PawSox owners eager to build — and fast

BIG STICK: PawSox co-owner and Providence attorney James J. Skeffington is leading push for a new stadium for the team in the city. / PBN PHOTO/?MICHAEL SALERNO
BIG STICK: PawSox co-owner and Providence attorney James J. Skeffington is leading push for a new stadium for the team in the city. / PBN PHOTO/?MICHAEL SALERNO

Think of Rhode Island, and for many the beaches, quahogs, Del’s Lemonade and the PawSox immediately come to mind. How much longer the family-friendly minor league baseball team, known officially as the Pawtucket Red Sox, remains identified with those other signature symbols of the Ocean State is now in the hands of a new ownership group.

And the iconic local status of the Boston Red Sox AAA affiliate could be the leverage needed to win support for an aggressive timeline to quickly construct a new ballpark in Providence, a city notorious for slow-moving development.

“We’ll know by June whether or not this is real,” ownership-group leader James J. Skeffington told Providence Business News earlier this month, referring to the end of the year’s General Assembly session.

Skeffington, a prominent Providence lawyer, heads the new 10-member ownership group with Boston Red Sox President and CEO Larry Lucchino. They bought the team last month and have proposed to build by 2017 a new stadium on land controlled by the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission and Brown University in Providence.

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Since the announcement, state and city leadership have lined up to show public support for the idea, which Skeffington calls a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

And while he says it’s a priority to stay in Rhode Island, the ownership group – only half of whom are from Rhode Island – is pressing for a quick-paced timeline because they know options exist elsewhere.

“We’re not petitioning to stay here,” Skeffington said. “We’re saying, ‘Here’s an idea. Like a joint venture, does this make sense for both of us?’ ”

When asked whether the ownership would consider moving out of state, he added, “I’d be very disappointed if our logic and our argument on the merits isn’t persuasive as we move forward. I’m sure with our brand there will be a lot of options for us to consider.”

Using a sports team’s emotional connection to a city or state as leverage is a negotiating tactic commonly deployed by ownership, according to Leo Kahane, professor of economics at Providence College.

“Virtually all sports teams use the threat of moving out of the area to get a better deal,” Kahane wrote in an email.

The National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings in 2012-13 threatened to move to Los Angeles. The team ended up winning legislative support for a new stadium, with taxpayers picking up half the bill.

Without a detailed plan, it’s too early to know exactly what the new ownership group would expect from the city and state in return for keeping the PawSox in Rhode Island. But Skeffington – who’s office at One Financial Plaza overlooks approximately 8 acres where his envisioned 10,000-seat, multipurpose baseball stadium would sit – says they are willing to use private equity to build the ballpark, which he estimates could cost between $60-70 million.

“We’ll need some public support from the city and state and what form that takes and how much it will be, I don’t know yet,” Skeffington said.

Skeffington says the ballpark could be an economic boon for the city and state, but Kahane – who specializes in sports economics and public funding of stadiums – says that pitch is no sure thing. He says economists have researched the subject of publicly funded stadiums for more than 20 years and the “overwhelming conclusion is that such investments do little for the local economy and in some cases, they do harm.

“If the ownership group has considered the costs, risks and benefits from investing their own money in buying the land at market value and building a new stadium on it, then so be it,” Kahane said. “That’s what capitalism is all about, individuals allocating their own private resources to achieve the highest-valued return.

“If you are asking if it is a good idea to use public money on such a project, then I would say that that is not the best way to promote local economic development,” he said.

Kahane said economic-impact studies suggesting otherwise are typically conducted by “accounting firms at the behest of those who stand to gain from a publicly funded stadium.”

So why have Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza and City Council President Louis Aponte all signaled support for at least exploring the idea of a stadium in Providence? Such broad-based political support, at least for the concept, could help push the project through the thicket of regulatory and political hurdles that have led to delays for many other less-prominent development proposals in the city.

“The symbolism associated with the PawSox is important for the state not just because of our close proximity to Fenway Park and the Red Sox, but because building a new venue for the team suggests that Providence and the state both value tradition and are welcome to change,” said Wendy J. Schiller, associate professor of political science at Brown University.

Raimondo said it could be a “sparkplug deal,” to entice other development.

