December 2, 2005 [LINK]

RFK stadium site: mere threat?

In negotiations with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf yesterday, Linda Cropp and other members of the D.C. Council pushed the silly idea to build the new stadium next to RFK, in a penny-wise, pound-foolish attempt to save a few bucks on the construction cost. Reinsdorf didn't seem to care where the new stadium is built, which is rather distressing, since that indicates he may not have a clue about the geographical element of the Washington franchise's future success. It was the first time that the Council members had met directly with an MLB official. It is hard to believe that anyone seriously believes that that location would yield any benefits to either the team or the city, and my doubts about the sincerity of the proposal are reinforced by this:

Some city leaders said the council was using the threat of RFK to try to exert leverage over MLB in the lease negotiations, in hopes of winning a bigger contribution from the league. (SOURCE: Washington Post)

In that same article, there was a graph comparing the total attendance for the inaugural years of the last four expansion clubs, and to my surprise, the Nationals (with 2.7 million) ranked behind three of them: Colorado had 4.5 million, Arizona had 3.6 million, Florida had 3.1 million, and Tampa Bay had 2.5 million.

Miniscule adjustment at CBP

Only two rows of seats will be removed from left field at Citizens Bank Park, so the power alley distance will only increase by five feet. The Phillies expect that will reduce the number of home runs next year by 18 to 22, but tt's hard to imagine that such a small change will have any discernible effect. Will it even be worth my effort to make a new diagram?? The reconstruction project is expected to cost about one million dollars (cue Dr. Evil), which works out to $200,000 per foot! I smell waste, fraud, and abuse. See timesleader.com (hat tip to Mike Zurawski)