PawSox safe at home?

Fate of local team now rests with the organization itself

By Peder S. Schaefer
Posted 6/26/18

By PEDER SCHAEFER Even though the General Assembly passed a bill on Saturday to finance the construction of a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox, that doesn't mean the team is sure to stay. While Rhode Island may have put the ball in play, it's up to

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Fate of local team now rests with the organization itself

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Even though the General Assembly passed a bill on Saturday to finance the construction of a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox, that doesn’t mean the team is sure to stay. While Rhode Island may have put the ball in play, it’s up to the PawSox what happens next. Will the team take a swing and accept the deal? Or will they pass, take ball four, and walk somewhere else?

As of Monday afternoon the team was still undecided.

Bill Wanless, vice president of communications for the PawSox, said that there is “no time frame” for when a decision might be made.

“We’re going to continue to work with the city of Pawtucket on this deal,” he said.

The other option for the PawSox to build a new stadium is in Worcester, where the local government and business community has been heavily courting the PawSox.

The bill that passed the General Assembly, Bill 7290 (Sub A), was transmitted to Governor Raimondo’s desk on Saturday. She is expected to sign it soon.

The current ballpark for the PawSox is McCoy Stadium, but built in 1940 and one of the oldest stadiums in AAA baseball. PawSox ownership insists that the team needs a new home. Early in the process there were discussions about moving the team to a waterfront location in Providence, but those ideas fizzled after concerns from the City of Pawtucket and the state. The new focus for the deal is in Pawtucket, at the site of the old Apex department store just off of I-95, near Slater Mill.

The stadium would be called The Ballpark at Slater Mill, and would serve not only as a stadium, but also as a farmers’ market, site for college football games, and a year-round park.

“At the end of the day this is about keeping economic development in Pawtucket,” said Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien last Tuesday. “You’re going to create a piece that will ground Pawtucket for a long time.”

The bill had been under consideration in the State House for months, but a fight over how the stadium would be financed delayed passage. The stadium would cost $83 million to build, with different plans putting different financial burdens on the team, state and city. The Rhode Island State Senate approved a financing package for the team in January in which the state would back the bonds. In its plan the state would pay $23 million, the city $15 million, and the team $45 million.

But Speaker Mattiello didn’t see it the same way.

His version of the plan, which was passed by the House of Representatives on Friday and then also backed by the Senate on Saturday, removes any state obligation to pay the bonds. Instead, his plan will collect taxes from the area around the stadium to go towards paying for the ballpark.

A study put out by the office of General Treasurer Seth Magaziner estimates that due to no state-backed guarantee for the bonds, higher interest rates will make the entire plan $54 million more expensive than the state-backed plan proposed by the Senate.

The trade-off is that the state is no longer on the hook if the team runs into financial difficulties.

The financing proposal that passed the General Assembly calls for the team to pay $45 million for the stadium, with the state and City of Pawtucket paying the rest through Mattiello’s tax plan.

The type of financing that Mattiello proposed is called TIF, or Tax Incremental Financing. With this type of financing taxes from the area surrounding the ballpark, such as sales tax, are pledged to pay back the bonds issued to build the stadium.

“In the end the team is looking for a proposal that has financial viability,” said Guy Dufault, a consultant to the PawSox, last Tuesday.

House Majority Leader K. Joseph Shekarchi, Democratic State Rep. from Warwick, shared concerns similar to Mattiello’s about the deal.

“It’s a much different version of the bill,” said Shekarchi last Tuesday of the House version that eventually passed. “The state will not be on the hook like what happened with 38 Studios. I was not here when 38 Studios was voted on.”

Shekarchi said he understands that without a state guarantee there will be higher interest rates on the bonds, but that “the public has concerns about the state guarantee,” stemming from the 38 Studios incident, when the state gave a $75 million loan to a gaming company founded by Curt Schilling that then went bankrupt in 2016.

Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffery, also from Warwick, said, “I’d hate to see them leave the state of Rhode Island.”

The near 50 percent financing commitment by the team is well above average compared to other AAA ballpark deals in other parts of the country, according to a presentation prepared by the PawSox organization.

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  • Justanidiot

    If this is such a sure fire money maker and there is no risk, why don't the billionaires who own the team do it on their own?

    Wednesday, June 27, 2018 Report this