Disturbing Development

This is a very disturbing development. It has been well documented in many national publications and websites that it is Major League Baseball, and not Washington, D.C., that has been dragging its feet in finalizing and solidifying the Nationals’ roots in the nation’s capital. Bud Selig’s aloof approach to deciding who will have the privilege of buying the Nationals from the 29 other MLB owners is beyond explanation. How could it possibly take this long to interview nine groups of investors? How could it take this long to come to some sort of decision? The delays are the ultimate act of greed by Selig and the rest of baseball’s owners. After all, they each stand to profit to the tune of $15.5M today if they would just get on with the process of awarding the Nationals franchise to one of the investor groups that has applied for ownership. A stadium, the very lifeblood of a franchise, is at stake here. Think about it: you have nine groups of people who are ready, at the drop of a hat, to call their bankers and lawyers and fork over $450M to buy the Nats from MLB. That’s $140M more than what they’re worth (according to Forbes Magazine) and $342M more than what they were worth in 2002 when they were gobbled up by the league. How much more can you ask for? For the good of the game, just settle this already!

When Bob DuPuy says that Washington risks the “disillusionment of baseball fans” in the community, he should be reminded that Washington survived very well without baseball for 30+ years. Given the fact that his employers, the team owners, all pooled their money together to make the purchase of the Montreal Expos, I’d suggest to DuPuy that the risk is all on baseball’s hands. If they would like to go through the process of finding yet another suitable home for the Expos – a franchise Bud Selig and Major League Baseball chose to destroy – then I guess Washington, D.C. should call their bluff.