MorseCode

Random Writings on Just About Everything.

Monday, December 20, 2004

If You Build It

This Washington Post article makes it sound like the possibility of a last minute deal being worked out between Mayor Anthony Williams and City Council Chairman Linda Cropp is increasing.

This is a good thing, and I hope it happens. I'm not a DC taxpayer (except for sales tax on way too many lunches), so I understand my thoughts on the matter are relegated into the "please shut up" bin of most DC residents and officials, but I hope they go ahead and approve a stadium deal. I also hope they manage to put together a decent amount of private funding for it...but a baseball team would help the District. In economic terms, it's probably a minor long term profit for the city over a few decades, but in the fuzzier psychological sense, it would be a real boost for the city.

There's something to be said about the pride of having a sports franchise to rally around. While the Washington Redskins have struggled for the last decade, the rehiring of Coach Joe Gibbs sent a wave of positive feeling unlike anything I've seen through the city and the metro area as a whole. Important victories and championships have that same effect, bringing together diverse residents into something resembling an actual community.

If DC manages to get some acceptable form of the stadium deal passed, it'll at least create something tangible for the city as a benefit. There is a chasm of fuzzy opportunities for any state to spend money, often in practical ways with laudible goals, but results are relatively difficult to measure. Building a stadium will mean DC has a baseball team, which will provide approximately 162 days of public entertainment, and provide a continuing stream of revenue from local fans (like me) who'll trek into or within the city to catch NL baseball.

The other thing that opponents of the stadium should keep in mind is that the Washington Nationals situation is unique among sports francishes, in that they aren't part of a larger state. A DC-based baseball team is acting in competition with other entertainment interests in the suburbs. It can produce a genuine net-gain for District of Columbia interests. If your city is going to be overun with commuters and other outsiders every day, why not squeeze them for every last possible dollar of the discretionary income, because it's unlikely you'll ever get a commuter tax. That's not a tremendous factor in decisions in, say, Miami or Denver, but in DC that's a major issue in the economics of things, and stadium opponents should consider that before sighting certain economic impact studies which don't take that into account.

Hopefully, the City Council works things out in the end and approves something that can work for baseball to return to the nations capital. If not, this Orioles fan will just have to be content with 1-2 weekend games up at Camden Yards in '05.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home