It’s a bad sign that state and Pawtucket officials found out from news reports about Hasbro Inc.’s renewed interest in possibly moving out of state.
It doesn’t mean Hasbro has made up its mind, but it does make it clear Rhode Island officials are playing catch up to business and political interests in Massachusetts that the company had already spoken to.
The toy maker will need to be swept off its feet to completely pull up stakes from Rhode Island after more than a century. A more likely scenario would be shifting some operations to Boston, where it has been looking at office space, and keeping a smaller operation in Rhode Island.
But Rhode Island leaders need to be clear-eyed about the threat Massachusetts presents – and not just to Hasbro’s roughly 1,000 local jobs.
If you didn’t learn when the Pawtucket Red Sox moved to Worcester, Mass., in 2021, the Bay State is aggressively courting your businesses.
Reading about it in news reports means those businesses likely already have one foot out the door.