Baseball is coming to Washington, D.C., which has been the largest market in the country without a team

National Review, Oct 25, 2004

* Baseball is coming to Washington, D.C., which has been the largest market in the country without a team. Mayor Anthony Williams is going to give the Expos--or whatever they will be called now--subsidies, financed by tax increases on D.C. businesses. The tide has been turning in recent years against taxpayer subsidies for stadiums.

Journalists have given increasing attention to studies showing that such subsidies rarely pay off for cities' economies. They might just pay off for the District, since baseball there will attract more out-of-towners than most cities get. But the deal will teach the city's political class all the wrong lessons about economic development. The District needs lower taxes, among other things, a lot more than it needs a baseball team.