It's beginning to look like baseball will not be coming to Washington D.C. after all. At least not on a permanent basis.

The Washington D.C. city council voted last night to fund a stadium, but they mandated that 50% of the funding must be privately financed. Major League Baseball has been insisting on 100% public financing, and is likely to spurn the deal and walk away. If the Expos play in D.C. it will probably only be for a year or two while they try to find another home.

The city council could revisit the issue, but next month 3 new councilmembers will take office and all of them disapprove of using public money to fund a baseball team. That's why Mayor Williams was so eager for a vote with the current session of outgoing lame duck councilmen. While I'm not surprised that the D.C. city council could screw this up so bad, I cannot help but think they did the right thing for the cash strapped District.

Dealing with baseball is like selling your soul to the devil. The reason they insist on 100% public financing is because they know that cost overruns won't be a problem. $400 Million, $500 Million, $1 Billion, what's the difference if it's all taxpayer money? Getting the government to seize more tax dollars is much easier than convincing private financiers. Tax money is collected down the barrel of a gun. Why bother trying to convince people to pony up more when you can just take it by force?

Not only was D.C. on the hook for a $500 million stadium, they wouldn't even be allowed to use it for anything else. Baseball was dictating that D.C. would be allowed to use the stadium for no more than 12 days a year. During the offseason and away games, it would have to remain empty.

Plus there were fines and penalties that D.C. would have to pay if there were any construction or financing delays. If you make a deal with baseball, you'd better be able to have that stadium opened on time.

Of course baseball gets away with all this, in part because they are a legal monopoly. Their anti-trust exemption means that Vince McMahon can't run out and start his own Extreme Baseball League (XBL?). Simply put, if you want a major league baseball team in your home town you have to go through Major League Baseball. And since they are the only game in town, you have to pay through the nose for it.

If I were D.C., I'd tell baseball to buy their own damned stadium. Who the hell wants Montreal's sloppy seconds any way?