As Major League Baseball deliberates on who will be the next owner of the Nationals, D.C.’s government has become a spectator in its own game.
Three groups are officially on the short list to pay $450 million for the Nats. But MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has favored a group led by Bethesda real estate magnate Ted Lerner from the first pitch, sources say.
Some critics say Selig has helped engineer Lerner’s success — for instance, by linking him with former Atlanta Braves president Stan Kasten — because he believes the Lerner group has a better head for business and the best chance to bring a winner into D.C.
This is an echo of what happened in Boston in 2002, when Selig helped make John Henry owner of the Red Sox.
Mayor Anthony Williams has publicly endorsed a group led by investors Frederic V. Malek and Jeffrey Zients. He also has criticized Lerner for refusing to meet with him.
Hoping to turn things around, District Council Members Marion Barry, D-Ward 8, and Vincent Orange, D-Ward 5, blasted the Lerner group for “renting” black investors to make it appear that the group was committed to diversity.
It’s doubtful such gestures will make a dent with Selig.
“Operationally, they like Lerner,” a source familiar with the negotiations told The Examiner.
“Operationally” should be understood to mean “deep pockets.”
Lerner was going to law school on the G.I. Bill in 1946 when his father died, so he started selling houses to help pay his mother’s bills. In 1960, he bought “a pile of dirt” and turned it into Wheaton Plaza, one of the region’s first shopping malls.
“By the late 1980s,” Washingtonian magazine wrote when it inducted Lerner into its business hall of fame in 2003, “one could assume that every adult in Washington had probably lived, worked or shopped in a building developed by Ted Lerner.”
The Nationals and baseball need an owner with a Midas touch.
Forbes says the Nats are the sixth-most valuable baseball team, but their revenues have been helped by a low payroll. The best way to keep fans coming to the ballpark is to give them a winning team.
It’s not all economics, though. Bringing baseball back to D.C. has been one of the feel-good stories in the league. And given the sure-to-widen steroid scandal, baseball will need feel-good stories for a while.
A big spender can bring in big stars and — fans hope — the big trophy.
Just ask theRed Sox, who won their first World Series in nearly a century — with John Henry in the owner’s box.
Most valuable teams in Major League baseball
» New York Yankees, $1.026 billion
» Boston Red Sox, $617 million
» New York Mets, $604 million
» Los Angeles Dodgers, $482 million
» Chicago Cubs, $448 million
» Washington Nationals, $440 million
Source: Forbes
