PAWTUCKET – The Pawtucket Red Sox owners are considering two sites for a new baseball stadium in the city, and want to duplicate the interior of the Boston Red Sox’s storied Fenway Park, complete with its own “green monster” left field wall.
The ownership of the PawSox, the Triple A Boston Red Sox affiliate, want to stay in the city, and are considering the Apex building site on Main Street and the Tidewater & National Grid site off Taft Street along the Pawtucket River.
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Mike A. Tamburro, PawSox vice chairman, said Thursday that the team ownership is talking with city and state officials as to which site “does the most for all three parties from an economic point of view.”
He said there is no timetable attached to a move, but they hope to have an acceptable financing plan in place by the end of the legislative session. Tamburro said he expects the project to be funded with a significant contribution from the PawSox.
“These projects are done publicly and privately, typically a combination. I expect there will be some type of a combination here,” Tamburro said, adding that they need to find a plan that works for all three parties and the general public.
“It’s definitely exciting times, and we want to do something in the tradition of PawSox baseball that the whole community can be proud of,” Tamburro said.
While Tamburro said he loves McCoy Stadium, the PawSox’s current home, he said the building is going to be 75 years old, noting the results of a feasibility study released earlier this year that put repairs and renovations to the stadium at $68.1 million and a rebuild at $78.4 million. It also is in the middle of a primarily residential neighborhood.
“I’ve been here over 40 years. McCoy is a wonderful stadium. I love it like my second home, but this building is going to be 75 years old. It honestly has done its job, and has done a good job for all of us in the state, but the industry has changed dramatically over the last decade and a half and McCoy has aged, and that’s what the study was all about,” Tamburro said.
Tamburro said both potential sites would be catalysts for economic development in the city. The National Grid site is approximately 16 acres, with another 8 acres of city land on the riverfront. The power plant there is operable, but will not impact where a ballpark would be built, he said. The main Apex site is approximately 9 acres, with another 3 acres in ancillary parcels.
Tamburro said the team envisions making the interior of the new park just like Fenway, as the Red Sox did with its spring training site in Fort Myers, Fla. It would be replete with cutouts, the short fence down the right field line and the “intimacy” Fenway brings by having box seats at the ground level, something McCoy lacks, he said.
“What’s exciting about either of these projects is the economic spinoff that both create … There’s the opportunity to really create a renaissance,” Tamburro said.
The PawSox also plan to create a public park as part of the proposal, so that when the team isn’t playing, the general public can use the site.
“We want interaction with the general public. We hope to bring many other events in, concerts, fairs, shows, so the venue is a 365-day per year venue. Fenway has done a wonderful job extending the use of that facility, and we’d probably like to do a lot of the same things,” Tamburro said.
He noted that concerts have been held at McCoy in the past, but not regularly.
The PawSox play their first game of the season Thursday against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pa. The PawSox play their first home game on Monday. Tamburro, who described last season as “fair,” is optimistic about this year.
“We’ve got a veteran club, good pitching. … Everything is possible on opening day,” Tamburro said.
