot! Expect a seriously confusing print media day!