The Red Sox denied a Boston Herald report that the team
"plans to ask for" $200M in state and local aid for their
new $545M ballpark, according to Meg Vaillancourt of the
BOSTON GLOBE. Team ballpark spokesperson Kathryn St. John
said, "We've made no request of our government leaders about
the amount of public investment," and that it would be
"premature" to speculate on such a figure. Both MA Gov.
Paul Cellucci and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino "didn't rule
out" a possible $200M aid package, but House Speaker Thomas
Finneran called it a "striking number ... a very high
number" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20). GLOBE columnist John Ellis
calls the $200M figure a "staggering sum. Particularly so
since the performance of the Red Sox over the years has been
-- let's be honest -- dismal" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20). During
its broadcast of last night's Yankees-Red Sox game, ESPN
showed footage of the computer-generated model of the new
Fenway Park. ESPN's Gary Thorne, on the proposed new
ballpark: "A couple of questions, of course. One is, what
about the people who own the buildings out behind here?
They say they don't want to give them up. ... The other
thing, who's going to pay for it? ... They're going to add
12,000 new seats and only 300 new parking places. Another
problem. So they want more public transit outlets coming to
Fenway. But [there is] a long way to go" (ESPN, 5/19).
NAME GAME: In Boston, Gregg Krupa writes that "many"
sports marketing experts are surprised that the Red Sox are
not looking to sell naming rights to a new ballpark. Legg
Mason Wood Walker Managing Dir John Moag: "It is extremely,
extremely attractive. And if the team is saying that they
will pass it up to keep the name Fenway Park, I think that
is going beyond the point of being generous." Red Sox CEO
John Harrington said some naming rights deals are
"misleading, because when you read that so-and-so put $150
million in a certain ballpark, much of it is a revenue
stream that is already built into our projections for
[ballpark, TV, radio] advertising" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20).
