Somewhat an 'I told you so!' to some people that were upset about the idea of using 'public funds' to build a stadium for the Washington Nationals in Washington, D.C.
First, keep in mind that the Washington Nationals wouldn't have come to Washington, D.C. if there wasn't the promise of a publicly financed stadium. No stadium there to play in temporarily, and no stadium to be built there within a few years of moving there, meant losing the team to some other location (Las Vegas, Portland, or the like...) D.C. had the existing stadium so they didn't have to rush to build the new stadium, but they did have to rush to promise to build a new stadium with all of the modern ammenities and goodies for the owners to take advantage of, or profit off of.
D.C. did just that by making plans, compliments of Anthony Williams and a city council that had to be drug along for the ride (I'm looking at and talking about you there Mr. Current Mayor Adrian Fenty!!!). Former Mayor Williams made it the goal of his administration to bring baseball to D.C. and to keep it once there, so he moved heaven and Earth to get a new stadium deal for the city and the team. That happened, and we are about to see the results as history.
But, and here's where we come to a bit of an "I told you so!!!" moment for me, Mayor Williams was looking at the bigger picture, and the longer term. He was looking at a total rejuvenation and redevelopment of a blighted area of the city of D.C. He knew that getting the Nationals into D.C. and then building them a beautiful new stadium in the city would lead to a lot of new buildind and development in the surrounding areas and that is exactly what is now happening.
Don't believe me? Feel free to ignore my own words on the topic if you want. Instead, check out this article from the Washington Times:
After you read that, think a bit about the tax revenue that will come streaming into D.C.'s treasury from the property taxes on these new structures and properties. Think about the taxes that will be generated on the businesses that move into those properties. And think about the taxes on the employees that will work for those businesses.
The ripple effect of the urban renewal that will happen in the area surrounding the Nationals' new ballpark will be amazing. Mayor Williams knew that.
Other politicians in other areas know that as well. They normally balance out the demands of the greedy owners (robber baron billionaires in many cases!) with the need to boost development in a blighted area. If the numbers work, the stadiums get built. If not, the projects never get done and the owner considers options to take his ball and go play with it elsewhere (assuming that there is another city/locality that wants to be a suitor for them). The number of other cities that will let themselves get used to help blackmail or extort another city to get such structures built is dwindling as there just aren't many cities/localities left that can support a major sports franchise that don't already have one of their own. But, as long as there is one wannabe out there, there will likely continue to be games played to try to get a new stadium/ballpark built with public money.
Do remember though that building with pulbic money isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes it can lead to a lot of wonderful renewal (such as happened in Baltimore's Inner Harbor area, and other areas where new stadiums were built). I believe it's going to happen in D.C. over the next few years and in about 10 years from now we'll be looking back and remembering the dump that used to be Southeast D.C. and thinking about how much has changed in the 10 years hence.
