Baseball grumbling about the free stadium
The city’s CFO examined the spending cap the DC Council passed on the stadium legislation and says he thinks it won’t be a problem for raising the necessary money to build the new stadium for the Nationals. This is something we agreed to as a part of the deal to get Major League Baseball. However MLB is being kind of an ass:
Last week, in a letter to [Mayor] Williams, MLB President Robert A. DuPuy said
baseball officials were concerned that the council’s legislation
"contains conditions, restrictions and new provisions which go well
beyond our previous agreements and raises a number of questions. . . .
We want to make sure that the kind of ballpark we agreed upon will be
built."
Honestly, guys, we’re buying you a free fucking stadium. Scratch that, the business community is buying you a stadium, the general taxpayers in DC are not paying for it. You need to lighten up and unless the thing is entirely sub-standard, take it with a bit of grace that a gift-receiver should display. You never negotiated a blank check, so stop acting like that’s what you got from us.
Link: D.C. Finance Chief Approves Council’s Stadium Spending Cap.