Triple-A Int'l League Pawtucket Red Sox Chair Larry Lucchino yesterday said that the team is "considering a joint study of upgrades at McCoy Stadium" with city and Rhode Island state officials, according to a front-page piece by Kate Bramson of the PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. He also said that the team is "working on making more immediate and necessary repairs such as fixing a leaky roof." Bramson notes a "joint government and team study, which is required in the McCoy lease arrangement, would reverse earlier proclamations" by Lucchino and late PawSox President James Skeffington, who died unexpectedly last May. Since a group of business leaders led by Lucchino and Skeffington bought the team last February, the PawSox have insisted the ballpark "could not accommodate the future they envisioned for the baseball team." But Lucchino last night at a Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce gathering "sounded a conciliatory tone ... before nearly 500 business and civic leaders." Lucchino "did not commit to staying long-term in Pawtucket, but he talked about getting to know Rhode Islanders, and he read from a joint letter that he and Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien sent out last week." Lucchino said that the letter went out to "more than 100,000 people in the PawSox community." Lucchino added that the team "continues to hear from other communities vying to attract the PawSox ... but the team isn’t actively looking for a new home." Lucchino: "We’ve put it on the back burner" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 2/10).
