Wait Til Next Year
MLB's sticking it to the city one last time, and the Post buries the lede:
Oh well.
Don't let the headline scare you. Essentially it's a warning letter. Nobody, at least from the tiny number or facts actually contained in the article, is in danger of doing anything. There's too much money involved (read: financial penalties for DC) for it to evolve into something larger.
I wonder how much of this is directed by the Lerners as an FU to the city over the parking. They're in a good position to use MLB as the bad cop, getting DuPuy and his henchmen to do the dirty work for them.
The Lerner group had hoped to take ownership of the franchise from MLB by this week. But MLB's latest fight with the city has delayed the handoff, District government and baseball officials said.
Oh well.
Don't let the headline scare you. Essentially it's a warning letter. Nobody, at least from the tiny number or facts actually contained in the article, is in danger of doing anything. There's too much money involved (read: financial penalties for DC) for it to evolve into something larger.
I wonder how much of this is directed by the Lerners as an FU to the city over the parking. They're in a good position to use MLB as the bad cop, getting DuPuy and his henchmen to do the dirty work for them.
posted by Chris Needham at
12:13 PM
7 Comments:
Never, under any circumstance, under estimate the ability of the DC Government to screw up a good thing. DC has yet to meet any of their agreed upon settlements with MLB/Nationals on time.
By
Anonymous, at 7/20/2006 12:21 PM
What are the fights about this time? Is it just the parking garages or has something else reared it's head?
By
Anonymous, at 7/20/2006 12:41 PM
I should have read the link first. This seems like issues they should be able to resolve behind closed doors without the public threats. Can the DC Council really be this difficult to work with?
By
Anonymous, at 7/20/2006 12:43 PM
nosniv,
The article is especially poor because of its lack of clarity, but, it does just seem like a paperwork snafu. Maybe there's something more behind it.
The parking thing is just me reading into it. I imagine, after the fights they've had over it, that the Lerners aren't really willing to give DC much of the benefit of the doubt.
They want to make sure all their ducks are in a row before everything's finalized, and MLB's still around to take care of business for them, leaving them to look like saviors (which they're probably going to be anyway!)
By
Chris Needham, at 7/20/2006 12:52 PM
To anonymous,
Why blame the DC government? They have given the region a baseball team and stadium. Where's the thanks? They take care of the poverty problems of the region and pay for them. The fights have been over stadium cost overruns and who should pay for them, and whether DC should be able to maximize development from its $600 million investment. DC hating gets us nowhere as a region.
By
Anonymous, at 7/20/2006 2:12 PM
From an outsiders perspective, I would imagine the Lerners' construction and development experience should allow them to naviagte the DC politics. This isn't the first time they have worked big projects with the DC Council. I would like to believe that once they take ownership some of these issues get resolved.
By
Anonymous, at 7/20/2006 4:17 PM
To terpguy,
The Lerner family has a long proven track record of getting big project construction jobs completed on time and on budget. The DC Gov't. doesn't.
If that's not a model of bureaucratic stupidity on the part of the DC Gov't. then I don't know what is. The Lerners are experts at this task yet the DC Gov't. won't allow them to be a part of the construction process. The DC Gov't. is filled with morons who would never be able to get away with such idiotic thinking in the business world.
And did the DC Gov't. give the region a baseball team? Was it their decision to move the Expos here? No, it was MLBs decision to move here based on certain promises (a new stadium built by 2008) made by the DC Gov't. that has failed to live up to the letter and the spirit of the agreement.
And what the stadium issue has to do with the issue of poverty in DC and how the DC Gov't. responds to that problem has nothing to do with this argument. I'm not sure where you're going with this.
By
Anonymous, at 7/21/2006 8:42 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home