Major League Baseball continues the extortionary policy of requiring all-public funding for any stadium: Baseball Rejects Council’s Changes In Financing Plan for D.C. Stadium. This is the underlying reason why baseball left Montreal and will likely leave Washington before ever playing a game there. MLB needs this cautionary tale to force other governments in other jurisdictions to put up the money or lose their team. The reason Montreal wasn’t viable had nothing to do with attendence or revenues and everything to do with the fact that the Provincial and Federal gov’ts can’t be bought or intimidated as easily as US municipal, county, and state governments can be.
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