Another Bite Out of D.C.'s Hide?

Here's a well-worn piece of advice to D.C. taxpayers: If a dog bites you, the first time, it's the dog's fault. If the dog bites you a second time, it's your fault.

This is just a way of saying that the District might be forgiven for not having recognized that it was about to be mauled by Major League Baseball owners in the baseball stadium deal that was reached in 2004. City negotiators bit off more than they could chew when they entered the room, and they were gnawed in return. They limped out of the negotiations with the District obligated to provide a $611 million public financing package for a new ballpark that rich baseball owners could have built themselves. And baseball's teeth are still in the hide of D.C. taxpayers as stadium-related costs climb.

With that kind of deal, word gets around.

A new dog is in town, drooling at the thought of the city playing partner in the construction of another sports stadium. The new owners of the D.C. United soccer team have cast their gaze on the lucrative, 110-acre Poplar Point parcel owned by the District across the river from the new baseball stadium. D.C. United would like to construct a $150 million, 27,000-seat stadium there. The owners promise to pay for the construction -- their first love, of course, being soccer.

Victor B. MacFarlane, the majority owner of D.C. United's operating rights, said at a news conference, "We would love to help make soccer the sport that African Americans and other children of color first look to for recreation and entertainment." Toward that end, MacFarlane, himself African American, pledged to build a youth soccer field in Ward 8, which is home to D.C. Council member and former mayor Marion Barry. MacFarlane speaks from the heart, I am sure.

But I wouldn't be surprised if development rights to that juicy piece of land surrounding the proposed stadium didn't also draw the team owners to the deal.

Here's how the project might develop: The city would prepare the tract's infrastructure (worth millions of dollars) and turn it over to the MacFarlane group. The developers, in turn, would build the stadium and an adjacent complex with a hotel, shops, offices and condos, recouping their investment with the profits that would flow from such a worthy civic endeavor. The District would tell taxpayers they have never had it so good, because tax dollars from the complex will flow into city coffers. That, city officials will say, represents a win-win outcome for the District and D.C. United's owners.

Oh, yes, the new soccer stadium and development rights could be awarded to MacFarlane without competitive bidding.

Arf, arf. Ouch!

Who, one might ask, is Victor B. MacFarlane, and how did this San Franciscan win the presence of Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and assorted city straphangers at a news conference to announce his purchase of a local soccer team?

MacFarlane, by press accounts, heads a multibillion-dollar real estate investment and development firm, owns two airplanes and lives in a $30 million San Franciso penthouse.

Unlike Major League Baseball's owners, MacFarlane flew into the city without fanfare and has quietly established himself as a major player on the business scene. Reportedly he owns a 25 percent stake in Forest City Enterprises' Yards project, a $1.7 billion mixed-use development not far from where the baseball stadium is being built. He's looking around for other deals, too. And, again unlike Major League Baseball, MacFarlane established close links with hometown players. He placed two people on the payroll of his Washington operation who can help steer him through the D.C. labyrinth: Dana Bryson, former top adviser to former city administrator and current school board president Robert C. Bobb, and Linda Greene, Barry's former chief of staff.