I am not sure if you guys have heard this story yet, but it is quite appalling. The Washington Nationals are refusing to pay rent on their stadium because a few offices weren't completed in time. The Horror. Not only that, they are demanding to be compensated for their "losses". What? John Brittain takes them to task today in his newest piece, "National Disgrace"
Claiming that the ballpark that they didn’t pay for but get to keep the lion’s share of the revenues for wasn’t completed in time—not only are they not paying their rent ($3.5 million ... a little more than what they're paying Chad Cordero on the 60-day DL), they’re demanding $100,000 a day in damages dating back to the beginning of March ($14.5 million as of this writing).
Did they play in RFK opening day? Have any regular season games been moved to RFK? Evidently the team thought it was sufficiently complete to open to the paying public and begin collecting revenues. What they're saying is that it was complete enough to begin using for earning profits but not complete enough to feel that they're obligated to pay rent. It was complete enough to be able to utilize all the new revenue steams but not complete enough to the point of where they feel they've suffered almost $15 million in monetary damages.
(shakes head)
of hiring contractors and approving bids and following that those bidders lived up to their end of the contract, litigation on delays is just the norm of the business and the number of dollars per day is probably in the contract somewhere,
per: "they’re demanding $100,000 a day in damages dating back to the beginning of March ($14.5 million as of this writing)."
Technically, legally, they may very well be correct. I don't know.
But it is the perception of spending 600 million of public money, and then bitching cus a couple of offices aren't quite done yet, then withholding rent, then demanding more money.
It is appalling.