You Can't Negotiate With A Crazy Man
So MLB is stringing things along, nickle and diming DC to death while a gazillion dollar deal is hed in the balance. The debate, over DC's need for MLB to guarantee rent payments to ensure a good interest rate on bonds used to pay for the stadium, resumes today.
But there's a new wrinkle.
DC has added an additional request to the table. Not only is the city asking for $24 million in rent guarantees if the stadium becomes unusuable because of natural or unnatural disaster, they've added a request for $20 million to add parking spaces at the stadium.
If those asshats on Park Avenue are going to play hardball, fighting over fractions of pennies on the dollar, DC is well within their right (even their duty!) to play hardball with these used-car-dealing thugs. No, we didn't order the freakin' Tru-Coat!
MLB is predicatbly acting like the thugs they are. (Read the article for the details)
Screw them. They're getting $600 million worth of stadium from the city, and they're getting another half a billion from the new owners. There's more than enough pie to make these fat cats wretch all over themselves.
The city, despite the noise and the flurry surrounding the events, has negotiated in good faith, and has bent over backwards to give MLB everything they've wanted. If that's not good enough, take the farkin' franchise to Puerto Rico and see if you can get someone there to pay $450 million for it. Fat farkin' chance.
It's strange to side with DC gov't on anything. But in this case, it's not the lesser of two evils, just the less evil of two lessers. DC, hold their loafered feet over the fires until their toe hair singes and stinks. You're in the right, for once.
But there's a new wrinkle.
DC has added an additional request to the table. Not only is the city asking for $24 million in rent guarantees if the stadium becomes unusuable because of natural or unnatural disaster, they've added a request for $20 million to add parking spaces at the stadium.
If those asshats on Park Avenue are going to play hardball, fighting over fractions of pennies on the dollar, DC is well within their right (even their duty!) to play hardball with these used-car-dealing thugs. No, we didn't order the freakin' Tru-Coat!
MLB is predicatbly acting like the thugs they are. (Read the article for the details)
Screw them. They're getting $600 million worth of stadium from the city, and they're getting another half a billion from the new owners. There's more than enough pie to make these fat cats wretch all over themselves.
The city, despite the noise and the flurry surrounding the events, has negotiated in good faith, and has bent over backwards to give MLB everything they've wanted. If that's not good enough, take the farkin' franchise to Puerto Rico and see if you can get someone there to pay $450 million for it. Fat farkin' chance.
It's strange to side with DC gov't on anything. But in this case, it's not the lesser of two evils, just the less evil of two lessers. DC, hold their loafered feet over the fires until their toe hair singes and stinks. You're in the right, for once.
posted by Chris Needham at
10:36 AM
1 Comments:
You're absolutely right that DC should hold their feet to the fire, but I need to clear up two things:
1. DC is not making a new request for the parking. DC was willing to pay for a certain number of spaces for VIP season ticket holders, but now MLB has specified that the spaces be indoors or adjacent to the stadium, a requirement that was not in the original deal. DC, legitimately, says if you want more than what we agreed to, you have to pay for it. Anybody is going to gold plate the project if they dont have to pay.
2. The rent guarantee is a standard element of such a deal and can be secured with a relatively inexpensive letter of credit.
It is clear that MLB is trying to squeeze every last dime and holding the ownership decision as hostage, even though no owners have insisted upon the lease being concluded prior to taking over. Meanwhile, MLB has dealt the Nats effectively out of the free agent market for next year and otherwise handicapped the team's competitiveness, but they somehow have managed to do one thing: raise prices.
Despicable.
By
Anonymous, at 11/15/2005 3:21 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home