District officials said yesterday that they have reopened talks with Major League Baseball over the terms of a signed agreement to build a stadium in Southeast Washington and are hopeful that baseball officials will agree to make some changes before a critical D.C. Council vote on Tuesday.
"We are talking to Major League Baseball. We have engaged in discussions, and they are ongoing," said D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission Chairman Mark Tuohey, who described the talks as "positive and forward-looking."
Mayor Anthony A. Williams said he is confident of council approval.
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"I wouldn't want to characterize anything at this point," Tuohey said, "but I'm hopeful we'll come to some resolution that will be productive for Tuesday's vote."
Tuohey said baseball officials, whom he declined to identify, began participating in telephone conversations with District leaders about a week ago, shortly after the stadium package won tentative approval from the council on a 6 to 4 vote.
Three council members abstained, including Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D-At Large), who demanded that Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) go back to baseball officials and try to work out a better deal for the city. Among other issues, Cropp said she was concerned about provisions in the stadium contract that allow the city to use the ballpark just 12 days a year and that require the city to pay compensatory damages to baseball if the new ballpark is not completed by March 2008.
Last week, after a speech to the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said the owners would not reopen negotiations with the District. "We have made a deal," Selig said.
But Tuohey and Cropp said yesterday that league officials are talking nonetheless.
"There is dialogue between the city and Major League Baseball," Cropp said. "To the extent that I can get them, I want changes" before Tuesday.
Late yesterday, Williams, Tuohey and sports commission member Bill Hall met with Cropp and council staff members in Williams's offices at the John A. Wilson Building to discuss strategy for future talks with baseball officials. Neither Tuohey nor Cropp would share details of that meeting. But Cropp, whose cooperation is critical to the mayor's effort to push the baseball package through the council, said she is pleased with their progress.
"The mayor is very engaged. He's working with me and trying to bring about a better deal for the citizens of the District of Columbia," Cropp said. "We aren't finished, but there's good movement where we all are working on the same team."
Tuohey called the meeting "productive." Earlier in the day, Williams said he is confident the baseball package will pass.
Cropp declined late yesterday to go that far or to say how she will vote on the baseball package, which would fund a new stadium with rent payments from the team, taxes on concessions and other in-stadium services and a new tax on the city's largest businesses. While mayoral aides initially put the cost at $440 million, the city's chief financial officer said in October that the price could rise to $530 million. Last month, the D.C. auditor put it at $584 million.
"My vote has always been dependent on us bringing forward a better deal that would ensure a reduced cost," Cropp said. "We're not there yet."
