Washington city council rejects new stadium lease

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington’s city council rejected a
stadium lease agreement with Major League Baseball in a vote on
Tuesday that puts the city at risk of losing the Washington
Nationals to another location.

The council voted 8-5 against the lease, which set out the
terms for construction of a new stadium south of the U.S.
capitol on the Anacostia River.

A last-ditch effort to craft a $610 million cap on the
city’s total project costs failed to win over enough council
members worried about cost overruns. A recent estimate pegged
total project costs, including surrounding infrastructure, at
$667 million.

“I think we’re in danger of losing baseball,” said Mayor
Anthony Williams following the vote. He called the council vote
“shortsighted” and “a huge missed opportunity.”

Major League Baseball moved the Nationals, formerly the
Montreal Expos, to Washington last year after the city agreed
to build a new stadium, approving a $535 million borrowing cap
for the project.

The league’s president, Bob DuPuy, said in a statement that
it would seek to resolve the deadlock through binding
arbitration.

“I regret very much that D.C. officials have failed to
honor the agreement they made when they successfully bid for
the Expos to move to Washington,” DuPuy said. “Baseball has no
choice but to pursue arbitration so the terms of our original
agreement can be honored and to begin to explore whatever
options are available to us.”

Officials in Virginia, which bid on the Expos move
initially, may be waiting in the wings to make a new offer to
the league. Delancey Skinner, a spokeswoman for Gov. Tim Kaine,
said the state could revisit the issue “should everything fall
through for D.C.”

She said that no actions had been taken and added that “We
hope it all works out for the district.”