D.C.'s ballpark revenue projections fall short

Okay. The Washington Nationals are bad. Shockingly bad. But this isn't good news: The Washington Post is reporting that the new ballpark along the Anacostia River is going to miss its sales tax revenue projection mark by $2.6-million this year. The city was expecting about $16.1-million to pay off construction bonds and will collect somewhere around $13.5-million, according to the city.

The city says it has enough money to pay off its bonds. But if projections are already off the mark in year 1, imagine what they might look like in year 10. I'm happy to say I personally contributed to the Nationals Park this year ... attending two games in the cheap seats. And believe it or not, the Nats won both games I saw. If you also remember, the Post estimated, and we reported, that the Nationals may double their ticket revenues in the new ballpark compared to old RFK.

The Rays, in their original proposal, weren't saying new taxes would be used to pay for the park, but they sure suggested that new taxes from the Tropicana Field redevelopment could more than cover the city's costs. In Washington, that plan's not working so far.

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Comments

[My Town]

Aaron,
How exactly was Michael Kalt involved with the redevelopment of Yankee Stadium and isn't that immensely over budget and payable by the tax payers of New York?

If the ABC Coalition is really going to try to do something legitimate, and these pesky little revenue details are hampering cities where new stadiums are located, why on earth won't the ABC Coalition ask the Rays to make their books available? Are they afraid the public will know the truth about their profit?

By the way, did you see on the city government channel that the city attorney advised the St. Petersburg council that ABC is NOT a sunshine coalition and is NOT required to operate in the sunshine? Is ABC just trying to make everyone think they are open and transparent, but they really don't have to be?

So, just to recap: they were supposed to be "INCLUSIVE" but no one on the coalition represents the citizens. The CONA president apparently is not representing CONA but only herself, so even she's not representing citizens at all.

Now comes the "TRANSPARENT AND OPEN" promise and we find out they are NOT at all required to be in the sunshine.

Geeze!

[Thomas]

Thanks for another interesting look at the world of big stadium finance.

Another great example would be St. Louis where the lease includes a "state of the art" clause which requires the taxpayers to keep the dome competitive with the top 25% of stadiums in the NFL.

Judging by the Rams performance, the city clearly did not get a similar competitive clause from the team.

[Don Mott]

Imagine That! I wonder, when are local governments going to face reality? New taxpayer subsidised stadiums have proven over and over to be costly to the public. Not the cash cows that MLB teams would have you believe.

[Aaron Sharockman]

Hey My Town,
I did not see that about the city attorney. Was that last week? Do you remember at what point in the meeting? I'd like to go to the video and check that out.

You may recall, the ABC attorney Charlie Harris says ABC must comply with sunshine. Florida AG agrees.

[My Town]

Aaron,

Sorry, don't know when it occurred in the meeting. It was last Thursday and it was John Wolfe who advised them. He also told the council he thought they wanted to act in the sunshine. Frankly, wanting to and being required to are very different.

I do recall that Charlie said they were in sunshine, but I wonder if their charge includes acting in an official advisory capacity to the city or elected officials. I believe the attorney contends they are officially reporting to the Rays not the city, which would not require sunshine.

Thanks for going after this information. It needs to be clarified one way or the other.

Town

[Scaramouche]

Speaking of video, Aaron, have you had any luck pulling up that ESPN bit on the back story for the multi-billion-dollar Yankees stadium subsidy-and-tax-scam, including bits on the helpful Mr. Michael Kalt? Wonder why that seems not to have made it into ESPN's vaults?

[Aaron Sharockman]

Haven't found it yet. I'm looking tho.

[who cares]

ABC has no authority from the City to negotiate anything, including the existing terms of the stadium use agreement. Since ABC is not a duly authorized body to do anything it is not required to comply with the Sunshine Law. Who cares? ABC has no authority to do anything meaningful. They can meet and talk about how their businesses can further subsidize the Rays business. Wow, let's just watch them open their wallets! Justify that little suite to your shareholders and rate payers will you?

[get-smart]

ABC is DOA. It's over with. No one is in the mood to listen to these over paid whiny cretins finding ways to ripoff the Pinellas residents. Have the Rays build their own stadium at the Trop site. The attendants is much improved with a winning team.

[Harold]

I have also been to the Washington stadium and it is a thing of beauty. Except for the Concrete plant (or whatever that ugly thing is) between it and the River. One big downside is that there really isnt anything in safe walking distance from the stadium after night games and very little room for add on development. It was probably short sighted for the stadium not to accquire the land all the way to the river. The four games I was there the attendance was dominated by the opposing teams fans. very Deja Vu for me.