Capital Offense

As you may know, the Washington Nationals will open a new stadium next month. Nationals Park is located on the Anacostia River, in a neighborhood that has fallen into disrepair. Among the features at the new ballpark is a 1,300-inch big-screen television in the outfield. As Daniel LeDuc of the Washington Post writes:

"Live action, instant replay, images, graphics, statistics -- all there. And the programming is brand new, so the high-tech features will have the same freshness as the $611 million stadium, where the Washington Nationals will host their regular-season opener March 30 against the Atlanta Braves."

Indeed, nothing says "fresh" like $611 million. But unlike the new Yankee Stadium--which I complained about a few weeks ago--Nationals Park is not being financed by money from the franchise. In fact, the deal that brought the Nationals to D.C. from Montreal represented the first time ever that a major league stadium is being built with 100% public money. That's right, every dime of the new stadium is coming from local tax revenue, taxes on tickets and merchandizing, and lease payments made by the team only once the stadium has been completed. This arrangement led one anonymous baseball executive in 2004 to call it the "sweetest of sweetheart deals," adding, "It really was too good."

Original estimates indicated that Nationals Park would cost $440 million. It is now nearly $200 million over budget. But no worries. As John Guagliano, the Nationals' Vice-President of Marketing and Broadcasting, said, "We treat everything like a TV broadcast....We're truly developing a show....We want to have entertainment going every second."

Just like most TV, then, a game at Nationals Park promises to deliver an entertainment spectacular. While that sounds great, the true offense is that this "show" is being financed by the local residents who cannot afford to attend a game, who have been displaced from their homes, and who have seen more of their hopes of better schools, hospitals, and public services erased, all while wealthy capitol hill residents and suburbanites can come watch highlights on a 1,300-inch screen.

D.C. has long been a city of contradictions. It is the seat of American democracy, yet it denies its residents Congressional representation. It holds the promise of equality, yet it turns a blind eye to its largely African American, impoverished citizens. While Nationals Park has been designed ostensibly to spotlight democratic ideals, instead it represents an all-too-familiar democratic failure.