MA House Speaker Thomas Finneran "took a hard line on
public subsidies for the proposed" $627M Fenway Park
project, "urging the Red Sox to find millions more in
private financing and rejecting a proposal to share revenues
generated by state-funding parking garages with the city and
the team," according to Meg Vaillancourt in a front-page
report in today's BOSTON GLOBE. A "day before a crucial"
House caucus on the project, Finneran "urged the team to
reconsider ideas it has rejected, including taking on new
partners, obtaining more financing from [MLB], and selling
the public shares in the team." Finneran: "I'm not a
marriage broker. But you hear a lot of names tossed around
of people whose life dream is to own a piece of the Sox."
On the public subsidies, Vaillancourt notes that Finneran
is "taking a position similar to the one he staked out
during debate over the" Patriots' new stadium (BOSTON GLOBE,
5/24). Also in Boston, Scott Van Voorhis reports in a
front-page piece that Finneran "blasted a hole in plans for
a new Fenway Park" and unless team leaders "aggressively
explore raising more money from private sources," he "warned
he may pull the plug on the whole Fenway project."
Finneran: "We are done with corporate welfare" (BOSTON
HERALD, 5/24). Meanwhile, the BOSTON HERALD's Macero &
Convey report that the Red Sox "snubbed" a private deal to
aid the team in parking last January. CareGroup, a regional
hospital network, "suggested it could offer game-night
access to its parking facilities" in an offer made as part
of "broader talks" about the Red Sox using CareGroup-owner
New England Baptist as a "base for its sports medicine
operations." One sports business source close to the
stadium talks said, "The question has always been, 'Have the
Red Sox exhausted all their private partnerships before they
go to the public domain for money?'" Red Sox VP John
Buckley said talks occurred, but CareGroup "never, never"
mentioned the parking (BOSTON HERALD, 5/24).
REAX: In Boston, Derrick Jackson writes under the
header, "What Sox Call 'Partnership' Sounds More Like
Welfare." Jackson: "The $627 million would be the most
costly single sports stadium project in the history of the
United States. ... This is depravity. No way should Fenway
be built this way" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/24). Also in Boston,
Joan Vennochi wrote "it's still not clear that ... so-called
[ballpark] benefits will cover all the ballpark bills,
especially when it comes to the city's share. ... On the
city side [of the proposed financing] there are more
questions than answers, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino is right
to ask them" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/23). But on ESPN.com, Peter
Gammons wrote that the Red Sox are "willing to invest $357
million of their own money, more than any club has ever put
into a project." Red Sox CEO John Harrington "could have
thrown up his arms after being misdirected by the mayor.
But, while Harrington may have made mistakes, he is a Boston
city kid who wants to get this done" (ESPN.com, 5/23).
