Baseball season comes to its end over the next week, as the World Series is set to unfold between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies. Here in D.C., we celebrate by freaking the eff out all over again over the cost of the brand new Nationals Park. Not only did hardly anyone go to Nats games in their new ballpark this year, but now we’re hearing about how the whole endeavor actually cost over $690 million, quite a bit more than the regularly quoted $611 million figure. No one, and we mean no one, who followed the lengthy debate over the new baseball stadium could possibly be surprised by this news, but it’s still causing quite a bit of consternation in some corners of the D.C. Council.

The Examiner has the lowdown on where that additional $83 million came from: the land acquisition bill went $50 million over original estimates; a laundry list of unfinished work items; agreeing to spend an additional $4 million on putting finishing touches on the ballpark under a settlement agreement over a rent dispute with the Lerners. And of course, some on the Council are crying foul over that $4 million settlement, pointing out that the city is only getting $3.5 million worth of rent in return.

Proponents of basic arithmetic say the city has a lot to learn to when it comes to dealing with the Nats. Acting Attorney General Peter Nickles, on the other hand, reminds us that it could have been a lot worse had the Lerners successfully charged the $100,000 per day they claimed they could collect because the ballpark wasn’t “substantially complete” by March 1. The failure of the Nationals Park endeavor to make anyone in Washington feel good or excited about baseball, however, is both substantial and complete.

Photo by mosely.brian