BOSTON -- Unable to get financing for a new ballpark, the
Boston Red Sox were put up for sale Friday by the trust that owns
the franchise.
The Red Sox, whose rich history includes Cy Young, Ted Williams
and Carl Yastrzemski, haven't won a World Series since 1918, two
years before they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. They play in
beloved Fenway Park, the oldest and smallest of the 30 ballparks in
the major leagues.
|
 |
|
|
Fri., Oct. 6
It was evident the Yawkey Trust, headed by John
Harrington, was not going to be able to get the financing
for the proposed stadium without completely crippling
the club and severely restricting the payroll. Harrington
has the ballpark in place, it's just going to take someone
with enough money and the right financing to get it done.
The team is in pretty good shape. They set an
attendance record this year. They have two legitimate
stars in Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra. Now the
issue is who will buy the team.
Bostonians think it's going to be a group with real estate
developer Steve Karp, Joe O'Donnell and David Mugar.
That would be the dream ownership. They would develop
the park area, they're all philanthropists and the group
could probably get the park built on the waterfront,
which is a very popular sentiment.
This might end up like the Buckner ball, though.
Someone might come in and pay a ridiculous amount of
money. It could be Vince McMahon, who I'm told is very
interested, or Stephen King. There may also be some
23-year-old MIT dropout who just made $500 million
in a dot-com waiting in the wings. It would also
be a sensible property for a media company with the
inclusion of NESN. The outcome of this will be very
interesting.
|
|
|
The Jean R. Yawkey Trust, which has owned the team since 1992,
has been trying to get government financing for a $665 million
ballpark, which would be built on land adjacent to Fenway in
Boston's Back Bay.
But efforts by chief executive officer John Harrington, the
lawyer who runs the trust, have stalled in recent months.
"The trust was never designed to be a permanent form of
ownership," Harrington said. "The question has always been when
and not whether to sell."
Harrington said he hoped to have a new owner, "preferably a diehard Red Sox fan from New England," in place by the start of next season.
He acknowledged the team's hope to be playing in a new ballpark
by 2004 "looks very unlikely." Occasionally getting choked up,
Harrington said he chose to put the team on the market now to
enable the new owner to be involved with the stadium negotiations
because those decisions will affect the team's finances for the
next 30 years.
"There should be no anxiety about the team's future because of
the announcement," he said.
He also said he did not expect the team to be moved.
"No owner would turn his back on 2.6 million ardent fans that
came to Fenway this season," he said. "I've always said, 'Every
kid in this town wants to be Nomar (Garciaparra) and every kid over
40 wants to be me.' "
Commissioner Bud Selig said "I am saddened today by John
Harrington's announcement of the intention of the Jean R. Yawkey
Trust to sell the Boston Red Sox. The Yawkey name has long been
synonymous with major league baseball and is as much a part of the
New England landscape as Williams, Yaz and Fenway itself."
The Red Sox reportedly had been having trouble getting private
financing for the new park. While the Legislature has approved a
bill helping the project, the Red Sox are still awaiting City
Council approval -- and a majority of members have said they won't
approve it.
|  | | John Harrington hopes to find a die-hard Red Sox fan to buy the team. |
But Harrington sounded optimistic notes on those two fronts,
saying, "This project can move forward. The private financing can
be put in place. The public financing is in place."
Even with Pedro Martinez, the Red Sox finished second this year,
3½ games behind New York.
The season ended with manager Jimy Williams claiming general
manager Dan Duquette failed to back him in disciplining productive
but troublesome outfielder Carl Everett.
Boston's love affair with the Red Sox is tinged with melancholy.
Fans wax about the quirks of 34,000-seat Fenway: the Green Monster
in left field and Pesky's Pole, the yellow foul pole down the short
right-field line.
They remember Carlton Fisk's dramatic 12th-inning homer to win
Game 6 of the 1975 World Series against Cincinnati, then
immediately think of how Boston blew a lead in Game 7.
And then they think of Game 6 of the 1986 Series (at Shea Stadium), when they were
one strike from winning a World Series against the New York Mets
before a wild pitch and Bill Buckner's infamous error on Mookie
Wilson's grounder.
Thomas Yawkey bought the team from J.A. Robert Quinn in 1933, and
when Thomas Yawkey died in 1976, his wife took over. Jean Yawkey
entered a three-way ownership with Haywood Sullivan and Buddy
LeRoux, then bought LeRoux's share in 1987.
When she died, she willed all her holdings to her trust, giving
Harrington, her longtime advisor, broad power to run the team.
In July, the Massachusetts Legislature approved a bill calling
for the team to pay $350 million for construction of a new
ballpark. But neighborhood activists and city councilors -- whose
approval also is necessary -- have opposed the plan.
Rep. Byron Rushing, who represents the Fenway area and is a
prominent critic of the stadium plan, said the announcement was
"very upsetting" because Harrington had assured lawmakers at a
hearing in July that the team would not be sold.
"The new owners should not inherit this legislation. The
legislation is not a piece of the deed," he said.
Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College who specializes
in sports economics, said it was typical for a team owner to
threaten to move or sell when they can't get the city or state to
buy them a new stadium.
But he said he didn't think that any new owner would move the
Red Sox, with its long traditions and its location in the nation's
sixth-largest media market.
The Red Sox had six different owners from 1901-33, most notably
Harry Frazee, infamous for selling Ruth to the archrival New York
Yankees for money to finance his Broadway musical "No, No
Nanette."
On the field this season, Boston's push for its third
straight playoff berth ended in turmoil as manager Williams
took a public swipe at general manager Duquette for not backing
him in a dispute with center fielder Carl Everett, who had shown up
late for a critical doubleheader. Harrington met with them to
mediate the dispute.
Harrington is a member of baseball's executive council, and is
head of its realignment and schedule-format committees, which
formulated the expanded playoffs that began in 1995.
Harrington's financial stewardship of the team's charitable
foundation was criticized last year following a report he had made
large contributions from that fund to charities with whom he and
another trustee had personal connections.
The state's attorney general looked into those allegations and
determined there was no wrongdoing. | |
ALSO SEE
Red Sox likely to spark bidding war
|