Won’t somebody think of the strip clubs??
Somebody is. There is a giant brouhaha because some of them want to move to IvyCity in NE. Vincent Orange, one of the council members running for Mayor this year had a meeting to oppose them from moving to NE. Mind you, the part of Mt. Olivet Road they are thinking of moving to makes the current area look nice in comparison.
Is there a MLB rule prohibiting lap dances in skyboxes? No puns about the foul pole either, ya wags. 
Absolutely not. Just no betting on the outcome.
Ain’t no good guys for miles in this little drama. And not many intelligent bad guys, either.
Worthy of Pitting:
- MLB, for making a deal with the lame-duck D.C. Council at the end of 2004, which was the setup for the past year-plus of gridlock;
- the Council, for being the usual collection of incompetent asshats who couldn’t run a two-car funeral without the cars colliding;
- the Mayor, who was all too willing to have round heels for MLB;
- the Council again, for failing to seize the main issue here, which is that a MLB team in D.C. is worth roughly $200 million more to a potential owner than a team in any other available city;
- and various WaPo columnists who repeatedly got upset at the idea that the Council might play hardball with MLB, despite the reality that MLB would be out $200 million if they took the team somewhere else, and how likely is that to happen?
The one good thing I see coming out of this is that we may be approaching the end of the line for MLB’s chronic “fix up your stadium or we move your team” threats to cities. That may still work in a few marginal cities, but most MLB teams are now located in much more profitable venues than anywhere they could move to. Portland, Jacksonville, Las Vegas - sorry, guys; might as well stay in Cincinnati and San Diego. One gets the distinct impression that the Devil Rays would like to move out of Tampa, but the alternatives just aren’t any better, now that D.C.'s already taken.
Oh, yeah, let me add:
- MLB, not letting cities simply buy the ballclub, then making their own decisions about whether to upgrade the stadium. It would be preferable for D.C. to shell out $450M for the Nats, and then decide if RFK is sufficient or not, than to have to shell out $600M or more for the depreciating asset of a ballpark and neighborhood improvements, while someone else gets to buy the ballclub itself, which tends to increase in value over time.
There’s this claim that cities wouldn’t make very good owners. Well, (a) some owners wouldn’t make good owners, but nobody kicks the bad ones out of the club; and (b) allowing a city to own a ML sports franchise has only been tried once in recent memory, and that franchise - the Green Bay Packers - has done pretty well for itself, thank you.
Admittedly, D.C. shouldn’t be the test case for a city owning a MLB ballclub, because they can’t run anything. But I’d like to see it happen somewhere.
That’s not fair, DC has done a wonderful job with the … Hmm, let me get back to you on that. 
If you guys need a stadium, you can use ours.
It’s just sittin’ there, going to waste.
Judging by attendance figures, it was going to waste when the 'Spos were still there…
cheap rim shot
I’m pretty sure Olympic Stadium is part of the problem, not part of the solution.