The strong contingent of New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox fans on AU's campus will be joined by a local voice next baseball season.
Nearly 33 years to the day since the Washington Senators left D.C. and became the Texas Rangers, Mayor Anthony Williams officially welcomed Major League Baseball back to the District in a formal press conference at the D.C. City Museum Wednesday evening.
The announcement capped a two-year struggle to relocate the woeful Montreal Expos franchise that lost millions of dollars over the years and boasts some of the league's lowest attendance numbers. The District was chosen out of a competition of five other locations: Northern Virginia, Norfolk, Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., and Monterrey, Mexico.
In front of an enthusiastic crowd of city council members and sports and entertainment officials, Williams said it was a landmark day for D.C.
"After 30 years of waiting and waiting and waiting, and lots of hard work, and more than a few prayers ... there will be baseball in Washington in 2005," said Williams.
The most recent attempt to halt the attempt to bring professional baseball back to D.C. came from Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos. He is concerned that the Orioles will suffer economically competing against a new D.C. team. Major League Baseball is expected to give Angelos a compensation package to offset any financial backlash on the Orioles. That opened the final door for the D.C. club.
"I'm thrilled as mayor of this city that the game is rounding third base and heading for home in our nation's capital," Williams said.
Some students and staff at AU shared that sentiment.
Ryan Hansan, a freshman from Reston, Va., said having a team in the area would end his dilemma of never having had a local baseball team to root for.
"I've lived here my whole life and baseball is the one sport that hasn't been around," he said. "This will make it a lot easier," he said of no longer having to travel to Baltimore for games.
Anthony Wilson, AU's assistant athletic director for communications, said the only thing that will prevent him from becoming an automatic D.C. fan is if the team is named something other than the Senators or the Greys (the name of the old Washington Negro League team).
"I think this is the best thing to happen to D.C. in years," said Wilson. "I'll definitely buy at least an eight-ticket package."
Williams said bringing a baseball team back to D.C. and building a $400 million stadium on the Anacostia River will rejuvenate the city. The stadium is slated to be finished in time for the 2008 season. Robert F. Kennedy stadium will host the new team until then.
"Baseball is about our community," Williams said. "This is part of a vision for transforming sports in our city."
Part of that vision is to make tickets available to inner-city kids who would not normally be able to afford to go to a ball game, he said. Also, a portion of the money made on ticket sales will go toward improving youth athletics facilities in D.C.
Area taxpayers will not be in charge of funding the stadium through their tax dollars, he said. Rather, it will be financed through fees from the team owners, taxes on tickets, concessions and the city's largest businesses.
However, despite not having to fund the stadium through tax dollars, one prominent critic accused the city of wasting taxpayer dollars. Marion Barry, former Washington mayor and current city council candidate said, "I want baseball, but not downtown and not with one cent of taxpayer dollars," on Sept. 15, according to The New York Times.
Barry, a three-time elected mayor and convicted drug felon, said, "Unemployment is going up. Jobs are being cut and you want to spend taxpayers' dollars for a stadium? Give me a break."
The return of Major League Baseball is expected to aid the development of the struggling Southeast section of the city. Williams said he thinks building a new stadium will have the same positive impact the building of the MCI Center had on the 7th Street corridor near Chinatown.
The mayor said 3,500 local construction jobs will be created to build the stadium. The revenue brought in from fans, he said, will make even more jobs and bring in new dollars to improve schools and public safety.
"A ballpark is going to amplify and expand the development that is already underway," he said. "Great cities have great amenities. This city is a great city."
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig told Williams of the official decision at 4:05 p.m. Wednesday.
"There has been tremendous growth in the Washington D.C. area over the last 33 years and we in Major League Baseball believe that baseball will be welcomed there and will be a great success," Selig said in a statement.
The new owner of the team will name the team after the name "Expos" is auctioned off. The Washington Baseball Club, a group of powerful local businesses is a frontrunner to own the team.
Until then, Williams said D.C. will begin preparing for next year's opening day immediately.
"This is giving us the ability to dream and think great things in D.C.," he said.
