"Sox win big in deal to use streets; Lansdowne, Yawkey Way lease yields an estimated $45m" November 07, 2011|The Initiative for Investigative Reporting
Over the last nine years, the Boston Red Sox have increased their revenue by an estimated $45 million through the use of two streets that city officials handed over for a relative pittance: an average of $186,000 a year in lease fees.
Every home game, the Red Sox close off Yawkey Way, where thousands of fans congregate and, over time, spend millions at concessions before heading into the park.
Around the corner, the team has turned the air rights over Lansdowne Street into 269 expensive seats and 100 standing-room spots atop the Green Monster.
The leasing agreement, whose details have never been publicly reported, has been a bonanza for the Red Sox, because the city set the lease fees without taking into account how much money the team could make from use of the properties.
If the city had demanded a portion of the revenues, as is common in commercial ventures, the team would have paid the city millions more over the first nine years of the 11-year lease, according to industry estimates and an examination of city records.
And you guys think I'm just flying off the handle when I rage that government only serves the rich.
After inquiries from a reporter and subsequent questions from the state inspector general’s office, Peter Meade, executive director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, has written to the Red Sox asking for an expedited start to negotiations for a new lease.
In an interview, Meade said the city will seek a percentage of the revenues after the current contract expires in 2013 and will also try to renegotiate the remaining two years left on the existing lease to do the same.
Susan Goodenow, the Red Sox spokeswoman, defended the lease fees as appropriate but refused to respond to questions about the estimated revenues. In a written statement, she said team officials would not discuss the issue because of negotiations with the BRA.
In 2002, the BRA declared the two streets to be “urban blight’’ to legally justify taking them from the city and handing control to the Red Sox.
Actually, that is what I consider a ballpark.
This is a common tool the authority uses to take destitute property in the city for redevelopment, though it is unclear how these prosperous streets fit the definition.
Instead of seeking a share of the actual revenue, the city’s outside appraiser decided to base the Lansdowne Street lease payments on the value of the land only, which they determined was worth little because the only possible buyer would be the team....
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