"You hear a lot of people saying, 'I support baseball. I just don't support the funding,' " Williams said. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to learn Chinese. I would love to be able to speak French or Arabic, okay? But . . . unless I go and spend the time and effort to learn them, I'm not going to learn them. . . . If we want baseball, we're going to have to make an investment."
Legislation to authorize the stadium financing package will be sent to the council today, Williams said. The council's finance committee expects to schedule a public hearing for the last week in October.
These D.C. United soccer fans at RFK have approximate view from home plate once stadium is upgraded for baseball.
(Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)
|
|
Yesterday, the mayor and his aides declined to release a draft of the bill. They said it would:
• Authorize the District to issue up to $500 million in revenue bonds to pay for the new stadium, land acquisition and $13 million in renovations to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, the Expos' temporary home for the next three years.
• Direct the District to begin buying property on the proposed site.
• Set the sales tax rate at 10 percent for tickets and merchandise sold at the ballpark.
• Impose a gross-receipts tax on the city's 2,000 largest businesses, defined as those that take in more than $3 million a year.
The in-stadium sales tax and the gross receipts tax -- recently dubbed "a special ballpark fee" by the mayor -- comprise two of the three revenue streams that will be used to repay the stadium bonds. The council will not get an opportunity to vote on the third source of revenue, a 30-year lease agreement negotiated with Major League Baseball that requires the Expos to pay the city about $5.5 million a year.
Many fans in Washington focused yesterday on how to get tickets for the upcoming season.
A hotline funded by Washington Baseball Club was inundated with more than 1,500 calls yesterday, said executive director Winston Lord, and at least 4,000 people signed up for information about season tickets through the hotline or the club's Web site.
More than 300 people phoned the mayor's call center to ask about tickets, said office of planning spokesman Chris Bender. And more than 200 people called or e-mailed D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission Chairman Mark Tuohey at his downtown law office.
