Fiscal 2023 DIF Account

Must Read!!!!! So Your City Wants to Build a Stadium. Here’s What to Know.

 

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to be bad we did not read this before spending $160 million dollars





Comments

David Z. said…
I just read this “must read” article and I still believe $160 million for Polar Park was money well spent.
Anonymous said…
I am a football fan and have gone to countless Patriots games over the last twenty years while only going to one Red Sox game but I will say as an ardent football fan I am glad the House Speaker at the time, Tom Finneran got it right in the end, not the conviction on obstruction but the states position that they were not going to build stadiums for millionaires but would invest in infrastructure. You may not recall Bob Kraft was going to move the Patriots to Hartford, pitting Massachusetts against Connecticut but in the end the Patriots stayed in Foxborough and the State paid for infrastructure improvements and Kraft built his own stadium. The new TD Garden was privately constructed and Fenways improvements were also privately financed. I do not believe that government entities should use public funds for the construction of facilities for private businesses, whether it be the Patriots, the Bruins/Celtics or the Red Sox. This premise , government improving infrastructure that benefits not only the team but the general public as well, was the only thing I think I agreed politically with Tom Finneran.
I bring this up because Teams having cities and states getting into a bidding war against each other down to a science and you would not know that unless you read articles like this.
Common Sense said…
Kraft is also financing the current $200 million in improvements at the stadium.
Anonymous said…
If the development around the ballpark pays for the ballpark I would agree with the first comment. If it doesn't we subsidized millionaire owners of the WooSox.
Bill we did not see you at Holden night at the Polar Park. We had a great time. It was more expensive than we thought. One suggestion for the City to think about. Plant grass on the lot between the garage and the ballpark. If that lot had grass it would look much nicer than a dirt lot.
Common Sense said…
Attended a show at the Hanover Thurs. Still very little progress being made on the outdoor plaza that was announced years ago. I think the "Big Dig" was completed faster. They must be getting their workers from the Perkins School for the Blind.
Anonymous said…
If the first commenter returns and rereads the comments may I ask a simple direct question. What is the benefit to the City and the taxpayers of investing millions of tax dollars to construct the ball park. I too have read the article. I went further and read the 88 page paper which was linked to the article, and I am more convinced that these type of projects have no public benefit. I wonder why you think this was a good investment of public funds.
Anonymous said…
Reading any study would not have made a difference, the City would have and did pay any cost to build a ballpark with no questions asked.
Anonymous said…
I still think the 160 is still low as we know theres transparency issues. The issue is to many mis directions and additional back door deals set up before being brought out to the public. Since day one there needed to be oversight and transparency as the things that were promised to insure the city (budgets and public) are not stuck with the bill. agreements not covering the citys exposure is amazing. Most standard contracts would have had force majure clauses protecting the city with delays, they tried telling us theat material costs blew up because of covid , when in fact the price of steel construction products did not start going up until 90 percent of the park steel was already constructed and many like situations. Also, the associated developments have been reduced and delayed causing the concerns to rise. Augustus was not concerned with holding the developers on these projects to there agreed upon deals. While we get forces to hold ours. At least the changing of the guard is at least bring this to the open and are saying the right things for some of the adjustments and delays. Is it too late??
Anonymous said…
Who in the City can audit this?