Baseball's return to D.C. welcome

House Editorial

After 33 years, the capitol of the United States has been given the nod to start playing America’s pastime again. Yes, Washington, D.C., was granted a somewhat dubious gift last Wednesday — the floundering Montreal Expos — and will host home baseball games next season for the first time since 1971.

Ultimately, the destiny of the team should be a glorious one — the return of baseball to D.C., brings with it the hope of further business and commercial development that would bring money back into the city from the suburbs. It will be another point of pride for all the sports fans in the region.

Actually, the Expos aren’t floundering — they’ve already floundered, gone under, been dragged out and resuscitated, and gone under again. The team has never won a World Series in its 35-year history and currently is owned by Major League baseball itself — the League bought the team for $120 million two years ago and has been trying to unsaddle itself from the team ever since.

Now — after a lengthy process that considered places such as Portland, Ore., Las Vegas and Northern Virginia — D.C., gets the chance to take the burden of the Expos and turn it over to a group of its native sons.

The city has brought an innovative and promising plan to the table that would fund the $440 million construction of a new stadium on the Anacostia waterfront without placing a significant financial burden on the fledgling team.

Most of the funding would come from taxes on businesses that most likely would benefit from the development that will follow the construction of the stadium. Funds also would be derived from in-stadium taxes and rent paid by the team to the city for the use of the stadium, according to The Washington Post.

It is fortunate that this rent will be minimal — only $3.5 million a year. As a result, the former Expos will not be burdened with deep financial obligations and instead can invest in athletes and support staff that will prove more beneficial in the long run, since a good team generates more revenue than a bad one — just ask Montreal.

D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams deserves credit for putting together a plan that is conducive to invigorating a poorer area of the city. His plan will put D.C., back on the map as one of the elite cities with a team in the four major sports — football, hockey, basketball and baseball.

Baseball’s return to the capital will heal the wounds left when owner Bob Short moved the Senators to Texas in 1971 and already is giving an air of hopeful expectation to little league ballplayers and sports bar owners alike. A new era of afternoons at the ballpark is dawning in D.C. and the cry of "Play ball!" almost can be heard on the wind.