Shysterball | Can We Build It? Ev-en-tu-ally!
Know what? Something tells me slogans like “you gotta wait 10 years for this to work out” weren’t part of Evans’ pitch back when he and his colleagues were voting to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from impoverished D.C. residents to wealthy baseball owners.
I’ve always thought that the public shouldn’t be on the hook for any part of the construction of a sports stadium unless the public is realizing profits above and beyond tax revenue. I may be totally making this up, but I’m pretty sure I’ve read that most studies indicate that the city doesn’t really benefit much from a new stadium. The team owners really benefit from a new stadium. As such, it seems reasonable that the city should get something back. If DC gives $100 million towards the new Nationals Park, it seems reasonable to me that the city get, say, $5 million a year in profit sharing. Certainly with $100 million, any marginally competent financial adviser could turn a 5% profit. So it seems fair that the Nationals should kick that back to the city. I don’t know the actual numbers here, I’m just making these up, but I think the argument holds. Still, I’m looking forward to checking out the new stadium. I drove by yesterday on the way to visit my family, and it looks pretty impressive.