Nationals refusing to pay their rent.

[Invader3K]

http://www.nbc4.com/sports/16851725/detail.html?rss=dc&psp=news

 

"The team is withholding $3.5 million in rent. It's also demanding $100,000 a day in damages, dating from March 1.The fight focuses on whether the stadium was "substantially complete" by March, when the city had to hand the keys to the owners."

 

This is a couple weeks old, but a weird story I hadn't seen discussed on here yet. I'm sure the area tax payers aren't too pleased. So far, things aren't looking so pleasant for the former Expos.

Edited July 23, 2008 by support

[owbc]

The whole Nationals situation is somewhat troubling.

 

Despite the new stadium, they are 13th in the NL in attendance and last in the league in TV ratings with an amazingly pathetic .39 rating, which is about 9,000 households/game.

 

In addition, they have virtually no chance of competing with the rest of the NL East anytime soon.

[jjgott]

One thing that's funny is that the DC City Council is thinking about raising sales taxes on ticket and concession sales because they are not getting the promised revenue due to low attendance. I hope this doesn't start a political discussion, but raising the prices of the tickets through taxes won't solve an attendance problem.

[Eddiehitsthefoulpole]

They will always be the Expos to me.

[istanbultaye]

Maybe the increased tax is meant to be a protection to the public similar to the cigarette tax, due to the poor team playing there.

 

*made blue for clarity. I agree with those above and below who say raising taxes on the tickets is just plain silly.

Edited July 23, 2008 by istanbultaye

[mothershipconnection]

Maybe the increased tax is meant to be a protection to the public similar to the cigarette tax, due to the poor team playing there.

 

Well played. "We promise to use the money for a public education program so we can teach our children to avoid the dangers of awful baseball".

 

When demand is low for something the government WANTS to sell, raising the price of it is awfully stupid. That's like a state with a bad, underfunded education system trying to raise the price of books.

[AdvantageSchneider]

Do they still have that bad TV contract, where the rights are owned by the Orioles and there are hardly any games on TV?

 

They need to dump their GM and start over.

[Invader3K]

I don't think the GM is the problem. It's more the ownership group. Good luck with getting them to sell.

[Teatoe993]

I wouldn't mind the team contracted.

[WV Brew]

They are paid $25 million/year by Angelos and the Orioles get the revenues from the broadcasts. It looked like a terrible deal for the Nats, but that has apparently worked well because ratings are so poor.