Here’s a proposed cost to the new DC Ballpark on the Anacostia that wasn’t in the $611 million deal…

Mayor Anthony Williams is requesting $53 million more to cover budget gaps for the District. What is within that list of ‘gaps’? $750,000 to create an “Office of Baseball” to oversee the construction of the new facility in the Near SE area of the District on the Anacostia River.

As Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post reports (Williams Seeks $53 Million More to Cover Budget Gaps):

Williams also touted his plan to create an Office of Baseball to “streamline” oversight of the city’s $611 million stadium project in Southeast and keep construction on track for completion in 2008.

“I love this project. It’s my baby,” Williams said. “But, let’s face it, I’m not going to be here forever.”

Williams said he plans to name Stephen Goldsmith, the former Indianapolis mayor who chairs the Anacostia Waterfront Corp., to head the new office and improve communication among the many groups involved in the ballpark project. The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission is overseeing construction; the waterfront corporation is charged with developing a ballpark entertainment district; and the Theodore N. Lerner family is the new owner of the Nationals. Already the parties have disagreed on key issues, notably construction of two massive parking garages.

Fenty criticized the proposal for an Office of Baseball, saying the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. and the sports commission “are already funded” to oversee the project. Cropp praised it, saying, “We don’t need to have 100 different groups looking at baseball.”

While it makes sense to have a group oversee this project from the District’s perspective, one wonders how the deal got done in the first place? After all, wasn’t the DCSEC involved at every step in the DC Stadium deal? One wonders why they would not be sufficent at the task of helping to oversee the construction since they were involved in the negotiations on the Ballpark Agreement, and are part of DC Government.

So, while Cropp says, “We don’t need 100 different groups looking at baseball,” one wonders why we need to add yet another layer of bureaucracy to the construction process? The answer seems to be that the DCSEC doesn’t report directly to the Mayor.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Baseball Insight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.