Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo on Friday signed financing legislation for a new Triple A Int'l League Pawtucket Red Sox ballpark, and now attention turns to the team and "whether they will choose to take the state’s offer" or leave for Worcester, Mass., according to a front-page piece by Patrick Anderson of the PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. Raimondo signed the bill just "hours before it would have become law without her signature." The signing "ends more than three years of State House debate on whether public funds should be invested in a new minor-league ballpark." The plan calls for building an $83M "mini-Fenway Park" in downtown Pawtucket. The team has offered to pay $12M upfront and cover $45M of the ballpark costs, with the "remainder shared by the city and state." Borrowing costs would be "repaid with team revenue and a mix of new city and state taxes generated from an area surrounding the ballpark" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 6/30). A PROVIDENCE JOURNAL editorial stated that the ballpark would "cost taxpayers less to keep the PawSox here than to lose them, because of the departure of the tax revenues the business generated" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 7/1).
HOLDING OUT HOPE: In Massachusetts, Bill Ballou writes the time seems to have "arrived to see how well Worcester’s ballpark proposal will work." Worcester "not only needs a prompt answer, it has earned the right to know sooner rather than later so if it has to move on, it can." If Worcester is to have the PawSox, the "time to announce that is upon us." It is the "middle of the baseball season, corporate support is lined up waiting to write checks, and fans ... want to jump on the bandwagon." Any ballpark proposal for Worcester "requires a public 'roll out,' a time to debate its merits publicly and listen earnestly to all interested parties" (Worcester TELEGRAM & GAZETTE, 7/2).
