DC Baseball: Let it go. Baseball on the downfall, steroids, salaries, et

[Sara Beverley]

I think the Councilwoman is correct. Why should the disenfranchised citizens of DC pay for, with money they can't afford, a baseball stadium to make money for wealtlhy fat cats who don't really give a shit about DC? They will probably get their way in the end, but I think baseball is not worth the high salaries and phony records. DC doesn't need a stadium, it needs some state-of the-art schools and neighborhood clean up!

[Johonny]

1. What phony records?

What because Barry Bonds hits 73 HR on steriods suddenly that's a phony record. I call phony when someone says there's evidence of weapons of mass distruction in a country when there aren't. High end sports players salaries are not out of line with other high end entertainment industries. And remember if you don't like it you don't have to go.

On the other hand. I agree the citizens of DC would be foolish to pay for 1 billion state of the art stadium in these troubled times.

[spooky3]

3. I agree about the salaries--the players ought to profit from their good

performance, though I think they need to meet the same standards as players in other sports re: drugs.

I also agree about the stadium--the current estimate is nowhere close to what it will end up costing, and the mayor should not have agreed to 100% public financing, especially when there are so many pressing needs here and so much poverty in a part of the city.

[Johonny]

4. Well

Why should players have to play by the standards of say the NFL? NFL is a contact sport where a juiced up player has a larger impact in creating serious on the field injuries. In non-contact baseball it's not as big a problem. Certainly long term health of these athelets is an issue, but it's their issue and it's them that should be pushing for a clean sport. Until the players care, I could not give one crap.

If steroids have raised the cost of baseball it's only because it's raised the fan interest. The same hypocrites that are crying foul are the same people that have flock to the sport even though it only takes the casual sports fan to know steroid use was rampant. A testing program to give the sport a fake illusion of purity is the kind of false American values I'm sick of.


Think of it this way. NCAA standards treat players as cattle. With restrictions on length, choice, pay (both in sport and outside)... Should baseball have the NCAA standards? Well in a way it did until the player union fought for freedom.

[spooky3]

2. It's not the players Cropp is targeting--it's the owners who are extorting

money from the community. She wants the owners or other private parties to pay HALF of the cost of the stadium. As it is now, the city pays for it all (though taxes that could go for more needed purposes), takes all the risks of cost overruns, yet will get none of the profits from baseball, IIRC.

Study after study shows that publicly financed stadiums are a boondoggle for wealthy owners and that the costs outweigh the benefits to the community of having the team. Voters in other communities have rejected the "opportunity" to fully pay for the stadium.

Cost sharing is reasonable.

She's doing the right thing--although the process may not be the best. I believe that the owners KNOW they will make tons of money off this huge, growing, and relatively wealthy community, and they KNOW this is the best place for their new team, and they'll find a way to make it happen and STILL profit handsomely. They have profited for many years from exemptions from anti-trust laws; it's about time they pay part of their fair share. But if they don't, then we are better off without them. There are plenty of other things to do here.