Overruns Not Home Runs:

• The proposed new Red Sox Stadium is predicted to cost about $600 million, making it the most expensive ballpark in history. Real costs will be higher: $700 M or more.

• The putative $600M figure doesn’t account for labor or building materials inflation. Land costs are vastly underestimated. Consider Seattle: the Mariner’s Safeco Stadium began as a $200M project, but the final bill is well over a half-billion dollars. Now the Mariners’ want to saddle the public with cost overruns. So will the Red Sox owners.

Fleecing the Taxpayers:

• The Red Sox will ask Boston and the Commonwealth to chip in $200-$300M to buy land and construct the stadium. They contend that increased economic activity will repay public investment with higher tax revenue. To date, no study or analysis has quantified the economics and financing of a new Sox Stadium. The reason is simple: No publicly financed stadium has ever re-paid the taxpayer investment.

• The State of Maryland build the stadium at Camden Yards in Baltimore for $200 M. It costs $14 M a year to amortize construction costs, service debt and maintain the facility. Meanwhile, the State recovers only $3 M in taxes, leaving the citizens with an annual $11 M loss for the life of the stadium. The annual subsidy all taxpayers pay (State, City and Federal) is $22 M and rising, as Orioles’ attendance declines.

• Sports stadia are commercially untenable. Owners of the Toronto SkyDome were forced into bankruptcy last year and Ontario taxpayers lost a quarter billion dollars. The White Sox are already talking about a new stadium to replace the new Comiskey Field built in 1991. The game is never stops; owners continually demand more.

Jobs Hoax:

• Camden Yards, touted as a "great success story" generates only 500 low-paying, part-time, seasonal jobs (direct and indirect), each at a subsidy cost of $400,000. In Boston, displacement of existing businesses in the Fenway will offset any jobs generated by a new Stadium. The Boston Phoenix and its tenants alone, employ 300 full-time, well paid workers. These companies will leave Boston if forced to vacate their Fenway locations.

Regional Gridlock & Air Pollution:

• No transportation plan can be devised that allows 44,000 fans to enter and exit the Fenway area, particularly on weekdays, without spawning even greater traffic nightmares than already exist. The Green Line is at capacity, and according to the MBTA’s own documents, Yawkey Way Station will never accommodate more than a few hundred riders. Consequently, more fans than ever will arrive by car.

• The Red Sox themselves admit 10,000 cars and buses will be entering the Fenway for games, as 25,000 cars leave surrounding businesses in the Fenway, all at about the same time of day. Result: a 99 mile traffic jam generated by 35,000 cars.

• Schemes to use Roxbury and Dorchester for satellite parking and shuttle busses won’t be tolerated. Pollution generated by 35,000 stalled cars will be devastating for Eastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod

Every One Does It:

• NOT. Major league Stadium boondoggles have been rejected with increasing regularity. In recent years voters nixed public financing for stadium projects in San Francisco; Seattle; Pittsburgh; San Jose; Minneapolis (several times); Mesa, Arizona; the Triad region in North Carolina; Toledo; Birmingham; Los Angeles and Houston.

If We Build It, Will They Come?

• Undoubtedly, some games will draw capacity crowds. But overall, the average draw for new baseball stadia built from 1989- 1999 is only 71% of capacity. With the highest ticket prices in the Major Leagues and traffic headaches, a new Red Sox Stadium may average only 5,000 more fans per game than the current Fenway Park. Flagging out-of-state attendance will only increase the burden carried by taxpayers.

Infrastructure Doubletalk

• Relocation of utility lines and reconfiguration of the Sears rotary may be justifiable infrastructure requests for any business. These public works cannot be considered "neighborhood amenities" nor do they require a stadium to be built. But the Sox will be asking for much, much more in the name of "infrastructure". Parking garages are not public infrastructure. In dollar terms and types of subsidies, the Sox’ request is unprecedented for any other business enterprise. Unwise concessions were handed to the New England Patriots; that’s no excuse for compounding errors many times over for the Boston Red Sox.

• Expect protracted and costly legal battles if this project is rammed through in backroom deals. Resistance in the Boston City Council may also waylay plans to impose a new Stadium upon an unwilling community.

Compiled by the Fenway Action Coalition --- www.fenwayaction.org --- 617.437.1994
Fenway Action is a member of CASS:
     Citizens Against Stadium Subsidies --- cass_mass@yahoo.com --- 617.339.2014