"City should get more from Sox, watchdog says" by Andrew Ryan | Globe Staff, February 24, 2012
The City of Boston should demand significantly more money from the Red Sox on game days, when the team closes a public street, Yawkey Way, and turns it over to beer vendors and sausage sellers, according to a stern warning from the state inspector general.
In a letter sent last week, Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan also said the city should seek a better deal with the ball club for the lucrative seats atop the Green Monster, the familiar left field wall. The city gave up air rights over Lansdowne Street to create those seats in the century-old ballpark and should claim more income when a new financial agreement is drawn up after the 2013 season, he said.
Sullivan urged city officials to determine how much money the Red Sox have made using public property since 2003, when the team signed a relatively low-cost lease for the streets. The city should negotiate a better deal, he wrote.
In his letter to the city, Sullivan also pushed Boston officials to seek compensation from the ball club for the game-day takeover of Van Ness Street, used as private parking for players, team staff, and others connected to the team.
The inspector general sent the letter after the Globe published a story in November disclosing details of the lease arrangement, which had never before been made public. The article estimated the Red Sox had made $45 million from the use of Yawkey Way and Lansdowne Street as part of a lease that cost the team an average of $186,000 a year.
See: Red Sox $weep Boston Streets Clean
That's a lot of loose change.
The November Globe report was the work of the Initiative for Investigative Reporting in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University. The letter sent last week by the inspector general’s office was first reported on the website of Commonwealth Magazine.
The inspector general does not have the authority to force the city to charge the Red Sox more for the use of public property, but the office can add public pressure as the two sides forge a new deal....
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