Washington's Major League Divide

What's on the table in the District is a proposal to build a 41,000-seat ballpark in the heart of the nation's capital. The city has identified four potential sites, one of them a short walk from the Mall. All four are near Metro stops, and two already have access to ample parking. The trend in the majors is downtown ballparks near public transit.

Williams and other city officials have vowed to fully fund construction of the stadium, which is projected to cost $278 million to $383 million, depending on the site. The team would pay nothing if it chooses the cheapest location, on the grounds of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. At the other sites, the District is proposing to charge the team as much as $5 million a year in rent.

The proposal also includes $15 million to quickly renovate RFK so the team would have a place to play while the new ballpark is built.

But some on the D.C. Council question the financing plan. Council members Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) and David A. Catania (R-At Large) write in a letter in today's Outlook section, "Bringing a major league baseball team back to Washington would be great for the District, but not if the price is a huge public subsidy."

Gabe Paul Jr., the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority's executive director, wrote two months ago to Major League Baseball officials that they should "separate fact from fiction and myth from reality" in examining the competing proposals. "While other jurisdictions may have plans to enact financing legislation, Virginia has had all the legislation we need in place since 1997."

Washington's history with sports franchises raises other questions about attendance. Professional sports teams struggle to fill the seats at their downtown Washington homes.

Supporters of the D.C. bid have suggested that the attendance projections for a Virginia stadium might be too rosy. But backers of the Dulles stadium counter that Loudoun is an obvious place for a major ballpark development. A 450-acre community would rise in a boom town.

Developers would build 5,400 condominiums or apartments, more than 850 single-family homes and 5 million square feet of commercial space around the ballpark. They would supply land for the stadium, build a massive parking lot, add interchanges and stretch sewer lines, covering $82 million of the costs associated with the 42,500-seat stadium, according to the financing plan presented to Major League Baseball.

Team owners would pay nothing up front but would cover one-third of the $360 million stadium total in rent payments. The Stadium Authority, responsible for building the stadium, would cover the other two-thirds, using taxes on ballpark-related spending, such as on concessions and players' salaries.

The stadium would be financed with $418 million in public bonds backed by the "moral obligation" of the commonwealth, meaning Virginia pledges but is not legally bound to repay any shortfall, according to authority spokesman Brian Hannigan.

The Loudoun project would need approvals from the county board, but it has strong support there.

Some D.C. officials question Northern Virginia's assumption that its ballclub could use RFK Stadium as a temporary home. RFK is controlled by the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. Its chairman, Mark H. Tuohey III, said in an interview that the commission would consider such a request if it crossed his desk. But unlike a hometown team, Tuohey said, a Northern Virginia ballclub would not be given automatic rights to the stadium.

Hannigan said that officials in Virginia have been assured that D.C. officials would have no problem granting access to RFK and that Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R), a House leader from Northern Virginia who has oversight of the District's operations, would lend his support to the effort.

Financing for a transit link to the Dulles site is another uncertainty. State and local officials in Virginia hope to extend Metrorail 23 miles to the Dulles area, at a cost of about $4 billion, with substantial funding from the federal government. But so far, the Federal Transit Administration has limited the scope of the project, approving an engineering study on just the first 11 miles, to Reston.