Nationals Park Opens for Community Use, in Different Ways

Last October, Henry Champ was at a friend's birthday party when he ran into D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. The conversation steered toward construction of the new Nationals Park and whether it would be completed in time for Opening Day.

After being assured it would, Champ asked Fenty if the stadium could be ready for another new idea. "We told him that the city has never had a high school baseball championship," Champ said.

Fenty, who later called the idea "a no-brainer," told Champ to form a fundraising and organizing committee to plan the event along with the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. The result is the D.C. High School Baseball Classic, scheduled for May 31. It will be an all-day affair capped by an all-star game and a matchup of the District's top public school team and one from a top D.C. private school, to be televised on Comcast SportsNet.

The goal is to spark interest in the game among District students, and the nonprofit D.C. High School Baseball Classic Inc. is funneling all profits back to D.C. Sports and Entertainment for the purpose of refurbishing baseball fields in the District. Champ, a Washington correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and chairman of the newly formed nonprofit, said the group has raised more than enough to cover its $36,129 in expenses to use the stadium for the day.

A pair of Montgomery County schools found a different way onto the field at Nationals Park for a game tonight. Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Whitman will wrap up their regular seasons there as part of a pilot program with the Nationals' group ticket sales department. B-CC and Whitman won't have any costs up front to play at the stadium, but they said they must each sell a minimum of 250 tickets to a future Nationals game.

The two games offer a look at how the Nationals are opening the $611 million, publicly financed facility for community use. The D.C. Classic will be one of the 18 days annually that the team, per its lease agreement with the city, operates the stadium for D.C. Sports and Entertainment. Tonight's game between B-CC and Whitman is not one of those days, but is the first of a pilot program the team is developing with an aim similar to the D.C. Classic -- generating interest in baseball among the area's youth.

"It's part of our outreach program," Barbara Silva, the Nationals' director of community relations, said of tonight's game. "As the years progress, we hope this becomes a huge part of high school baseball in the D.C. area, where maybe we'd get a Maryland team and a Virginia team that wouldn't normally play each other."

Organizers of the D.C. Classic did not learn of the deal that led to tonight's game until last week, and Champ was not happy his group was not afforded a similar arrangement.

"We think this is gouging, at the best," Champ said. "Considering the city gave [Nationals Park] to them at $611 million, [the Nationals] should be a little more charitable. You'd think the Nationals would be saying to themselves, 'Oh, what the hell, let them in for free.' "

According to Michael Shapiro, the Nationals' senior vice president of business affairs, who has been handling the negotiations with D.C. Sports and Entertainment, tonight's game and the D.C. Classic are "two different types of events."

The biggest difference is the projected attendance. Nationals officials are expecting a crowd of about 200 to 300 for the game between B-CC and Whitman. Champ and Shapiro each estimate a crowd of about 5,000 for the D.C. Classic, of which The Washington Post is a sponsor.

"It's nowhere near the same scale," Shapiro said, adding that tonight's game requires the ballpark open for the late afternoon and early evening, while the D.C. Classic will utilize the stadium from early in the morning to near midnight.