Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Expos Baseball Lives! (for a limited time only)
I'm shocked. Shocked! The DC Council approved a radically different plan. It's like Christmas Come Early for the fiscally responsible.
It's late and I'll go into this more tomorrow, but what are the ramifications of this for baseball in Washington?
1) The Nationals will NOT be in Montreal next year. Give up on that. The Expos (unlike exposbaseball DOT blogspot DOT com) are dead. They will be in RFK.
2) This is a very awkward position for the MLB to be put in. Despite what Councilman Evans wants you to believe they want to be in DC. Desperately. It has the demographics and population baseball finds most desirious. But now Virginia and DC have stood up to the financial bully and MLB fears that this deal could become the standard if accepted. But where else would it go? Portland? Las Vegas? How would they spin it? "We lied about how happy we were to bring baseball back to Washington. We do just want money. So we went to where there's legalized gambling. " Public image, thanks to the steriods flap, is very important to MLB right now.
And will other foolish municipality leaders be able to say with a straight face "Sure Virginia and DC said paying for MLB to come is a bad investment but we're going to do it anyway. Open your checkbook public!" MLB may never get a deal like this again (though they probably will, time makes people stupid)
For DC specifically
1) It makes Mayor Williams look bad. Over half the council admitted in voting for this, that the Mayor did not do a good job on this deal. It cost the city too much. He looks foolish regardless of how this turns out.
2) Councilwoman Cropp may be vilified tomorrow, but if this makes its way through and the Nats do end up in Washington (which is where I'd place my money right now), she's a god damn hero, seemingly single-handedly saving the District hundreds of millions of dollars. If it fails to go through however...let just say I hope she's got a good 401K plan.
It's late and I'll go into this more tomorrow, but what are the ramifications of this for baseball in Washington?
1) The Nationals will NOT be in Montreal next year. Give up on that. The Expos (unlike exposbaseball DOT blogspot DOT com) are dead. They will be in RFK.
2) This is a very awkward position for the MLB to be put in. Despite what Councilman Evans wants you to believe they want to be in DC. Desperately. It has the demographics and population baseball finds most desirious. But now Virginia and DC have stood up to the financial bully and MLB fears that this deal could become the standard if accepted. But where else would it go? Portland? Las Vegas? How would they spin it? "We lied about how happy we were to bring baseball back to Washington. We do just want money. So we went to where there's legalized gambling. " Public image, thanks to the steriods flap, is very important to MLB right now.
And will other foolish municipality leaders be able to say with a straight face "Sure Virginia and DC said paying for MLB to come is a bad investment but we're going to do it anyway. Open your checkbook public!" MLB may never get a deal like this again (though they probably will, time makes people stupid)
For DC specifically
1) It makes Mayor Williams look bad. Over half the council admitted in voting for this, that the Mayor did not do a good job on this deal. It cost the city too much. He looks foolish regardless of how this turns out.
2) Councilwoman Cropp may be vilified tomorrow, but if this makes its way through and the Nats do end up in Washington (which is where I'd place my money right now), she's a god damn hero, seemingly single-handedly saving the District hundreds of millions of dollars. If it fails to go through however...let just say I hope she's got a good 401K plan.
