It remains to be seen who will score the most political points as a result of yesterday's D.C. Council approval of an amended baseball stadium deal.
Will the ballpark really be an economic engine and become Washington Mayor Anthony Williams' lasting legacy?
Will D.C. Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp be elected the city's next mayor for having the nerve to stand up and go nose to nose with the lords of baseball?
Cropp predicted changes in the deal will save the city $193 million.
But there can be little doubt that Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig hit a grand slam with a deal in which the District guarantees financing of a ballpark that could ultimately cost $600 million.
"Major League Baseball is pleased that the Council of the District of Columbia today approved legislation consistent with the terms of our original agreement to have Washington as a home for Major League Baseball," Selig said yesterday in a statement.
"We can now focus our attention on bringing baseball back to Washington this coming season," he continued.
The commissioner drew the Montreal Expos relocation process out for years, deftly pitting the District and Northern Virginia against each other in a competition that also included Las Vegas; Portland, Ore.; Monterrey, Mexico; and Norfolk.
But the proximity of ballpark sites in Southeast Washington and Loudoun County--just 20 miles apart--created an economic dynamic in which either D.C. or Virginia could siphon millions from the other's economy each baseball season if it got the team.
As a result, the Expos, an orphaned team that had been hemorrhaging money in Canada, got what insiders consider a sweetheart stadium deal. They will become the Washington Nationals and probably do quite well in one of the country's largest and most affluent markets. The new team already has sold 16,000 season tickets, in spite of what were grave doubts about its status until yesterday.
After a number of stops and starts since Mayor Williams negotiated the initial agreement with baseball in September, the D.C. Council narrowly OK'd the deal 7-6 yesterday, with Cropp providing the deciding vote.
Bill Collins, who heads the Virginia Baseball Club investor group that is bidding on ownership of the Nationals, said he was surprised when Cropp slammed the brakes on the deal late in a Dec. 14 council meeting. Approval had seemed just moments away.
But Collins said he never doubted the District would work things out with baseball.
He told The Free Lance-Star: "Mrs. Cropp apparently thought it was too sweet a deal. It is a sweet deal. Major League Baseball did a great job negotiating it."
Collins fought for a decade and spent millions of his own money in an effort to bring baseball to Northern Virginia. In spite of that, he said the VBC is now "intimately involved" in the bidding for the team in the District.
"This has always been about bringing baseball back to the region," he said.
Collins, a Fairfax County resident and a former minor-league catcher in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system, made his fortune in telecommunications.
His primary competition in bidding for the team may come from Fred Malek, a McLean financier who heads the D.C.-based Washington Baseball Club group of investors also seeking the buy the Nationals.
From 1969 to 1973, Malek served as President Richard Nixon's special assistant for personnel, recruiting and evaluating candidates for presidential appointments.
Malek told The Washington Post: "We very much look forward to bidding aggressively on the team."
The D.C. stadium breakthrough came Monday night when Williams and Cropp huddled.
During conference-call negotiations with Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, late that night, Cropp dropped her demand that the city arrange 50 percent private financing in advance of approval.
The city already has an offer of $100 million from a Cleveland company involving stadium-area parking. The District will continue to look into private financing possibilities as it moves forward with the 41,000-seat ballpark the city hopes will spur development in Southeast Washington.
At the same time, baseball agreed to limit the city's liability if a March 2008 delivery date for an Anacostia River waterfront stadium is delayed. The game lowered the city's liability from $19 million a year to about $5 million a year. And baseball agreed to split the cost of insurance covering further liability with the District.
Staff librarian Craig Schulin contributed to this story.
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ: 540/374-5408 mikez@freelancestar.com