A Ballpark Lease's New Life

THE STADIUM lease agreement pending before the D.C. Council has been as changeable as Washington's weather. The latest version, which Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) says meets all the key demands of council members, is scheduled for a council vote today. If, as a result of council deliberations initiated by council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), the agreement does firmly cap the price of the new baseball stadium project at $320 million, requires Major League Baseball to pay $20 million, contains rock-solid commitments from developers to help cover potential cost overruns, and meets all of Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi's requirements for issuing construction bonds, the council should add its approval.

A vote in favor of the lease agreement should not be seen as either a victory for the D.C. Council or a vanquishing of the mayor. The package before city lawmakers is the result of the kind of scrutiny and negotiation that should have taken place between city leaders and Major League Baseball before the first version ever went to print. The issues raised by council members, ranging from Mrs. Cropp to stadium critics David A. Catania (I-At Large) and Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), produced a better agreement.

The case for the stadium was advanced considerably by President Bush's fiscal 2007 budget, which proposes to spend $20 million to upgrade the Navy Yard Metro station at the site of the new stadium. Council members who favor keeping major league baseball in the nation's capital and the economic development that it is expected to bring to the city's Anacostia waterfront will find that the revised lease agreement is the next step that must be taken. To oppose the agreement at this stage is to say no to a baseball franchise and the renaissance that the Washington Nationals could help bring.