CT's offer to Patriots Owner Robert Kraft to relocate
the team to Hartford "contains some extraordinary
guarantees, including a promise to pay Kraft as much as"
$175M in cash over the first ten years "if he fails to sell
out premium seats," according to Howe & McDonough of the
BOSTON GLOBE. In addition to offering a $280M stadium that
the Patriots will play in rent free, CT will also pay: As
much as $200M or more over 30 years for stadium improvements
and renovations; All the costs of buying and cleaning the
stadium site; Up to $15M for a training facility "that the
team would have no obligation to use"; Kraft would also pay
no rent for the land on which he would build a new $50M
hotel, no property taxes on the stadium, hotel or an
entertainment pavilion, and be given "three years' notice
before voiding the revenues guarantees." A spokesperson for
CT Gov. John Rowland said estimates have the project
generating $450M in tax revenues over 30 years, "roughly
paying for itself." Rowland spokesperson Nuala Forde: "The
goal is to be revenue-neutral, and the numbers bear that
out." CT will guarantee the sale of luxury seats "at a rate
of up to" $17.5M a year for at least ten years. That figure
"is to be adjusted every year" per the league-wide average
price for such seating. If CT refuses to make the payments,
Kraft has an option to end the lease (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/21).
BEST DEAL EVER? In Boston, Will McDonough talked with
three NFL owners who call it "the greatest financial deal
any [NFL] owner has ever received." One owner: "If this
thing goes through, he will make more money than any other
team in the league. This is a lot like the Cleveland deal
and the Baltimore deal. But this is better. He will net
about $50 million a year out of this thing. Good luck to
him. It will help the rest of us" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/22).
Also in Boston, Ron Borges wrote that the deal should "not
qualify as shocking. It is what good businessmen do, and
Kraft is nothing if not a good businessman" (BOSTON GLOBE,
11/22). On ESPN's "The Sports Reporters," Mike Lupica
called Kraft's move "pure greed." Lupica: "Kraft makes a
ton of money in the NFL. All owners do. And they always
want to make more" ("The Sports Reporters," 11/22).
COULD IT FACE TROUBLE IN CT? In N.Y., Mike Allen added
that CT legislators who examined the deal on Friday "found
it much more generous to Kraft than had been revealed in the
summary that the governor's office provided. The "provision
that is sure to draw the most scrutiny is" that luxury seat
guarantee. Allen: "Whatever the uncertainties, legislative
leaders seem determined to pass the plan [in mid-December]"
(N.Y. TIMES, 11/22). But CT State Rep. Michael Lawlor
described the reaction of landing the team as a "statewide
orgasm." Lawlor: "I can't imagine the bill would be
defeated. Everybody just got re-elected; people feel very
self-confident politically" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/21).
KRAFT'S TAKE: Kraft was interviewed by CBS's Jim Nantz
on "The NFL Today." Kraft said if the deal with CT fails
and if "we can't find a way to solve this problem in New
England, we will be forced to put the team up for sale." He
called Foxboro "a high school stadium. We can't function
here. The only way for us to solve the problem would be to
put the team up for sale" ("The NFL Today," CBS, 11/22).
