Monday, December 19, 2005

The Storm Before The Calm

Tomorrow's the day. Yea or Nay, the votes will be counted, and the stadium will get built, or we'll be thrown into limbo. Keep in mind that if it does get defeated, that there'll be a lot of banchee screams, and teeth gnashing, but that it doesn't mean the death of the franchise.

Mayor Williams held a rally. Our good friends from Metroblogging DC were there, and report that several hundred people showed up to support the stadium, drowning out the handful of opponents.

DCist, meanwhile, goes straight to the horse's mouth (or ass, if you prefer). They got Mayor Williams' spokesman to give his spin on why the stadium is a good deal. He raises several excellent points, especially with the problems of using Seattle and Milwaukee as examples of cost overruns, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable if they'd drop the facade of a $300 million stadium. That's just as disingenuous as the $700 million figure the other side trotted out.

DCist also got David Catania, member of the Council, to write about why the stadium is a bad deal. He, too, raises some interesting points, but also gets caught up in stretching his rhetoric, as noted by the commenters.

Yea or nay, I have no idea what's going to happen. If I had to bet, I'd say it passes by one. But then I wouldn't be stunned to see it lose either.

Either way, we'll find out tomorrow around lunchtime.

3 Comments:

  • That's why I stuck with the several hundred figure. (Which technically could be 151, right? )

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 12/19/2005 4:48 PM  

  • It's a normal person's DCist. They're good compliments for each other.

    I wonder if there's confusion over the two rallies. At any rate, it's impossible for the average person to guess crowd size while actually in a crowd.

    It's more people than can fit into my kitchen!

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 12/19/2005 5:08 PM  

  • I was in the crowd yesterday and I can confirm with 100% confidence that the crowd was between 151 and 500 total (including the anarchists' German Shepard which undoubtedly intimidated TW more than the "no" crowd).

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/20/2005 2:36 PM  

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