Elephant In Exile

Baseball, Angelos Close To Deal

Major League Baseball in DC? That's the word this morning as plans are afoot to announce that the downtrodden Montreal Expos are heading for our burg. But what gets under Elephants skin is the proposed $400 million plus, publicly financed stadium. Study after study has concluded that there is little return on the public investment for professional baseball stadiums. The Mackinaw Center, a conservative Michigan think tank put it best in saying...

Government subsidies for professional sports stadiums are not only
economically unsound, they are unfair to sports fans and non-fans alike.

DC as a city has come a long way in the last ten years. Housing is booming, the streets are measurable safer and businesses are investing in previously run down areas. But we still have a long way to go. Our schools usually rank last in national statistics, our subway system is underfunded and crumbling as are our roads. Resident's in South East, the poorest quarter of the city has inadequate health care services, shopping areas, and poor public safety. It makes no sense for DC to cough up $400 million in public money to build a stadium for a group of private investors (that includes Elephant acquaintance David Bradley) to make money.

My message to the DC Council? Go sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here.

Subsidizing Baseball: The Mackinaw Center
http://www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=4131

WaPo: Baseball in DC:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56606-2004Sep28.html