Yesterday, the brief July discussion that Washington Nationals owner Theodore Lerner and D.C. Mayor Vince Gray had about a retractable roof over Nationals Park became public knowledge. Basically, Gray swiftly shot down the idea of building a roof that the team estimated would cost $300 million in taxpayer dollars. Twitter, of course, had a field day with this information, partially because it sounded like a publicity stunt for the Mayor (who still has not announced whether he's going to run for re-election) and partially because the idea is the winning combination of ludicrous, expensive and terrible. Check out some of the Internet's best comments on the subject.
Bonus tidbit: One person who saw the Nats Park retractable roof plans called them, "butt ugly."
— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) November 26, 2013
@GarberDC What's the definition of boondoggle? I'm pretty sure it's a roof for Nats Park. Disgusting.
— Dan King (@DCDanKing) November 26, 2013
Admin official says Lerner plan for roof over Nats Park is "nuts."
— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) November 26, 2013
I blamed this on Dan Snyder. With him around, the Lerners know they can be really, really awful and still not be the worst owners in DC.
— Topher Mathews (@GeorgetownMet) November 26, 2013
Ludicrous idea crudely leaked @ the expense of sports team, makes city govt look good. In DC this is how (re)election campaigns are launched
— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) November 26, 2013
I might be willing to support publicly funded improvements to Nats Park wifi, the better to Instagram the roof.
— Mike Madden (@MikeMadden) November 26, 2013
On the Nats roof thing: maybe Gray thinks he has a chance at reelection if he never says he's running, and just kills dumb ideas instead.
— Aaron Morrissey (@amorrissey) November 26, 2013
How about the Nats pay for Metro so fans can get home after a rain delay? And maybe some umbrella give-aways? #NotthinkinglikeaLerner
— Elissa Silverman (@tweetelissa) November 26, 2013
I'm sure the thinking is that a retractable roof will help the #Nats finally bring the Super Bowl to DC. #ohwait
— JDLand (@JDLand) November 26, 2013
Ted Lerner is worth $4 billion, so that roof on Nats Park would be but a small outlay on the debit card: http://t.co/j9cU26Az0d
— Martin Austermuhle (@maustermuhle) November 27, 2013
Nats owner asked D.C. to add $300m roof to 5-year-old stadium STOP LAUGHING WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING? http://t.co/lfnSgHc2BF
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) November 27, 2013
Boy, this is some real "#Nats Park retractable roof" weather.
— JohnKelly (@JohnKelly) November 27, 2013
· Nationals sought a retractable roof with taxpayer money. District mayor Vincent Gray said no. [WaPo]
· D.C. laughs at Nationals $300M stadium roof pitch [WBJ]