DC may be a cesspool but they made the right decision. If the Expos want to move there, they should raise the funds to build and maintain a stadium. The taxpayers should not be on the hook, period. I applaud the DC City Council for turning down another recipient of corporate welfare.
The Expos have been living on welfare for decades, MLB should have just disbanded the team. It's impossible to raise the money, because the Expos are still owned by the rest of the teams. I live in Virginia Beach and a lot of people here were very relieved when Norfolk "lost" to DC.
.
But,
...wasn't RFK Stadium good enough for the last Washington, D.C. Major League Baseball Team..?
Thought so.
.
I trhink it'd be great for the DC area to have a baseball team, and I think the market is easily the best market for a team in the country, at least at the present (Las Vegas is tiny but growing fast!). The market is twice the size of Portland, and growing at an above-average rate. The notion of a team going to the third world (San Juan or Monterrey) is a sick joke designed to get DC Mayor Anthony Williams nervous.
BUT come on, this was a terrible deal. That DC would have to pay 100% to bring a growing, wealthy, top 10 market is nuts. And then they don't even get to use the stadium? The Nationals would have exclusive rights to a stadium they got for free! Any other event money would go to the Nationals, not to DC!
One way or another, baseball is staying is headed to the DC area for the next three years. If they don't strike a deal, by the time the three years are up, the team will have lost more than its entire value. No one will go to see a team that is leaving in just three years. No one. If it ain't DC, then it's Virginia, and Virginia ain't shelling out a dime.
Anthony Williams may be politically moderate by DC standards, but the man is dummer than mayonnaise.