D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp challenged Major League Baseball officials yesterday to extend the deadline for the city to approve a stadium financing package for a few months so the District can find private money to add to the deal.
The council and baseball officials have been engaged in a standoff over the future of the Washington Nationals since late Tuesday night, when Cropp (D) attached an amendment to the stadium legislation that requires half the cost of a ballpark to be paid through private funds.
Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp leaves a news conference in which she asked baseball to "give us a few months."
(Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)
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"Give us a few months to finalize private financing," Cropp said at an afternoon news conference at the John A. Wilson Building. "If not, the legislation stands."
Baseball President Robert A. DuPuy, who was informed of Cropp's statement by a reporter, rejected her request.
"We are expecting the Dec. 31 commitment date to be fulfilled," DuPuy said in an interview. He added: "We are not negotiating. We made our concessions in the course of negotiations with the mayor and made some clarifications we thought would satisfy the mayor and the council."
Two days after the council altered the agreement, neither the city nor Major League Baseball had moved closer to forging a solution that could secure the baseball team for the city. Although Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) had promised to talk with Cropp, the two did not meet. Baseball officials declined to say whether they had contacted any city officials.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) said yesterday that a top Major League Baseball official called him on Wednesday to discuss options facing the owners, the District and other regions interested in landing the franchise -- including Northern Virginia -- should the Washington deal unravel. Davis, who said that Congress should not get directly involved, said he thinks the chances are "better than 50-50" that the Washington deal will survive.
Davis said that baseball owners were not locked into a "take it or leave it" mode and ventured that the parties could probably sit down "and find 20 ways to make it work."
Davis said that the District should make the first move and that D.C. Council members would damage Washington's national business image for "this mayor, the next mayor and the next" if they did not reach an agreement.
Mayoral spokesman Chris Bender said Williams will not ask Major League Baseball to push back the deadline.
"We are not in the position to be asking that," he said. "We, the city, broke a commitment. Because of that, we can't be in the position of making demands. Obviously, it would be great if we had more time, but it's not up to us."
DuPuy rejected the council's plan Wednesday, calling it "wholly unacceptable," and shut down business and promotional activities related to the Nationals. Baseball officials said they might choose not to have the team play at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium next season if the council does not stand by Williams's original agreement, which relies on public funds for the new stadium.
Baseball sources said yesterday that Commissioner Bud Selig and DuPuy, his top adviser, would take more active roles in the stalemate with the city. Many of the day-to-day negotiations with District officials have been conducted by Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Major League Baseball's chief negotiator in the original stadium agreement.
It was unclear whether baseball officials plan to talk directly with Cropp, who said at her news conference that she had not spoken to baseball officials.
