October 01, 2004
D.C. at the bat, cont'd
Another day, another deluge of Expos-to-D.C. news:
- Details are starting to seep out about MLB's compensation package for Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, and they're pretty incredible: 60% of revenues from a new regional sports network that would air both O's and 'Spos games, a guarantee that Angelos' revenues would never fall below their pre-Expos average, and a guaranteed sale price of more than $350 million - with MLB to cut checks to make up for any shortfalls. If true, this is highway robbery by Angelos: Orioles revenues were already in freefall from their mid-'90s heyday, so a pre-Expos average might well be more than they're earning currently; and the guaranteed sale price would not only represent a $200 million profit on what Angelos paid for the team in 1993, but well more than the $296 million the O's are currently worth, according to Forbes. As I (and Derek Zumsteg) have previously noted, this will create a huge incentive for Angelos to give up on the daunting task of catching the Yankees and Red Sox, gut the Orioles roster and fill it with low-paid minor-leaguers, then sit back and cash the MLB compensation checks, all while blaming the presence of the new Washington club for his team's plight. For guy who didn't even have official territorial rights to D.C., Angelos looks to have used Bud Selig's fear of confrontation - and of lawsuits - to get away with murder.
- D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams is set to introduce stadium legislation to the city council today, and Reuters reports a couple of new snippets of information about that as well: The bill would authorize the sale of up to $500 million in municipal bonds, only $410 million of which are expected to be used for the actual stadium work; the rest is presumably buffer so that Williams doesn't have to go back to the council in case of cost overruns. The report also indicates that all but $80 million of the bonds (actually $100 million, according to the D.C. mayor's office) would be tax-exempt - that sounds illegal to me, but we'll need to await more details to be sure.
- Meanwhile, the Washington Times reports that D.C. councilmember Linda Cropp, until now counted as a sure pro-stadium vote, is "wavering in her support" of Williams' bill. If so, this could be huge: Williams needs seven votes to pass a bill, eight to make it veto-proof once the Dissident Three take office in January, and without Cropp he's down to six and a bunch of undecideds. That makes for a lot of room for horse-trading demands by those on the fence, which could make the next couple of months very interesting at the John A. Wilson Building.
- More from that Times story:
Hundreds of angry phone calls, faxes, and e-mails poured into the offices of council members yesterday. Some of those messages came from businesses upset by the return of the gross-receipts tax, though the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Federal City Council and other local trade groups support the measure.
- With criticism of the stadium deal growing, ballpark boosters are rushing to defend Mayor Williams giving away the keys to the district treasury. Writes Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein: "The economics of baseball are such that there simply is no way to have a viable team without some form of public subsidy." This will come as a surprise to followers of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Oakland A's, Anaheim Angels, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants; of teams still in the playoff hunt the final weekend, in fact, only the N.L. East champion Atlanta Braves and the N.L. wild-card hopeful Houston Astros play in new taxpayer-funded facilities.
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