Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
my guess ... cropp will realise her mistake and cave in at tuesday's meeting ...
that said, pro-baseball DC residents should call her office and let her know how you feel, there was a post article today or yesterday that said all the pro-baseball calls she's gotten have been suburban and all the anti-baseball have been DC
just as i predicted ... although i agree with wilbon that i won't believe it until i see the team playing on opening day, and even then it doesn't look like we're safe ...
Accord Reached on D.C. Stadium
Williams and Cropp Negotiate Financing
By David Nakamura and Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 21, 2004; Page A01
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp said last night that they had reached agreement on a stadium financing package that would satisfy Major League Baseball by guaranteeing construction of a permanent home for the Washington Nationals along the Anacostia waterfront.
Under the new proposal, which the 13-member council is to vote on today, the city will purchase insurance for potential cost overruns on the stadium and split the payments with Major League Baseball. Also, District officials will continue pursuing private financing for the project for several months. But Cropp said she will drop a requirement that 50 percent of the construction costs be paid for with private money.
Cropp plans to offer the proposal today as an amendment to the legislation adopted last week requiring that at least 50 percent of stadium construction costs be privately financed. Yesterday, Cropp officially added the baseball issue to the council's agenda for its final regular meeting of the year, scheduled for 10 a.m. today.
Williams and Cropp announced the agreement at a news conference at 11:10 last night, following a long day of negotiations between the mayor's office, the council chairman and baseball executives.
Cropp said the proposed changes could reduce the District's potential costs for the stadium by up to $193.5 million when compared with the deal Williams struck with baseball officials in September. She said she expects a council majority to approve the new agreement.
"The final legislation that will be presented tomorrow will offer the significantly lower costs and reduced risks to the District of Columbia that many of us said we were searching for," Cropp said last night.
Reached by phone in New York, Baseball President Robert A. DuPuy said last night: "We are very hopeful that by the end of the day tomorrow, legislation will be in place consistent with the baseball stadium agreement that will enable us to return Major League Baseball to Washington."
Williams and Cropp looked tired at their news conference in the John A. Wilson Building, and only Cropp gave the smallest hint of a smile. Williams moved his leg nervously as Cropp spoke.
"I always anticipated that as we brought a team here and moved through the process, we'd improve the deal," Williams said. "And I credit Chairman Cropp for accelerating the process. We're now able to bring baseball to the city and boost the morale and unite the city, but do it in a way that reduces the costs and decreased the risk."
Cropp (D), who has sought for weeks to ensure that the public costs for the stadium are limited, shocked the mayor last week by persuading the council to adopt the amendment requiring private financing. Baseball officials rejected that language, saying they were open to private financing but needed a guarantee that the stadium would be built with public money if private financing was not found. Baseball officials have given the city until Dec. 31 to approve an acceptable financing package.
Meanwhile, opponents of the stadium deal continued to stand against the revised proposal last night. Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), who was among six council members who voted against the stadium last week, said that the new proposal from Cropp and Williams would still cost too much in public funds.
Even if private financing is found for some of the costs, the city still expects to implement a gross receipts tax on large businesses and a utilities tax on businesses and federal offices.
"This is materially the exact same thing the mayor sent over," Fenty said. "It's a publicly financed stadium with less risk, but still a publicly financed stadium."
The Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos, are scheduled to open their 2005 season at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. But after the council approved its legislation last week, baseball officials said that the team might not play in the nation's capital at all if the impasse over a new stadium remained unresolved by the Dec. 31 deadline.
The new stadium, to be built near the Navy Yard and South Capitol Street in Southeast Washington, has been estimated by various city officials to cost from $440 million to $584 million, including infrastructure and land acquisition. The ballpark itself would cost $279 million, meaning the legislation adopted last week would require $140 million in private financing.
Cropp said she agreed to remove the provision mandating private funds because she is confident that significant amounts of private money will be found. Already, she said, the city has a plan that Natwar M. Gandhi, the city's chief financial officer, has said can raise $100 million.
Cropp declined to be specific about that plan, but sources have said it entails charging motorists for curbside parking around the stadium. The Gates Group, a Cleveland-based private equity company, made that proposal weeks ago. Cropp emphasized that no company has been selected for any private financing plan.
The new proposal from Cropp and Williams would reduce the compensatory damages the city would have to pay if the new stadium did not open by March 2008. Most recently, Major League Baseball had said that the liability would be no more than $19 million per year. But under the new plan, baseball officials would agree to a provision saying that the city would not have to pay any compensatory damages if stadium construction were delayed. In return, the city would waive one year's rent payment of $5 million from the Nationals for playing at RFK.
Yesterday's negotiations began when Cropp met in the morning with City Administrator Robert C. Bobb and Mark Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. Then she huddled with Williams (D) for about 12 minutes in the early afternoon.
Cropp left the Wilson building about 7:45 p.m. as the mayor and his staff were still working on terms of the proposed agreement. She returned to the building about 10 p.m.
Throughout the day and evening, the mayor's staff was seeking approval of the changes from baseball executives, who were communicating by telephone.
Last week, after the council adopted the amended legislation requiring private funding, DuPuy announced that the Nationals would shut down all business and promotional activities until further notice. DuPuy also offered refunds to fans who had put deposits on season tickets.
Nationals President Tony Tavares said last night that of the more than 16,000 people who put down $300 for season tickets, 563 had asked for a refund.
Last night, more than 200 baseball fans and local luminaries gathered at the AFL-CIO headquarters in downtown Washington for about 90 minutes for a rally, anxiously awaiting good news that never came.
The crowd began dispersing shortly after 7:30 p.m., but not before it heard Charlie Brotman, the former Washington Senators announcer, and others wax nostalgic about baseball in Washington. Cropp acknowledged that the acrimony surrounding the debate over baseball has caused divisions among some city residents and leaders.
"For whatever reason, this really was an issue that captured people's hearts," she said. "Tonight, as I sit here next to the mayor, it's time to bring this city back and work together with the citizens."
Staff writers Allan Lengel and Eric M. Weiss contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
