Facing a severe budget crunch and diminishing revenue, a majority of the members of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors say they are unlikely to approve funding for construction of a minor league stadium for the Washington Nationals’ minor league team, the Potomac Nationals.
Plans have been drawn up for a modern, $22.5 million ballpark to replace G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, a deteriorating, 22-year-old county-owned stadium with aluminum bench seats near the county government office complex. The new stadium would be built on the same site and financed by bond sales, the cost of which would be split by the owner of the Class A minor league team and the county.
Six of the eight board members said in interviews they would not vote to approve the stadium deal. One was undecided, and another could not be reached for comment.
Which leads to the more important question — why should Prince William County be funding the construction of a stadium for a privately owned baseball team to begin with ?
If the owner of the Potomac Nationals wants a new stadium, then he either needs to put up his own money to fund it or find financing to support its construction. The idea that the taxpayers of Prince William County should pay for it is fundamentally absurd.
