... and next season is possible. Great news!

Read more here.

... and Tom Boswell's column -- indicating that the team will be located in the District -- not NoVA -- " ... the gradual fading of Northern Virginia's long drive for a team is probably a benefit. Though a sad one. Bill Collins's group garnered enormous goodwill. But the prevalent view in baseball is that the group has come up short on most counts, including dollars and state support. So, the District vs. Northern Virginia debate is probably almost over."

It's great that DC/NoVa will inevitably be getting a baseball team. It's a much more viable baseball market than at least a half dozen current markets (Montreal, and the commissioner's own M'waukee come first to mind).

That said: it'll be a serious mistake to put the team inside the District of Columbia. The economic engine of the Washington metropolitan area, and the area's primary baseball demographic, is Northern Virginia. Fairfax County alone is significantly more populous than the depopulated District, and it just as urbanized as many baseball cities. The Yankees don't play in midtown Manhattan. Wrigley Field is not located inside the Loop. That's why the ideal place to locate the new stadium for the Washington Senators III is:

The East Falls Church metro station on the orange line.

No CITT -- the District is back and booming -- the team belongs between New York and Massachusetts Avenues NW (near the 3rd Street freeway tunnel so the suburbanites can get out of town quickly) -- and that way, selfishly, I can walk home after games !!

Having attended college a UMCP I fell in love with the DC area, warts and all.

I hope they are able to use the stadium location to stimulate an economically ailing area in the inner city without causing too much distress, ala Baltimore's stadium (a relatively positive example)

Selfishly it would give me more reason to revisit the area.

Could pose a fealty problem for politicians with dual residences in the city and there home states but I suppose they've gotten use to that. I suspect all our tax dollars will eventually come into play somewhere in the financing of the whole operation but that's bound to be debated I would think.

[quote]Originally posted by sportinlife:
I hope they are able to use the stadium location to stimulate an economically ailing area in the inner city without causing too much distress, ala Baltimore's stadium (a relatively positive example)
Selfishly it would give me more reason to revisit the area.

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It gives EVERYONE more reason to visit the area & helps the DC economy & restaraunts. GO DC- not suburbs.

As a longtime resident of the DC area, I must side with CITT wholeheartedly on the "location issue" (although, after 31 years of waiting, the loyal fans in this market would support a team almost anywhere around the beltway)....as CITT stated, Fairfax County and the Northern Virginia region, with its unbelievable affluence (where else will an average four bedroom home sell for 700k? ) and the influx of Fortune 500 corporations would help the team be enormously successful at the gate....although the District has improved immensely over the past few decades (most notably the Metro subway system with immediate access almost anywhere) fewer people commute into DC (excluding government workers and politians) as compared with 20 years ago as evidenced by the continued growth in the surrounding suburbs....while I have little doubt that a team in DC will be successful (including the 2 years that the Senators(?) play at RFK while the new stadium is being built) the accessibility and wealth in NoVa make it the best option -- notwithstanding the Commonwealth of Virginia's lack of financial and tax support, which Tom Boswell briefly alluded to in his Washington Post article linked above....I am still holding out hope for the Expos to be playing here in 2003 but, with or without contraction, it looks like even Peter Angelos with his enormous ego won't keep a MLB team out of the DC area for much longer....my vote is for Northern Virginia and the Fairfax County or Arlington, VA proposed sites.