A Post Post-Mortem?

This Sunday front pager provides a recap of the story so far, and tries to spread the blame evenly. The angle is that MLB's $19 million penalty for late construction of the stadium reportedly angered council members and they retaliated. As the story notes,

[T]he council came to focus on Item 7: If the city failed to build a ballpark for the former Montreal Expos by March 2008, it would have to pay the team as much as $19 million a year to cover lost profits.

From Major League Baseball's perspective, that was a big concession to the city. The stadium agreement places no limit on the city's liability if the ballpark isn't ready by
2008.

To certain council members, however, Item 7 looked like a hoax -- a big, fat thumb in the eye of an unsuspecting city. If baseball were offering to cap lost profits at $19 million, the members said, then $19 million must be exactly what baseball expected to receive all along. Besides, why should there be a late fee of any kind? The city's paying for the whole stadium.

Item 7 wasn't a concession, it was an insult, they contended. Cropp agreed and plunged the deal to bring baseball back to the nation's capital into crisis.

That item is indicative of the real problem here. A provision that would actually benefit DC (by limiting its liability) and provide an incentive to get things done on time is treated as an insult. Essentially, it reflects those council members' approach to government and management: there should be no consequences if we screw up, because there never has been before. And there won't be for tanking this deal, either.