June 22, 2004
Virginia to D.C.: Drop dead
Northern Virginia unveiled its latest proposal yesterday for a $442 million baseball stadium near Dulles Airport in Loudoun County. Among the highlights:
- A private developer has agreed to put up $82 million in land and infrastructure costs; it's not clear how they'd be repaid, whether through rental payments or a share of stadium revenues or what.
- In response to MLB demands that owners of the wherever-they-end-up Montreal Expos not have to pay upfront stadium costs, the team would now be asked to pay $10 million a year in rent instead; since that would still reduce an owner's return on investment, and so the likely sale price, it's unclear whether this will quell MLB's qualms.
- Meanwhile, to allay the concerns of another roadblock, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, Virginia is now downplaying the notion that it will draw fans from the District of Columbia, instead noting that 1.5 million Virginians live within an hour's rush-hour drive of the proposed stadium site. Of course, drawing only local fans means that the tax-increment financing planned to pay for most of the stadium costs would likely end up completely cannibalized from existing spending within the state, but Virginia officials declined to bring up that point during yesterday's announcement.
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