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Barry Acted to Block Stadium
Mayor Anthony A. Williams listens to Mark H. Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, during a news conference to discuss the stadium. Tuohey says he believes Major League Baseball will allow the city two or three weeks to find a way to secure council support.
(Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
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In the frantic days before what would have been the council's vote yesterday, Williams and his aides furiously lobbied council members who were considered swing votes. Williams was unable, however, to offer the one thing many council members wanted -- a promise from Major League Baseball to cover additional cost overruns.
"I've asked for nothing. It's not about that for me," said council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who has objected to the stadium deal. "When I'm in the community, people say, if we're going to pay for baseball, tell me at what point do we stop? At what point are there brakes on this?"
But as Williams lobbied, so did Barry. Thursday, he summoned Brown, David A. Catania (I-At Large), Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) and Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) to a meeting in his fourth-floor office at the John A. Wilson Building. Williams and his advisers joined them, Barry said, and Williams's aides confirmed.
Barry said yesterday that he had intended for D.C. entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky, who is one of eight bidders trying to buy the Washington Nationals, to present a plan Ledecky had agreed to with Barry. If baseball sold Ledecky the Nationals, Barry said, Ledecky had agreed to cover cost overruns on the stadium and give African Americans a 40 percent equity stake in the team.
But Barry said he was told by Ledecky's adviser, Frank Smith Jr., a former D.C. Council member, that baseball officials had gotten wind of the plan and told Ledecky to make no such offer. According to several council members in the room, Stephen M. Green, the mayor's top adviser on baseball issues, acknowledged he had tipped off baseball officials.
Furious, Barry accused Green of sabotaging the deal, and the meeting broke up without further discussion, several people at the meeting said.
"I went off," Barry said. "This was too delicate a thing to call MLB."
Asked to comment, Ledecky said: "I have not negotiated anything with anybody regarding the stadium lease agreement. That is not the role of a prospective owner."
Baseball officials said yesterday that they had no conversations with Ledecky about his discussions with the city.
Green did not respond yesterday to messages left at his office. Williams declined to discuss the blowup, saying he does not know what was supposed to happen at the meeting.
"I went down there for a meeting with Mayor Barry and Mr. Ledecky, and [there was] no Ledecky, nowhere to be found," Williams said.
The next day, DuPuy and John McHale Jr., baseball's executive vice president for administration, visited Barry. Barry said he told them the lease deal would be blocked by eight council members -- the four in the room with him the day before, along with Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) -- if Ledecky were not chosen as the owner.
