Foul Ball

Oh jeez. Who knew that we'd look back on 2005 as the glory days of the Washington Nationals. How did a feel good story like this transform into an ugly rent strike putting millions (no, billions) of dollars in political limbo.

See, I love baseball, and I'm trying to love the Nationals. I bought a season ticket plan. I supported the new stadium, drawing the ire of 99% of my friends and neighbors. I follow the players, cheering for them when others in the stadium boo mediocre performances. I talk the stadium and team up to my out of town friends. I spend $$$ on the limited vegan food options, but great beer selection at the field.

I stand by when the team lets good players like Ryan Church, and Alfonso Soriano walk out the door. I stand by when they virtually fire the only manager who guided us into first place and gave us our best year-end record. And I marveled when the design-build stadium (yes, a city project) was completed on time, in a record 18 months, and relatively on budget, in time for the big show on March 30, 2008. I there with 40,000 of my closest friends. The Nationals (and the owners, the Lerner family) were made to look competent and ready for a national TV audience, in large part because of the city.

Somehow, all the good will press conferences and dirt shoveling ceremonies of 2005 are distant memories. In a city struggling to find good teachers, honest municipal workers, viable small businesses, and home ownership options for normal people, it's reprehensible and quite disgusting that the team owners are withholding the $3,500,000 in rent from the city. The Nationals claim that the ballpark was not "substantially" complete on opening night, but I have to disagree as a paying customer who explored most of the "substantial" parts of the park that night; and for 15 or so subsequent nights since. At the center of the dispute are team offices that were kept at RFK while the new offices adjacent to the field at the new stadium were being finished.

The term "over a barrel" comes to mind. Not only did the Nationals get a $611,000,000 million dollar, on time, fastest ever built stadium from the city, they got it without having to live up to any future performance evaluations or quality control. Now they refuse to pay rent and want to fine the city $100,000 per day for the "unfinished" stadium to boot. And for the fans, its really too bad. With $325.00 seats, $40.00 valet parking and rumors that we'll be going to see Nationals games at ExxonMobile Field in 2009, some are grumbling that the city should lock the team out of the stadium until the cough up the rent. Just think, we could go undefeated at home for the rest of the year.

Oot in a Boot: National's Stadium

DC is a sports town. Invested or not, its hard to ignore the maroon and yellow clad Washington football team fans on Sundays, Capitals fans streaming in from all over on the subway on hockey nights, or the die hard Barra Brava of the DC United. Not even counting the local college sports teams, DC has a pretty hefty sports heritage. Its baseball history is a large part of the story. Home to the hapless Senators (two versions! the first left to become the Minnesota Twins, the other to become the Texas Rangers) and the Grays of the Negro Leagues, DC is not just a football town.

With the "return" of baseball to DC in 2004 (we got an orphaned Montreal team with a lot of baggage, and a losing record) came the monstrous, daunting responsibility of constructing a stadium, for a team with billionaire owners, on the taxpayer's dime. The price tag rose almost daily during the initial negotiations, debates and back room deals. One of the first firm numbers tossed about for the stadium cost was $440,000,000 in late 2004. That number rose and the official "cap," or maximum that the city will pay for the stadium ended up as $610,800,000. There are questions as to whether city's fiscal responsibility will rise above the $611 million for various hidden costs including overruns, but as of today, $611 million is the official number.

There are several other excellent websites like Ballpark and Beyond that cover the baseball stadium and surrounding development much better than I can on a one-day outing, but I wanted to go see the stadium site myself and see what these millions are buying. Full disclosure: I bought a partial ticket plan to the Nationals last year and will so again this year. I was against the public financing-at-all-cost strategy employed by former Mayor Williams, but am happy that an MLB team is located in the city of Washington. I would have liked to see the team owners (originally Major League Baseball, then the Lerner family) step up and take on a larger share of the fiscal burden, but since the former mayor ponied up and showed his cards before the game even began, we got caught holding the short straw.

Here are some photos of the stadium today from just outside its walls, from across the Anacostia River and from the Frederick Douglass Bridge.