In order to "obtain private financing" for a new Fenway
Park, the Red Sox are "poised to seek major revisions" to
the ballpark bill passed last July, according to Meg
Vaillancourt of the BOSTON GLOBE, who wrote that the team
"faces huge hurdles in winning the concessions." The
proposed changes include a cap on the team's liability for
land acquisition and clean-up cost overruns, a limit on the
team's real estate taxes and an increase in new tax revenues
available for the project. The Red Sox argue that the
changes "would virtually assure" the team could borrow the
$350M needed to build a new facility near Fenway Park.
Meanwhile, Vaillancourt wrote the team has retained local ad
exec Jack Connors and FleetBoston Financial President
Charles Gifford to speak with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino
about changes to the legislation. The "continuing
difficulties" the Red Sox are having in financing the
project "raise the possibility" that the team will need to
choose a cheaper site within Boston or even outside the city
(BOSTON GLOBE, 12/16). Also in Boston, Scott Van Voorhis
wrote that "in a bid to salvage the embattled" project, the
team has sent a "desperate SOS to top political leaders."
Sources close to the team said that the estimates for the
acquisition and clean-up on the planned 15-acre site near
Fenway Park have risen from the $140M originally budgeted,
to $200M. Sources add that the overrun on the land costs
"threatens to kill the deal by making it too expensive for
the team to finance" (BOSTON HERALD, 12/17). But Menino
said on Saturday, "No one has presented any requests to me.
We already have a deal on the table. And no one has proven
to me that the financing package that was passed on Beacon
Hill doesn't work" (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/17).
