July 21, 2006
Nats Open RFK, Again
Despite (or maybe because of) their stadium issues, the Washington Nationals and their new owners are reopening RFK Stadium this weekend, introducing new concession stands and a food court and cleaning the place up a bit.
There will also be fan festivals before the games and decent pre-game concerts, with U.S. Army bands playing on Friday, go-go legend Chuck Brown on Saturday, and Virginia's Pat McGee Band on Sunday. And the part we're most interested in? They're offering freebies to the first 40,000 fans at each game -- hats today, shirts on Saturday, and towels on Sunday.
But that may be the best of what RFK has to offer this weekend. The Post's Tom Boswell liked the new food options, but isn't expecting much from the Nats:
If you are one of about 110,000 people who are expected to attend the Nationals' "grand reopening" at RFK Stadium for their three-game series against the Cubs this weekend, try to focus on the new cuisine at the stadium -- crab cakes, "riblets," chili, kosher knishes, burritos, stuffed potatoes, beef brisket, fresh popcorn and microbrews. The "Texas sausage" is nice. But for heaven's sake, whatever you do, don't look at the team.Baby steps, Tom. Baby steps.
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I don't see why Boswell is down on the team. Everyone knew when they moved here last year that they were not going to be good for a while. Be thankful we have baseball in D.C. and can metro to games instead of "driving" to Baltimore.
I grew up loving baseball. I really wanted to have a team in DC. But as time goes by, I wonder, what is the point. We give, they take. How much more of this crap can we take. I really wouldn’t mind them packing up and getting the hell out of DC.
They could at least make up for the losing by having some good garlic fries. At least, that would help me out.
Any clue on when the pre-game concerts start?
The first link above says the pre-game festivals start two hours before the games, but no word on the concerts, which it says are on the field.
I wonder if there will be any mention at this weekend's festivities of the latest salvo from Major League Baseball accusing DC of being in default on its stadium agreement? Probably not, since the Lerners and MLB will be running the show...something that Williams, Ghandi, and co. never really understood. There are no deals with baseball, there are no agreements, no contracts. They say jump, you say how high. They say parking lots, you say "there goes our development plan that was supposed to generate the revenue to pay for this." Oh yeah, and within 2 years of you spending your money to build them a stadium, they can come back and ask for costly rennovations (see Commerica Park in Detroit).
How do they get away with this, simple, as long as there are cities out there willing to do anything to get a baseball team (Las Vegas and Nashville being the latest) MLB holds all the cards. Do as they say, or the Washington Nationals will be the Nashville Guitars or Las Vegas Dice by 2008.
Personally, I feel touched that after moving here from Montreal, the Expos followed me. Of course they couldn't play back there either.
ha ha i bet tom feels pretty stupid now!