Nearly as soon as it was announced, a website has been launched criticizing a city plan to use public tax dollars to construct a stadium for the Expos near the Anacostia River on South Capitol Street. Under the proposed financing scheme, the city would issue massive public bonds, which would “cost as much as $43.5 million a year to service.” These payments would be covered by charging the team rent, instituting a tax for sales in the stadium, and creating a special tax on local businesses.

The website NoDCTaxesForBaseball.org disagrees:

Most DC area residents would love to have a baseball team to call their own. But Mayor Williams’ plan to spend $383 million to build a baseball stadium is a bad deal for the city. Research from university scholars— as opposed to biased studies commissioned by baseball “public financing” proponents — shows that a team would create mostly low-paying, low benefit, part-time jobs and would not strengthen the local economy. Even the most successful stadiums, such as Baltimore’s Camden Yards, fail to produce enough tax revenue to justify large public subsidies. The well-off owners of Major League Baseball have told the cash-strapped District that the city must pay most of the cost of the new stadium. This is not fair, and it doesn’t even make economic sense.