Breaking news: "Mayor Tony Williams has asked the D.C. Council not to vote Tuesday on the baseball stadium lease agreement. Williams has withdrawn the lease from consideration to make what his office calls "technical changes." Williams says he will continue to work aggressively with the federal government, private developers and Major League Baseball to put together the best deal possible for the city. Cropp says she will work with the mayor to put the lease back on the council agenda as soon as possible." I don't know yet what this actually means, whether there really are changes, or if Tony knew he didn't have the votes. More as I get it. Here's
the mayor's press release.
UPDATE: Rumors flying fast and furious, if you want to track them you can visit the
Ballpark Guys's Nationals board. Posters there are saying that this is tied to Tony getting a commitment from the Feds to pay for the Navy Yard station upgrades.
UPDATE, 7:05 pm: The
Post now has a
story up about the delay; big tidbits include that the city has gotten a letter from the four
ballpark district developers offering to pay for $12 million worth of repairs to roads around the stadium.
UPDATE, 7:39 pm: Jim Graham says the lease didn't have the votes.
UPDATE, 9:39 pm: MLB.com has a story on yet another (!) stern letter from MLB COO Bob DuPuy, warning the council: "If the lease is not approved by [Dec. 31], the city will be in default on its contractual commitments and we will then have no choice but to prepare for arbitration."
UPDATE, 12:45 am: Here's the
Washington Times piece on it all.