PAWTUCKET – An $83 million ballpark that would be built for the Pawtucket Red Sox in the city’s downtown with the help of public financing carries “minimal risk” for taxpayers and the team’s owners, according to a report released Thursday by the Pawtucket Foundation.
The foundation hired Mark Rosentraub, a professor of sports management, and the University of Michigan Center for Sport & Policy to study the financial implications of the proposal, which would require a $45 million investment from the team, $23 million from the state and $15 million from Pawtucket.
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“Regardless of this report’s conservative projections, both Rhode Island and Pawtucket are expected to enjoy positive returns on their investments,” according to the report, “The Economic, Fiscal, & Developmental Impacts of a Ballpark At Slater Mill.”
If the PawSox leave Rhode Island, the state would lose $1.5 million in income taxes and approximately $681,000 in sales taxes the team now generates each year, according to the report.
If lawmakers approve the issuance of bonds needed to build the new, publicly owned stadium in Pawtucket, the state would recoup its $23 million investment in 12 years, the report states.
The city “will generate enough new property taxes to repay its [$15 million] investment five years after the opening of the ballpark,” according to the report. “We are confident … the city will secure far more new property taxes than needed to repay its annual bond payment of $900,000 in short order.”
The city is counting on ancillary development around the ballpark to benefit from the project.
The first phase of that development, 50,000 square feet of commercial space, would occur at the same time the ballpark is built, with expected completion in 2021.
Phase II of development includes 200,000 square feet of mixed-use development, with an expected completion in 2026.
Once the second phase of the development is completed, a total of $1.38 million in new city property taxes would be generated each year, according to the report.
State lawmakers have held a series of hearings on the ballpark proposal. The team has asked for a vote by the General Assembly before the end of the year on the bonding requests needed to build a replacement for aging McCoy Stadium.
Minimal risk? If the risk is so small, why don’t the owners of the PawSox pay for this deal out of their own pockets.
Money talks. The fact that they aren’t willing to risk their own money should tell you everything you need to know.
Meanwhile, instead of hiring an independent economist to assess the situation (which they won’t do because actual economists understand exactly why publicly-funded stadiums are a terrible deal for taxpayers), they hire a guy who has built a lucrative business on promoting exactly these sorts of taxpayer ripoffs.
Don’t be fooled. If the PawSox leave, we’ll have no trouble persuading another team to play in the legendary McCoy Stadium.