The lease formulated by the King County, WA Public
Facilities District [PFD] for the Mariners new ballpark will
call for the team to play at least 73 home games a year and
to run the stadium -- "pocketing the profits or enduring the
losses," according to David Schaefer of the SEATTLE TIMES.
The lease could be approved as early as this week. In
"general terms," the state law authorizing taxes for the
stadium requires the Mariners to play at the park for 20
years. In exchange for agreeing to pay construction cost
overruns, the Mariners will operate the ballpark and keep
the revenues from shops, luxury suites and advertising, but
will be subject to any losses. They will choose the food
and beverage concessionaires, run the parking garage and
retain parking revenue even from nonsports events. Although
the PFD is in charge of the project, King County will sell
the bonds to finance construction. King County Council
members were "openly alarmed" when the latest cost estimate
for the stadium came in at $363.5M, plus an additional $21M
to build a parking garage, marking an increase of nearly
$65M over the plan sold to the county and Legislature a year
ago. Several county members say they will try to "cap" the
county's bond issue at $295M (SEATTLE TIMES, 11/24).
