As the Red Sox "struggle to cut costs and find private
financing for a new Fenway Park," CEO John Harrington is
naming Meredith & Grew President Thomas Hynes "to assist in
crucial negotiations," according to team officials cited by
Meg Vaillancourt of the BOSTON GLOBE. The developer "will
play a lead role in discussions with landowners" whose
property the team wants to clear to make way for a new
ballpark. Hynes will also help develop planned retail shops
around the "exterior" of the planned ballpark. Vaillancourt
writes that the decision by developer Robert Walsh to step
down from the Red Sox' ballpark team "caught many observers
by surprise." Sources said that Walsh was "disappointed
that he was unable to persuade" Mayor Thomas Menino to agree
to "a funding plan that would have the city build and own
the new park" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/25). Also in Boston, Scott
Van Voorhis writes that "political leaders are beginning to
cool" toward plans for a new ballpark as the team "appears
increasingly directionless" in its efforts to pull the deal
together. Sources said that team execs are "failing to move
aggressively" on a variety of fronts, "from closing deals
with business owners in the path of the new ballpark to
securing crucial private financing" (BOSTON HERALD, 8/25).