“Rhode Island’s economy is out of gas. We need a few big deals, anchor deals to get some excitement going and get some development going and this could be one of them,” she recently told PBN.

Not everyone, however, is smitten by the prospect of a Providence minor league baseball team.

Sen. James C. Sheehan, D-North Kingstown, spoke out against the stadium, saying he doesn’t believe a ballpark would be the best use of that land, vacated after the relocation of I-195.

“I get concerned that this is moving faster than we’re digesting the information, and we need to stay focused with what our goal is here,” Sheehan said. “The ballpark does not need the corridor, but the [medical institutions] and [educational institutions] do, because their facilities would be strategically placed between the schools and the hospitals.”

The desired lot – Parcel 4 –already has been designated as open space for a public park in a plan approved by the Federal Highway Administration.

To put a ballpark on that parcel would require some type of zoning relief from the commission, according to Bonnie Nickerson, director of the Providence Planning and Development Department.

Jan Brodie, executive director of the I-195 commission, said the panel could likely find other ways to achieve the open-space requirement.

Skeffington says the ownership group will try to incorporate “park-like aspects,” which could include a walking park from Point Street to Clifford Street, but he believes a ballpark would serve the area in many ways. He sees the project as more than a baseball venue, but rather a year-round hub for activity that could breathe life into the city. When the baseball season ends in September, he wants to remove the pitching mound, re-sod the base paths and transform the stadium into an arena for collegiate football, soccer and lacrosse and maybe even outdoor hockey in the winter, similar to what Fenway Park does every other year. He also wants to have a club for private functions, summer camps for children and musical concerts.

All of which, he says, would create jobs. The stadium would also entice other developers to consider the I-195 land, Skeffington said.

“I earnestly believe that this ballpark will be catalytic,” he said. “[The site] was passive recreation that produced no jobs and no revenue. What’s more alluring to a company, a big, open lot with no jobs or a baseball stadium – rather – a baseball park, which is a community facility that operates year-round?” •

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4 COMMENTS

  1. With the coming of the new Blackstone Valley National Park, there will be no barriers to economic development in the Blackstone Valley area. A MBTA Commuter Rail Station could be developed adjacent to McCoy Stadium, a bike path connecting the East Bay Bike Path to McCoy Stadium could be built and all the other wonderful projects that are being talked about could be developed in conjunction with McCoy Stadium. Like Fenway Park, McCoy Stadium is historic and iconic. Let’s keep McCoy Stadium.

  2. With the coming of the new Blackstone Valley National Park, there will be no barriers to economic development in the Blackstone Valley area. A MBTA Commuter Rail Station could be developed adjacent to McCoy Stadium, a bike path connecting the East Bay Bike Path to McCoy Stadium could be built and all the other wonderful projects that are being talked about could be developed in conjunction with McCoy Stadium. Like Fenway Park, McCoy Stadium is historic and iconic. Let’s keep McCoy Stadium.

  3. I can see the advantage for the Pawsox to be in the middle of the State and the State transportaion hub where with buses and trains pretty much anyone in the State could see a game without driving but what is the advantage for the State’s residents who aren’t baseball fans and for the State’s taxpayers?

    This will cost the taxpayers something and the loss of the land which could go towards year round jobs may be substantial. The idea behind having this land was to provide a NEW anchor for jobs in the State.

    I would rather see the land given away to Brown for a research community which could spawn new businesses here than to a baseball team.

    We may be able to watch someone like Mocada for 6 months or get to see some superstar do a rehab stint there but that’s of little to no value to residents and taxpayers long term.

  4. Jim, the average price of a ticket to McCoy Stadium is $8.33 with free parking. What would it cost to go to a game at the new Providence stadium? Pawtucket could put a $2.00 surcharge on each ticket. This surcharge would produce 1.3 million dollars each year to pay for the improvements to McCoy Stadium and to pay for the two transportation projects. PawSox fans would be providing the funds to match the federal funds to pay for the commuter rail upgrades and the East Bay Bike Path connection. Because these projects would greatly reduce carbon emissions, federal funds should be available. These transportation projects would be a catalyst to provide private economic development in the area around McCoy Stadium.