Pawsox now the Provsox?? (Providence, Pawtucket: suite, hospital, agreements)
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MLS Soccer plays just 17 regular season home games. Many in RI had concerns that it would have been tough to justify the public investment in a Pawsox ballpark that would have hosted 70 regular season games. How then could an MLS stadium be cost justified for any significant public funding?
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Revs should be drawing much more. Much much more. Closer to Seattle or Atlanta who are drawing 40,000+ people a game. Not having a dedicated soccer stadium in an accessible location kills them.
Still, hard to imagine RI being in that picture. It needs to be on a T accessible location in Boston.
Ugh. My biggest fear has been that the city will use this as an opportunity to build a school or a new public works garage without having to acquire land. Another gem from the city that took its last movie theater by eminent domain to build a Walgreens .
Ugh. My biggest fear has been that the city will use this as an opportunity to build a school or a new public works garage without having to acquire land. Another gem from the city that took its last movie theater by eminent domain to build a Walgreens .
Would you rather the stadium remain there not being used and further decaying? I don't think there will be a lot of options for the site. If no sports team moves in, what other use is there? I doubt a large private business would want to locate there given it does not have easy highway access. As for the high school option, the city is going to have to do something fairly soon as its two high schools are among the oldest in RI and need constant and costly maintenance. There is little available space for such a structure anywhere else and its location is somewhat centrally located in the city..
If there is an eventual new merged high school, I hope that the Tolman building can be saved and converted to other use such as residential. It is right in the downtown area close to Rte 95 on/off ramps. It is a massive, symmetrical, Colonial Revival style, brick-walled building with flanking wings and a central tower and cupola, which abuts and faces the Blackstone River.
Kraft might feign interest in RI, but I don't think we would be any more than a bargaining chip.
For the Revs to move to Providence rather than Boston, makes little sense at this time. I would say it makes far less sense than the PawSox moving to Worcester, which I still think is a decision based more on Lucchino's ego and free money from Worcester than business sense.
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Originally Posted by timberline742
Still, hard to imagine RI being in that picture. It needs to be on a T accessible location in Boston.
I completely agree with both of you. I'm just saying that the timing for Kraft to make some moves is as good as it's ever been based on what happened with Worcester/Pawtucket. In addition to playing on the emotion of the loss among residents in RI, he has more leverage with politicians on both sides of the spectrum. Lots of blame is being directed at Raimondo and a few others for "losing" the team (I don't agree with that stance - Worcester made an absurd offer that would have been irresponsible to match - but that's irrelevant), and others would love to be involved with being responsible for bringing a new team to the city/region. It probably won't happen, but if there was ever a time that RI would have some backing from residents and politicians for an incentive-laden stadium deal, it's now. Even if it's not enough to lure the team to RI, it might be enough to grease the skids in Boston a bit.
Of course, it would mostly be an effort to gain some leverage in Boston (the city, like most in this thread, knows Kraft really wants to be there); but there's also the long shot that RI pitches a Worcesteresque, incentive-laden deal that the team could not refuse. Again, it's not likely to happen, but if there was ever a time to take a shot, it's now.
Lots of blame is being directed at Raimondo and a few others for "losing" the team (I don't agree with that stance - Worcester made an absurd offer that would have been irresponsible to match - but that's irrelevant)
RI never had to match Worcester's absurdly generous offer. If it had acted quickly on the bill put together a year ago, it would have been accepted by team ownership with no move out of state. Worcester would not have even had an opportunity or the time to put together a better offer.
Nearly all RI state level politicians share blame for this debacle. All of them were afraid to get too close to the bill and none really fully championed it. There was a total void of state leadership on this matter. They were all too timid and afraid to act. They failed the residents of the state in my view.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MMS02760
Nearly all RI state level politicians share blame for this debacle. All of them were afraid to get too close to the bill and none really fully championed it. There was a total void of state leadership on this matter. They were all too timid and afraid to act. They failed the residents of the state in my view.
I think debacle is too strong of a word. Most of the Rhode Islanders I have talked with about the *apparent* (note it's not final yet) loss of the team have the attitude of "if they don't want to stay in McCoy, let 'em go to Worcester." Only a couple of the people I know are upset by it.
State elected officials should have put the stadium question to voters back in 2016, since state law says we voters should have a say in the issuance of public bonds. That would have shielded them from blame, and we'd know definitively how the people felt about paying for a new stadium and scrapping McCoy.
RI never had to match Worcester's absurdly generous offer. If it had acted quickly on the bill put together a year ago, it would have been accepted by team ownership with no move out of state. Worcester would not have even had an opportunity or the time to put together a better offer.
If Worcester said "hang on, we're putting together an offer that might be even better," the team would have waited to listen. It would have been irresponsible not to do due diligence.
Quote:
Nearly all RI state level politicians share blame for this debacle. All of them were afraid to get too close to the bill and none really fully championed it. There was a total void of state leadership on this matter. They were all too timid and afraid to act. They failed the residents of the state in my view.
Of course my opinion isn't worth anything since I don't live there anymore, but I would say that given what Worcester offered, there's very little RI could have reasonably/responsibly done to incentive the team to stay. They were given an offer the team couldn't refuse.
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Originally Posted by ormari
State elected officials should have put the stadium question to voters back in 2016, since state law says we voters should have a say in the issuance of public bonds. That would have shielded them from blame, and we'd know definitively how the people felt about paying for a new stadium and scrapping McCoy.
Exactly. And even then, there's nothing that would prevent Worcester from tossing buckets full of cash at them to lure them across the border.
If Worcester said "hang on, we're putting together an offer that might be even better," the team would have waited to listen. It would have been irresponsible not to do due diligence.
I disagree. Worcester would not have had a year to line up all its ducks to put together its proposal. Furthermore, many Pawsox officials are on record having said if that deal was closed last year, they would have stayed in RI.
I hope Pawtucket does not move on this site if it does not have concrete shovel ready plans in place. Keep it on the tax rolls until then. Furthermore, the longer it sits there vastly underutilized along with all these other Pawtucket businesses (Pawsox/Memorial Hospital/Gamm) exiting the city, its probable realistic purchase price will continue to drop.
Last edited by MMS02760; 08-22-2018 at 11:14 AM..
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