The financial state of the Red Sox is featured in a
front-page piece by Kimberly Blanton in the BOSTON GLOBE
under the header, "Team Bylaws May Be Limiting Sox'
Fortune." The team is owned by the Jean Yawkey estate and
run by CEO John Harrington, and before her death in '92,
Yawkey "decreed that profits from her estate -- including
proceeds from a sale of her majority of the Red Sox --
should benefit her favorite charities in Boston and South
Carolina." Now as the Red Sox open their first homestand of
'97, "some legal, sports and business experts contend the
estate's provisions could be ... a factor in why the team
may not contend for a championship." Blanton: "A modern-day
baseball team beholden to charitable foundations, they say,
simply does not have the freedom to make the big-money bets
on ballplayers." Harrington says that his duties to the
Yawkey estate "have had no impact on the team," but Blanton
notes while other owners "break their banks," Boston "loses
ground." The team's average salary dropped from fourth-
highest in '92 to 12th last year and Harrington "labors
under the disadvantages of shrinking" TV revenue and limited
ticket revenue at Fenway Park. But the "big advantages of
the Red Sox: Ticket sales are strong, and the team is one
the league's most valuable franchises."
ESTATE PLANNING: James Davis, an attorney at Bingham,
Dana & Gould, the Boston firm that set up the Yawkey trust,
said Harrington and a "second trustee decide whether and how
much the trust turns over each year" to Yawkey Foundation
II, which had $19M in assets last year and gave $1M last
year to more than 70 charities. But Davis said, "contrary
to rumors that Yawkey set a deadline for selling the team,"
the Yawkey trust "gives John Harrington very specific
detailed authority to determine the timing of sale of the
Red Sox." Davis adds that Yawkey's estate "does not bar
Harrington from using funds to support team losses. The
team is currently paying a small distribution to partners."
Blanton writes that the "requirement to prudently manage the
estate's finances was not a deciding factor" in the failure
to re-sign Roger Clemens nor the "only reason why the team
has allowed Coca-Cola to erect giant soda bottles" above the
Green Monster for an estimated $1M, "yet the need to provide
for Yawkey's charities looms large" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/11).
