Williams gives the Orioles a walk

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday he will not attend any Baltimore Orioles games until Major League Baseball puts a team in Washington.

"I made a pledge. I'm not attending any Orioles games until we get a team," Mr. Williams said. "We're tired of being dissed. You know, we go for the Olympics, we get dissed. We go for the Super Bowl, we get dissed. I'm tired of it.

"I'm really exasperated and frustrated. I don't go [to Orioles games], and I can understand why other citizens don't go. And if they don't go, I certainly understand and support them. But I'm not calling for a boycott, no."

D.C. officials said Mr. Williams has attended several Orioles games during his tenure but were unable to say how many. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Orioles officials declined to comment on Mr. Williams' remarks.

The presence of the Orioles a little more than 30 miles north of the District -- and the objections of that club's owner -- is considered the biggest obstacle to restoring a major league team to Washington after a 33-year absence.

Mr. Williams last week told The Washington Times he is preparing a $340 million plan to fully fund a ballpark on the parking lots just north of RFK Stadium. That proposal is designed to meet a demand by Major League Baseball (MLB) for a new stadium financed entirely with public dollars, and it is an offer not matched by any of the other six jurisdictions trying to land the Montreal Expos.

Orioles owner Peter Angelos long has said that placing a team in the Washington area would economically cripple his team, and he has made his strong objections to such a move well-known. The Orioles earlier this year hired the Bomstein Agency, a D.C.-based advertising and public-relations firm, to boost support of the Baltimore team in Washington.

The level of support that the Orioles receive from the Washington area is the subject of heated debate. Mr. Angelos says 25 percent of Orioles' attendance and corporate support is drawn from greater Washington. However, the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority and the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission say that figure is much closer to 10 percent.

There are other markets similar in size to Baltimore-Washington that support two major-league teams. The San Francisco-Oakland market is slightly smaller but plays host to the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. The Chicago market is slightly larger and contains the Cubs and the White Sox.

Mr. Williams said producing a strong plan for a new ballpark is a key to countering the objections of the Orioles.

"I believe the better we can do with the stadium portion of the package, the more wherewithal and leverage [MLB] has with its resources to address the Orioles issue," Mr. Williams said.

Mr. Williams also predicted that the D.C. Council would present no major objections to his stadium-financing plan -- provided that MLB first commits to Washington.

Several council members, including Ward 3 Democrat Kathy Patterson, have expressed hostility to Mr. Williams' proposal. The package calls for the full financing of a ballpark with revenue bonds backed by taxes on stadium-related commerce. It also calls for a gross receipts tax on large D.C. businesses similar to the one used to help fund the construction of MCI Center in the mid-1990s.

Three downtown sites are being proposed in addition to RFK. However, the RFK Stadium plan presents the lowest cost and fewest pitfalls of any of the sites.

The mayor and numerous D.C. government leaders have predicted a swift political turnaround should Washington be awarded the Expos, a club owned by MLB.

"If it becomes certain that baseball is coming here, I definitely think we can get the votes from the council," Mr. Williams said.

Jack Evans, chairman of the council's finance committee and a critic of MLB's delays in making a decision on the fate of the Expos, agreed.

"Once baseball commits to Washington, we can move on this very quickly," Mr. Evans said. "I've said this many times, and I still believe it today. There are many creative ways to get this done, but they need to make that commitment."