Okay, enough about art, let’s get back to the stadium news, where the Maryland state house yesterday voted 121-10 to approve $400 million in subsidies for development around the Washington Commanders‘ stadium, but not actually for a new or renovated stadium. What does this mean, exactly? Let’s let the Washington Post attempt to explain:
Maryland’s plan would use the Maryland Stadium Authority to funnel cash from the state lottery to Prince George’s County, which could use the $400 million to build infrastructure and a “sports entertainment facility” in the area surrounding the team’s current home.
Okay, not a stadium, but a “sports entertainment facility.” What’s that, exactly?
The current Maryland proposal does not directly invest in the Commanders or team owner Daniel Snyder, who already owns more than 200 acres surrounding FedEx Field and has a complicated relationship with Maryland power brokers.
Got it, not for a stadium. But what would the money be used for?
The Commanders and governments are exploring building a mini-city around a new stadium, with homes, restaurants, retail, office space and public amenities to make the area a year-round destination. The pitch Maryland officials developed included a bikeway, an elevated pedestrian bridge and a field house with basketball and volleyball courts. The vision relocated the stadium within a 15-minute walk of the Metro system.
Who would build this? Who would own it? Who would get the rents or sale prices from the homes, restaurants, etc.? Argh, we’re going to have to go read the damn bill ourselves, aren’t we? Fine, here it is, what’s it say:
“PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY BLUE LINE CORRIDOR FACILITY” MEANS A FACILITY LOCATED WITHIN THE PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY BLUE LINE CORRIDOR THAT IS:
(1) A CONVENTION CENTER;
(2) AN ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT AMPHITHEATER; AND
(3) ANY OTHER FUNCTIONALLY RELATED STRUCTURES, IMPROVEMENTS, INFRASTRUCTURE, FURNISHINGS, OR EQUIPMENT OF THE FACILITY, INCLUDING PARKING GARAGES.
So, could be new parking garages for the Commanders, despite all the talk of making the stadium more mass-transit accessible. Beyond that, though, the bill appears to mostly kick the actual spending proposal to the county, which surely will not look at this $400 million as a windfall of state money and therefore not spend too much time worrying about who it goes to benefit.
But wait, there’s more! The bill also includes $200 million for “sports entertainment facilities,” which turn out to have nothing to do with development around the Commanders stadium, but rather are minor-league baseball stadiums throughout the state:
(1) “SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT FACILITY” MEANS A STRUCTURE OR OTHER IMPROVEMENT IN THE STATE AT WHICH MINOR LEAGUE GAMES ARE PLAYED OR OTHER NON–MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTING EVENTS ARE HELD. (2) “SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT FACILITY” INCLUDES PARKING LOTS, GARAGES, AND ANY OTHER PROPERTY ADJACENT AND DIRECTLY RELATED TO A FACILITY DESCRIBED UNDER PARAGRAPH (1) OF THE SUBSECTION.
This minor-league slush fund, which could benefit the Aberdeen IronBirds, Bowie Baysox, Frederick Keys, Hagerstown Suns, Delmarva Shorebirds and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, was first proposed by the Maryland Stadium Authority back in February, to accompany a proposal to spend $1.2 billion on renovations to the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles stadiums. It now appears to have been severed legislatively from that plan, which is still being pushed by Gov. Larry Hogan, and sutured onto the Commanders development bill.
All this is happening very fast, because — stop me if you’ve heard this one before — the legislative session only has a few days left to go, so this needs to be voted on fast, no time for reading or debating! The bill now heads to the state senate, which hasn’t even held a single hearing on it, but no worries, plenty of time for all that before the session expires on, uh, Monday night? Yeah, it’s all fine, there’s nothing good on TV this weekend anyway, this is democracy as it’s supposed to work, yup.