The cost of the stadium, scheduled to open in March 2008 along the Anacostia River near South Capitol Street SE and the Navy Yard, has caused significant debate among city officials.
When the city made the deal with baseball, mayoral aides estimated that the 41,000-seat stadium would cost $395 million but included no money for infrastructure. Green, the city official who developed that budget, said the city expected Metro and the federal government, which has its own development projects nearby, to cover those expenses.
But D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi raised the estimate to $533 million, including $76 million in infrastructure, saying that most cities building stadiums pay such costs. The D.C. Council based the stadium budget that it approved in December on Gandhi's report.
When the architectural team recently submitted designs for a stadium made primarily of glass, stone and steel, the price soared from $244 million to $337 million, said Allen Y. Lew, chief executive of the sports commission. He ordered cutbacks that reduced the price to $300 million. Lew said he can go no further without violating the agreement with baseball or compromising the design.
Lew credited inflation for some of the added cost for materials and labor but acknowledged that "the other half is driven by enhanced architecture."
He added: "The numbers from [2004] are based on an average building. We wanted something iconic and timeless, and there's a price tag to it."
Other costs have risen, as well. The District offered landowners on the stadium site a total of $98 million, about $21 million more than Gandhi had projected.
To help make up the differences, Lew and other city officials limited infrastructure costs. The budget called for $12 million to widen and repave roads, add lighting and do landscaping, but that has been cut to $4 million. When the sports commission determined it would not have to spend $28 million to move a major sewer line, it shifted that money to other ballpark costs.
"Do we really need to rebuild all the roads? Or just resurface them?" Green asked. Rebuilding roads "would not alter the fan experience in one shape or form. It's not essential."
Perhaps the most striking example of cutbacks involved Metro projects. Although the agency said it needed up to $40 million to expand the Navy Yard Station, on the Green Line, Gandhi budgeted only $20 million. That amount would have paid for a wider platform and new escalators and an elevator, increasing capacity from 5,000 people per hour to 15,000.
But the sports commission has given Metro just $250,000, which will pay for three new fare gates and increase capacity to 10,000 people per hour.
"All that other stuff will get done, just not by us," said Tuohey, the commission chairman. "I personally never felt Metro should have been part of the stadium budget. . . . We'll still do this stadium for the budget that was prepared, but the ancillary items will be paid by someone else."
Metro officials declined to comment.
Tuohey added that even the sports commission has taken its share of cuts. Although the agency's offices were supposed to be at the new stadium, the latest plans do not include them. Instead, Tuohey said, the commission may move from RFK to the D.C. Armory.
The mayor and D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) have told the commission and baseball that the city will not allow the project to exceed $535 million -- unless baseball officials name an owner who is willing to chip in. And Cropp warned at a council meeting that the quality of the stadium could be compromised if private money is not found.
Commission officials insisted that they will produce the promised state-of-the-art ballpark. They said architects may use less limestone, replacing it with pre-cast concrete to save money.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is getting more luxury boxes -- up from 74 to 78 -- and club seats -- up from 2,000 to 3,000-- than the stadium agreement stipulated. Commission officials said the league gave up two in-stadium retail stores, office space and other items that offset the added costs.
If the commission succeeds in getting the league to pay $20 million, Lew's budget showed he still must reduce costs by about $15 million more to get down to the city's $535 million limit.
"This whole crowd will be gone by the time the true costs come home to roost," Catania said of the mayor, his aides and Gandhi. "By then it will be everyone else's problem, and it'll be too late."
