Capital Sporting Grounds - by Brett L Abrams (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Politics is nothing new to Washington, D.C., even in the arena marked with base paths and outfield grass. The stadium for the expansion Washington Nationals baseball team cost over $600 million and while opponents decried the waste of taxpayer money, supporters promised the stadium would stimulate economic development. Land swaps, closed-door deals, and valuable parking-lot strategies were as complex as any game plan employed on the diamond. The district's past stadiums, tracks and Olympics facilities are archived and described in this history, along with their political backdrops. The book features numerous drawings and photographs.

Review Quotes

"For the first time, a stadium book that provides the details of backroom politics that surrounds the building of, or the elements that defeat and spur stadium proposals. Capital Sporting Grounds is an excellent chronology of the efforts, defeats and successes of building a stadium in the nation's capital over the past 100+ years."-Bruce A. Genther, stadium historian and modeler.

About the Author

Brett L. Abrams has written five books about sports, popular culture, and the Washington, D.C., region. He works as an electronic records archivist for the federal government in the nation's capital.