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Nationals Still Owe Rent on Stadium, City Says
   posted 3:35 pm Fri September 19, 2008 - WASHINGTON
ABC 7 News - Nationals Still Owe Rent on Stadium, City Says
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The District and the Washington Nationals are both seeing red.

And they both say they're in the red because of a litany of complaints: The stadium's not done, the rent's not paid, and the fans aren't coming out to games.

It's big, beautiful and inviting for any baseball fan. The only problem with Nationals Park is it hasn't attracted as many fans as the team or the city would like.

"This is a new team, a new stadium, it's going to take some time for Washingtonians to get acquainted to baseball, said Pat Kehoe.

So far this season the Nats have sold just over two million tickets. City officials were hoping for three million which would have brought in $16 million dollars in sales taxes. It looks like they'll fall about two and half million dollars short. So what went wrong this inaugural season?

"I guess if they were winning it would be a little easier," said one fan.

On the field the Nationals have one of the worst records in baseball.

"The Lerners won't spend any money on the team, they won't even pay rent for the stadium. It's the worst team in baseball," said Jamien Payne.

On top of troubles on the field there is a dispute between the Lerner family, owners of the Nationals and the District, the stadium's landlord.

The Nationals are reportedly holding back on the latest rent payment of $3.5 million, complaining construction on the ballpark is still not complete.

The Lerner's says that the city owes them a $100,000 a day penalty because it's not complete, amounting to $10.5 million altogether.

The dispute over rent will be decided by an arbitrator. In the meantime, the Nationals are looking ahead to next season, working to improve the product on the field and hoping to get more fans in the seat by lowering prices on 7,500 seats.

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ABC 7 Talkback: Nationals Still Owe Rent on Stadium, City Says
No cell phone too
You saw it coming a mile away. The ball park, the players, the town, the sports commission. No one knows what the he** is going on and it's all about the money. Well, listen up, again! You didn't have to build a multi-multi million dollar stadium to make money. You could have left it at RFK; Perfect access point to metro, and that stadium rocks (literally). The new stadiums looks nice, but until someone realizes that a team who record is bad, no one will come see- you have failed before you even began. Instead of investing in a stadium, you should have invested in the players. You bring the players, you bring in the crowds. You bring in crowds, and you when their hearts, you when their hearts, you bring in big investors. The rule of economics is pretty simple.

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