King Kaufman's Sports Daily

D.C. to baseball: Not so fast! A city actually stands up to MLB, and MLB doesn't like it, not one bit. But baseball will profit handsomely anyway.

Dec. 16, 2004 | Sorry, Portland. Sorry, Vegas and Northern Virginia. Sorry Monterrey and San Juan. It was looking for a while like you were out of the woods, like for the time being you'd survived being pressured to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in welfare to some as-yet-unnamed billionaires.

A sucker city had been found in the nation's capital, and the people of that burg, not exactly voluntarily, were going to use their tax money to build a corporate headquarters for the/les/los Montreal/San Juan/Washington National Where Nextpos.

But the D.C. Council, which held approval rights over the deal Mayor Anthony Williams struck with Major League Baseball, didn't roll over, or at least changed its mind in mid-roll.

And they say there's never any good news.

On Tuesday night Council chairman Linda Cropp crafted an amendment to a spending bill that would require the city to get private financing to pay for half of the Nationals' new stadium. The amendment passed 10-3, the bill itself was approved 7-6, and baseball -- which owns the Nationals -- had a conniption.

Two months ago the Council approved $531 million in public bonds to finance the new stadium and related costs, such as land acquisition and transit upgrades, plus an upgrade to RFK Stadium, which would be the Nationals' home while the new yard was being built. Based on that approval, baseball, which has long stated that a 100 percent taxpayer-financed stadium is a requirement for any city that wanted the Where Nextpos, agreed to move the team to Washington.

"The legislation approved by the District of Columbia City Council last night does not reflect the agreement we signed and relied upon after being invited by District leaders to consider Washington as a home for Major League Baseball," Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's CEO, said in a statement dripping with venom Wednesday night. "The legislation is inconsistent with our carefully negotiated agreement and is wholly unacceptable to Major League Baseball."

DuPuy angrily announced that the Nationals' business and promotional operations would cease until or unless the original deal were restored before the Dec. 31 deadline. A press conference meant to unveil the team's new uniforms Wednesday was scotched.

Baseball insists on taxpayer financing for a couple of reasons. First, the owners of the other 29 teams bought the Expos from Jeffrey Loria for $120 million three years ago and have spent between $145 million and $174 million to run the team since, according to DuPuy.

Baseball wants to find a buyer for the team, of course, and would make a handsome profit if it could sell the club and a brand new stadium it didn't have to pay a dime to build. Not much profit in selling just the team, which it's been estimated would go in the $300 million range.

Next page: Political grandstanding actually benefits the populace for a change