With six weeks remaining before MA state lawmakers
adjourn for the year, Red Sox CEO John Harrington Saturday
"tried to push the team's plans for a new ballpark by
outlining specific revenue streams that would 'more than
fully repay' the $275 million in public aid the team wants
for the Fenway Park project," according to Meg Vaillancourt
of the BOSTON GLOBE. In a bid to "win support" from Mayor
Thomas Menino, Harrington said that he "expects to announce
soon an agreement with owners of a Boylston Street hotel to
relocate it from land needed for the new park to land the
team owns near Brookline Avenue." Harrington said that the
move would "lower the amount of money the city would have to
pay to buy the ballpark site." The team is also
"negotiating" with the D'Angelo family, owners of the nearby
Twins souvenir shops, about relocating the business to new
sites "just outside the ballpark." Menino "has urged the
team to work with the D'Angelos," along with the Sage
family, which together control about 37% of the land at the
ballpark site. But Menino "balked" Saturday at "several of
the team's proposed payback proposals, prompting ballpark
boosters to speculate that his objections could easily
thwart the Red Sox's ballpark bid this year." Menino: "What
the Red Sox have outlined is a good deal for the state but
it's not a good deal for the city. This kind of press-
release-a-day isn't going to get a new ballpark built"
(BOSTON GLOBE, 6/18). Menino again "declined" Sunday to say
whether he could support "any of the proposals" Harrington
has offered for the new Fenway Park plan. One source, who
is working on the project, on reports that Menino will meet
with Harrington this week: "With all the zigs and zags he's
been doing, everyone is wondering what the mayor is up to.
There isn't much time left. Either he's trying to strong-
arm the Red Sox or he's running out the clock. No one's
sure which." Meanwhile, Robert Sage said that his family is
"not as close to an agreement as the Red Sox had hoped."
Sage: "We've had recent meetings, but we have no deal"
(BOSTON GLOBE, 6/19). Also in Boston, Scott Van Voorhis
writes that development and stadium "experts" say that the
cost of the proposal "could rise hundreds of millions of
dollars over the next year, driving the price tag ... into
the billion-dollar range." Smith College economics
professor Andrew Zimbalist: "It wouldn't surprise me if it
started tomorrow and the project was in the $800 million to
$900 million (range). It's clear the more it's delayed, the
more it's going to cost" (BOSTON HERALD, 6/19).
