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Public Financing Opposed, Poll Finds

By Richard Morin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 9, 2004; Page A01

More than two-thirds of District residents oppose using public funds to build a baseball stadium in the city, and an even larger majority fears that average taxpayers would end up paying for the project under Mayor Anthony A. Williams's financing plan, according to a Washington Post survey of area residents.

Throughout the city, opposition to a publicly financed baseball stadium is both broad and deep. Sixty-nine percent of District residents said city funds should not be spent on a new baseball stadium, and half of those interviewed said they are strongly opposed to public financing.

Most residents of the District and nearby suburbs agree that a Major League Baseball team in Washington will benefit the city and the region. And many Baltimore Orioles fans said they expect that they will attend games in the District next year -- and proportionally fewer Orioles games.

But although the plan by Williams (D) calls for the stadium to be financed mostly through a tax on major D.C. businesses, three out of four city residents worry that District taxpayers eventually will foot the bill, siphoning city dollars from more urgent priorities.

"The money should be used for something else: schools, street repairs, neighborhood repairs, homelessness," said Barbra Douglas, 22, of Southeast Washington, who was recently laid off from her job as an aide in a foster care program. "Why should we spend this money on a stadium when the schools are going under? I have a 6-year-old who's getting beat up in elementary school. What are they doing for children like him?"

On Friday, D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) proposed her own stadium plan that also calls for public financing. Cropp recommended building the stadium at a different site and said her plan would cost about 20 percent less than the mayor's proposal. The Post's survey was conducted Wednesday through Sunday, and results of interviews done before and after Cropp's announcement did not differ significantly.

Most District residents criticized the agreement by Williams and Major League Baseball owners that would temporarily move the Montreal Expos to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium next year and construct a new publicly financed stadium that the District's chief financial officer estimated could cost $530 million.

Six in 10 city residents said it was "a bad deal," while one in four thought the agreement was good for the city, with black residents slightly more critical than whites. Some residents said Williams was too eager to bring baseball back to the District -- and worried that baseball owners used his enthusiasm to win concessions that benefited them at the expense of the city.

Williams "just let everybody know that we had to have baseball," said Ceasar Short, 57, a bus driver who lives in Northeast. "It was a bad deal. He wanted baseball too much. They knew this guy, he was a pushover when it came to baseball."

Short also questioned why the city would commit to spending so much money for a baseball stadium when it has so many greater needs. "They want people to pay for a baseball stadium when they don't even have a decent hospital to go to," he said. "We need to do first things first: health care, education and policing. This will take money from things we need more than a baseball stadium."

But other residents disagreed. "The stadium is an investment," said James Ford, 82, who is retired and living in Northwest. "It will produce revenue and pay off in the long run." Ford said he has no objections to a publicly financed ballpark. "It will not be built any other way," he said.

Ford also approved of the deal brokered by Williams. "I think he did the best he could. We were lucky to get the team -- if we really get it."

Williams has said repeatedly that a new stadium would not be a financial burden on District residents. Under the mayor's plan, bonds issued to build the stadium would be repaid through a gross receipts tax on the city's largest businesses, a tax on tickets and in-stadium merchandise, and rent from team owners.

Asked yesterday about the survey results, mayoral spokesman Chris Bender reiterated that no money from any existing revenue source will be spent on the project.

Money that people expect to go toward chalkboards in schools and rec centers is still going to chalkboards in schools and rec centers. And we're adamant about that," Bender said. "Is it possible that businesses may pass some of this tax on to residents? That's a decision businesses will have to make. But what is the size of that pass-through going to be? Pennies."

Despite broad criticism of the deal with Major League Baseball, two-thirds of District residents surveyed said they expect that baseball will mainly benefit the city. And an even larger proportion of residents in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs expect the team to benefit the region.

"I think it's a good thing," said Charisse Brossard, 39, an employee benefits consultant who lives in the Shepherd Park neighborhood. "It will bring in people who do not normally come into D.C. They would see a game and come spend some money, so from a revenue standpoint, it will be good for the city. It will do something similar to what Camden Yards did to Baltimore."

Still, Brossard cautioned that she didn't think "my tax dollars should pay for this."

A total of 1,002 randomly selected Washington area residents were interviewed. The sample included an oversampling of 601 District residents. Margin of sampling error for results based on the District sample is plus or minus 4 percentage points and slightly smaller for results reported for the Washington region as a whole.

Enthusiastic fans will be waiting to crowd into RFK Stadium to welcome a team to the District. Nearly four in 10 area residents -- 38 percent -- said they plan to attend at least one of the new team's home games next year. And of these fans, two-thirds plan to go to more than one game.

But what happens to attendance after the novelty of the new team wears off may depend largely on how it performs on the field. Washington is a town that loves winners but is notoriously indifferent to losers, local sports fans said.

Robert Watt, 58, a lawyer in Bethesda and lifelong baseball fan, has had Orioles season tickets since Camden Yards opened. Although he will attend some games at RFK, his heart remains with the Orioles -- at least for now. "The Orioles haven't lost me just yet," he said. As for the new team, he said, "I've got to see what they do. Everybody wants to be associated with a winner."

But of the nearly 20 percent of area residents who attended five or more Orioles games in the past five years, a third said they'll probably attend fewer Baltimore games if there is a team in Washington.

Anthony Cueva, 57, an insurance agent who lives in the Tysons Corner area, said he and his wife attended six Orioles games last season.

"That definitely is going to diminish," he said. "We might not even go there unless it's something really special. It's a beautiful stadium. But you have to be realistic about the distances and traffic."

Senior polling analyst Christopher Muste and staff writer Lori Montgomery contributed to this report.