October 02, 2004
Battle of the bills
D.C. council chair Linda Cropp introduced Mayor Anthony Williams' $500 million stadium bill as promised yesterday - and was promptly met by the promise of a competing bill to tell the Expos to play in the existing RFK Stadium, or lump it. D.C. councilmember Adrian Fenty, a staunch opponent of public stadium funds, told the Washington Post: "Where else are they going to go? They've already left Montreal. And no one else has a stadium ready." Fenty also called for the city auditor to review the mayor's financing plan.
Fumed councilmember Jack Evans, the leading proponent of the mayor's stadium plan: "Are you willing to kill baseball? ... We do not play at RFK. It's not on the table. That's been negotiated away. It would break the contract." Actually, Jack, it's a non-binding agreement; only a city council vote can create a binding contract, which is why you and your council friends are debating this, remember?
Other new revelations from the 32-page D.C. stadium agreement:
- MLB has the right to terminate the agreement and reopen talks with other cities if the council fails to pass a stadium bill by December 31. Of course, that's also the date on which the Virginia Stadium Authority blinks out of existence, meaning Fenty is right: Bud Selig's only choice would be to go back to Montreal for another year, or suck it up and move to RFK anyway.
- The team's rent, previously reported as $5.5 million a year, would actually vary according to a complicated formula: $5.3 million a year while at RFK, then scaling up from $3.5 million the first year of the new stadium to $5.5 million the sixth. That would be followed by annual increases of 2% (minus, for some inexplicable reason, a $10,000 deduction); the rent increase would be waived, however, if team attendance was less than the major league median over the previous three years. D.C. would also get an additional $1 cut of every full-price ticket sold over 2.5 million. You don't have to be an economist to predict lots of half-price ticket nights should attendance hover around 2.6 million.
- The baseball team would retain all revenues from all events held at the stadium, including both baseball games and "any other lawful purpose." D.C. would be allowed 12 events a year "for amateur athletic, public service, or other events," so long as none fell within five days of a scheduled baseball game.
- The D.C. sports commission would get two free luxury suites for its own use, plus 25 free box seats "on the infield" for each home game. But that's not a conflict of interest or anything.
Up in Baltimore, meanwhile, the Sun has more details on the proposed MLB payoff to Orioles owner Peter Angelos: the sale price guarantee would be $360 million (it was reported here yesterday as $350 million), and the annual revenue guarantee would be $130 million a year, slightly more than the O's made last year. That's gross revenue, by the way, not net - so Angelos would have zero incentive to spend any money on players, ticket-sales promotion, or anything else unless he thought it could raise his revenues above the $130 million figure.
