Financing May Block Baseball In District

The District's failure to approve a financing plan could compound those disadvantages. Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College who writes and lectures on baseball, said baseball officials are unlikely to make a commitment to any city without a deal in place.

"A deal is a deal. They don't have a deal," Zimbalist said of District officials. "They don't have to put a shovel in the ground, but they have to have legislation and a financial plan in place. . . . There's not going to be any ink on a franchise proposal until then."

It's been difficult to determine whether Williams and council leaders even have a clear plan for funding the stadium, much less signed legislation. Details of the financing package have been a closely guarded secret. City officials say specifics of the tax package would depend on where a stadium was built.

Cost estimates start at $278 million to build a ballpark on the grounds of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, where the city controls the land and there is already ample parking. Sites on New York Avenue NE and near the Anacostia waterfront would be more expensive -- in the range of $355 million -- in part because the city would have to purchase most of the land from private owners.

The most expensive site, at $383 million, includes a unique proposal to build a stadium on a platform straddling Interstate 395 near L'Enfant Plaza. The land is owned by the federal government, and the District already controls the air rights over the highway. But the design presents obvious challenges, and city officials have contacted architects to discuss its feasibility.

Still, the site is generating significant enthusiasm among baseball officials and city leaders. Williams called it "a fabulous site," three blocks from the Mall and "22 million tourists a year." City officials said it also could create a pedestrian-friendly boulevard linking the Mall to a major redevelopment project on the Southwest waterfront.

"It certainly makes everyone [at baseball] more comfortable if the stadium is serving not only 3.5 million fans a year, but serving its role in the community when it can instigate additional urban growth and development," said Janet Marie Smith, an urban planner who helped develop Baltimore's Camden Yards and is vice president for planning and development for the Boston Red Sox.

D.C. officials say they plan to pay for the stadium with revenue bonds, financed with three potential sources of revenue: sales taxes on stadium services, including tickets, parking and concessions; lease payments from the new team at sites other than RFK; and a new tax on the city's largest businesses.

All told, the city would need as much as $24 million a year in new revenue, according to city officials, but they have refused to say what portion of the sum would come from new taxes on business.

Baseball's No. 2 official, President and Chief Operating Officer Bob DuPuy, said that, for now, owners are proceeding on the District's assurances that "all necessary approvals had been or would be obtained." Williams said that if he gets the nod from baseball, he can win approval for a financing plan in as little as 45 days.

But Evans and Cropp concede that they have not lined up seven votes on the 13-member council. Both predicted they would have no trouble, even though some members strongly oppose using tax dollars to build a stadium "to house a team owned by billionaires," in the words of council member David A. Catania (R-At Large).

Neither the mayor nor the council has discussed their tax plan with business leaders, who said they are baffled by their exclusion from the process.

"If I were in [baseball's] position, I'd really want to know that people are all lined up for the financing," said Barbara Lang, president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, which campaigned aggressively last year for a stadium tax.

Lang said the business community is eager to endorse the new plan, as well. But at this point, she said, "I don't have a clue what it is."