| Page 2 of 2 < |
In Baseball Melodrama, No Shortage of Critics
Rodney Smith, owner of a sporting goods store on Capitol Hill that has benefited from Washington Nationals-related sales, says he has come to oppose the baseball stadium deal.
(By Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"They're going to get the money back," said Amin, 33, who grew up in the District. "It's an investment. I don't even like baseball, but income and revenue need to be brought back to the city. Everyone goes to Maryland and Virginia."
Harmon Burns, 53, an Alexandria resident and Nationals season ticket holder who runs a chain of parking lots, said that although baseball officials are wrong to insist that the District pay for any cost overruns, the benefits to the city will outweigh the costs in the long run.
"It will do what the MCI Center did for Chinatown," Burns said as he ate lunch at J. Paul's, a tavern in Georgetown. "The question is, in 30 years, what kind of money will it bring in? I think it will be a lot."
Bob Murphy, a lawyer who lives in Rockville, said District leaders are in a tough position.
"The city council has so many competing interests; they've got a wider constituency to worry about," Murphy said as he ate a bowl of chicken soup at the downtown ESPN Zone restaurant. "Major League Baseball has one constituency, and that's the owners."
He dismissed the negotiations as a "comedy of errors. I'm kind of embarrassed by it all. It doesn't look like the District and Major League Baseball can get it done."
Some have tuned out the whole affair.
Paul Arnold, 32, who lives just south of Petworth in Northwest, has followed the ups and downs of the baseball deal, the bluster from the opponents, the cheerleading from the proponents, and he's convinced that a new stadium is inevitable no matter what anyone on either side says.
"It's a done deal -- they will build a stadium no matter how much it will cost, no matter how many people don't want it," he said, counting himself among the opponents as he sipped coffee at a diner on 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan. "Look at the people who are for it: Mayor Williams, Colin Powell -- half of K Street takes their clients there."
The money, he said, could be used instead to hire police officers, improve trash collection. "You could use it for anything," he said. "God bless these protest types, but I don't think they accomplish anything."
