Goldwater will leave sports commission

Robert D. Goldwater, executive director of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, says he will leave his position next month, ending more than a year of fighting with the D.C. Council over the depletion of the agency’s funds.

“There has been a growing series of issues, challenges and distractions that have taken me away from what I came here to do,” Mr. Goldwater told The Washington Times yesterday. “It’s just best that everyone moves on at this point. I’m not comfortable being a distraction.”

Mr. Goldwater, who earns $275,000 a year, said he has requested not to be considered for a contract extension when his three-year pact expires Nov. 5.

A former manager of New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Staples Center, Mr. Goldwater was hired by the District because of his managerial expertise and the prospect of his bringing Major League Baseball back to the city.

Mr. Goldwater said his departure will not diminish the District’s chances for luring a baseball team, and insisted the District’s proposal is the best one available to MLB executives.

“I think the city is in great hands. … There is no reason for D.C. not to get baseball, and it will happen,” he said.

“This was never a one-man show, and there have been great partners in this with Mayor [Anthony A.] Williams and Deputy Mayor Eric Price, his staff and the ownership team.”

In April, The Washington Times reported Mr. Goldwater’s ranking as the city’s highest-paid employee in a series of articles about the proliferation of $100,000 salaries in the D.C. government.

Mr. Goldwater played an instrumental role in many improvements to the 42-year-old RFK Stadium and the D.C. Armory, as well as ongoing efforts to land a baseball team. He also is credited for keeping soccer team D.C. United, RFK Stadium’s primary tenant, from moving to Maryland or Virginia.

But the commission posted seven-figure losses in two of three fiscal years under Mr. Goldwater and was headed toward another year in the red, having depleted more than $15 million of an $18 million fiscal reserve.

The spending angered several D.C. Council members, who said they could not see how it was delivering the city a baseball team.

Council member Harold Brazil, at-large Democrat, said Mr. Goldwater’s departure would affect the city’s ability to lure a team.

“I think he is a first-class professional, but he got maligned a bit and I hate to see him go because we don’t have anybody to replace him,” he said. “This is still a tight period for us with baseball. We have a good plan … and we will find a way to get [a team] if it’s humanly possible, but we’ll have to get it done without Bobby.”

Mr. Goldwater is a distant relative of Barry M. Goldwater, the late five-term senator from Arizona and Republican presidential candidate.

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