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Stadium Lease Deal Leaves Questions
Mayor Anthony A. Williams says construction on the waterfront stadium should start this spring.
(By James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)
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It also remains unclear when Major League Baseball will select an ownership group for the Nationals, a process that has dragged on for nearly a year.
"Baseball has told us it will be done expeditiously," said Mark H. Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. "I interpreted that to mean a matter of a few weeks."
Although council members initially rejected the stadium lease, they reversed course and voted 9 to 4 to approve the lease with a spending cap. Late Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, council members went through the four-page document, tweaking it line by line.
Yesterday afternoon, council aides worked to write the final legislative text, trying to make sure they accurately captured the amendments approved by council members. The group was reviewing videotape of the meeting and expected to finish this afternoon, after which copies of the legislation will be distributed.
Council member Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6), who voted in favor of the lease and spending cap, said the council meeting was so confusing that she turned to committee clerk David Grosso and said: "I'm not sure what's in there. Hopefully, it's not a mess."
Ambrose said yesterday that she did not think the spending cap approved by the council was significantly different from the plan Williams submitted to the council last week.
Under the city's plan, the stadium project along the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington would be funded by a gross receipts tax on city businesses; a utility tax on businesses and federal buildings; a concessions tax; and an annual rent payment from the Nationals.
The council asked Williams to cap city spending as cost estimates for the project rose from $535 million to $667 million. Under Williams's plan, spending for the ballpark structure would be limited to $320 million -- including a $20 million payment from baseball. The council's cap is the same.
Williams sought to protect against the potential cost overruns of building infrastructure and acquiring stadium land by selling development rights on the stadium site. The council's legislation allows that, also.
Even with the spending cap it adopted, the council acknowledged that the city's liability on land costs remains uncertain because a judge could award property owners more money than the city has allowed for in the stadium budget.
"Let the message go forth: There is a cap on the stadium," said council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who initially voted to reject the lease agreement Tuesday but endorsed it after the spending cap was added. "We have made a bad deal just a little better."
But Ambrose, who has supported the stadium deal since the mayor struck it in 2004, said the council's plan was essentially the same as the mayor's.
Asked why her colleagues insisted on the legal cap, Ambrose said, "It's an election year, and people wanted to make sure the voters did not think they were giving away the store."
