Deal puts District back in the ballgame

The Washington Nationals again are a reality after the D.C. Council ratified an amended version of its ballpark financing bill and Major League Baseball approved the legislation yesterday.

“We can now focus our attention on bringing baseball back to Washington this coming season,” MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said. “We are also pleased that our discussions with Washington’s elected leaders over the last several days have helped each side better understand the concerns of the other. We are now more confident than ever of a long and productive relationship.”

MLB lifted its six-day suspension of all Nationals business activities, allowing for the resumption of ticket sales and a reopening of the team’s store at RFK Stadium.

The council’s 7-6 vote yesterday was the result of a crucial agreement reached late Monday by D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams and council Chairman Linda W. Cropp and gives MLB its needed guarantee that a 41,000-seat ballpark will be built near the Anacostia River waterfront in Southeast.

With that guarantee absent for a tension-filled week before yesterday’s vote, MLB had threatened to move the Nationals out of Washington before they played a game. The District had until Dec. 31 to fix the legislation.

“I am proud to say that finally and at last we have risen above the fray,” Mr. Williams said. “We have kept our commitments to Major League Baseball, we have kept our commitments to the council, and we have kept our commitment to the city.”

The council’s passage of the revised legislation resolved a back-and-forth debate that ran for weeks between Mr. Williams and Mrs. Cropp and touched off another series of celebrations around the city.

“This is the best Christmas present Washington could hope for,” said Bill Hall, board member of the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission. “We went into extra innings, but it was absolutely worth it. Baseball is definitely coming to Washington.”

In the compromise, Mrs. Cropp agreed to drop legislative language mandating at least 50 percent of stadium construction be funded with private money, backed by the threat of killing the entire relocation deal. In return, Mr. Williams and his staff gained additional financial protection from MLB for the city should the stadium run over budget or is not completed by its March 1, 2008, due date.

The Nationals now can recoup a maximum of $5.3 million in the first year that the new stadium is not done on time through no fault of the District, down from $19 million. A $19 million cap on damages to the Nationals for a second year of delay in the stadium’s completion was not changed.

MLB and the District also have agreed to share the insurance premiums to cover potential stadium cost overruns. The new amenities are part of a “risk mitigation program” offered by MLB as a result of renegotiations forced by Mrs. Cropp.

“You, Madame Chair, have made lemonade out of some real bad lemons,” Ward 6 Democrat Sharon Ambrose said of Mrs. Cropp’s repeated attempts to lower the city’s investment in the stadium.

Private financing is still pegged to cover half of the hard stadium costs. But the legislation now acknowledges a previous public-financing bill structure as the option of last resort if no viable and certifiable source of private money is found.

“The sunset provision was obviously the major area of concern for us. We were gravely concerned our stay in Washington was going to be a short one,” MLB President Bob DuPuy said.

One proposal involving the issuance of revenue bonds against curbside parking around the stadium has received preliminary certification from Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi. Mrs. Cropp and several other council members do not particularly care for the proposal. But with its potential cost savings of $100 million, the parking plan will stand in as the de facto source of private funds until a better option presents itself.

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