Mayor Fuming Over New Stadium Plan

By DERRILL HOLLY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mayor Anthony A. Williams bluntly warned Friday that an alternative stadium proposal will keep Major League Baseball out of the nation's capital.

"This is going to blow the thing up," said Williams, warning it could undo 30 years worth of efforts to get the city a new team. He spoke to reporters at a hastily arranged City Hall news conference barely 90 minutes after District of Columbia Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp unveiled her plan.

Instead of the $440 million ballpark planned south of the U.S. Capitol, Cropp and several colleagues are suggesting a location adjacent to RFK Stadium, which the former Montreal Expos are supposed to use temporarily beginning next season.

"The costs are going up so high that I believe it will have a negative effect on our business community," said Cropp, who estimates the final cost of developing the original site would be $600 million.

"By moving to RFK Stadium, we have an automatic 20 percent reduction in cost," Cropp said. She contends her plan saves the city $83 million that would be used to buy land at the Southeast site, and could help keep the district from having to fight eminent domain cases in the courts.

Cropp has discussed her proposal with officials from the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the D.C. Restaurant Association and the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, and said business leaders have signaled their support for any plan that allows for future business development - especially if it trims costs.

Cropp also told reporters she is willing to risk losing a team if MLB owners refuse to accept the deal.

"I would hope that baseball would be extremely reasonable," said Cropp.

Under the city's agreement with MLB, the council must approve a stadium funding bill by year's end. Cropp's new plan already picked up the support of Council members Carol Schwartz, David Catania and Phil Mendelson.

WTOP Radio has learned that council member Jack Evans thinks Cropp has the votes to pass her proposal. WTOP has also learned that if the proposal passes, baseball officials are threatening to move the team to Northern Virginia.

But the mayor said he will speak to residents Monday night on the city's cable television station, hoping to win support. Williams will offer the opposition equal time.

The stadium proposal has drawn intense criticism from many city residents, more concerned with improving things like the crumbling school system than building a ballpark. Three D.C. Council supporters of Williams' plan were ousted in September's Democratic primary by foes - including former Mayor Marion Barry, who last week criticized the deal at a council hearing.

"Why should we subsidize these millionaires?" Barry said.

But the site where D.C. Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp wants a baseball stadium built comes with its own set of problems.

The site adjacent to RFK Stadium was one of the first places the late Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke considered when looking for a new home for his team in 1993. But he opted for suburban Maryland, partly because of neighborhood opposition and environmental concerns.

Cropp tells The Washington Post it would cost about $20 million to clean up potentially harmful lead contamination in the soil. She says an environmental review was already done in 1993, but the EPA says the federal agency that controls the land should decide whether a new one is necessary.

Leaders of the nearby Kingman Park neighborhood say they remain strongly opposed to a ballpark north of the current stadium.

WASHINGTON (AP) - What if Major League Baseball really tells D.C. to take a hike? Could they move the Expos to Northern Virginia?

Those in the know say there's a chance that could happen.

The Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority is still in existence, and vice chairman Michael Fray says even though they're downsizing their Reston office, a skeleton crew will remain through the winter.

Fray says that its funding authority expires January first, and if Virginia is to be in a position to do anything, that would have to be extended by the General Assembly.

But Fray doesn't want to falsely raise the hopes of fans who would prefer a team in Northern Virginia rather than D.C. Fray says considering how long Major League Baseball took to make a decision, he's very skeptical they'd give up very easily.

(Copyright 2004 by WTOP Radio and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)