DC city council smacks down MLB

After Washington DC mayor had basically given Major League Baseball first refusal rights to the first-born of every DC resident,the city council had other ideas, demanding that the stadium deal be at least partially financed privately.

Without her amendment, Cropp said, "I was prepared to vote no" on the stadium legislation Tuesday night." Instead, she said, "I decided to try to work out a process where we could keep baseball and reduce the cost and risk to the District of Columbia." She said she had submitted "an optimistic amendment," since she is convinced that 50 percent private financing can be achieved.

"I want baseball here, but not at any cost," Cropp said, and not by giving "a blank check" to Major League Baseball.

Good for her. Baseball's demand that the city pick up the tab is anachronistic. After San Francisco's success with financing PacBell Park, no city should give in to Jerry Reinsdorf's and Bud Selig's strong-arm tactics.

It seems to me that it makes a lot more sense for MLB to make the sale of the team be contingent on the new owners providing a plan for financing a stadium. But that would rely on the MLB owners to actually care about baseball and the health of the cities in which it is played. They do not. I also wonder why they haven't found owners for the Nationals. I gotta believe there are plenty of suitors out there. Why haven't we heard of them? Could it be that the owners like the idea of continuing to milk a franchise, as they have the Expos for the past few years?