Major League Baseball agreed in September to move the Montreal Expos to Washington.
The franchise, the Washington Nationals, were to play at the Robert F Kennedy Stadium from 2005 with a new stadium to be completed for 2008.
Under that original deal Washington promised to build the stadium with about $500million to $550million in revenue bonds backed by a new business tax, a higher sales tax and rent paid by the team.
But the city council added a requirement that the mayor find private financing to cover half the construction costs and lower the city's bill.
Without private financing in place by June, no stadium would be built under the legislation approved by the council.
Major League Baseball called the bill "wholly unacceptable" and immediately ceased business and promotional activities for the Nationals and offered refunds to ticket holders.
Baseball has indicated it is not opposed to private financing, but wants the city's original deal to pay for the stadium with public funds if private money is not identified.
But Council Chair Linda Cropp clearly doesn’t want the deal to die and, according to local press reports, wants to agree a revised funding package before the agreement with Major League Baseball expires on December 31.
