They $truck out taxpayers.
"BRA seeking extension of Red Sox license deal; Crackerjack deal may stay despite critics" by Callum Borchers | Globe Staff, May 28, 2013
The Boston Redevelopment Authority has decided to negotiate an extension of the deal that enables the Red Sox to turn part of Yawkey Way into a private outdoor food court on game days, despite a warning from the state inspector general’s office that it might not have legal standing to award a new license.
The BRA’s control over the street, which runs out at the end of this baseball season, is based on a determination that Yawkey Way is an area of “urban blight” and in need of redevelopment — a dubious assessment, critics claim.
But the label is consistent with an evaluation made by the state Legislature in 2000, said James D. Masterman, the attorney advising the BRA on Yawkey Way. That year, the Legislature declared the area surrounding Fenway Park to be an “economic development area,” which is defined as a “blighted open area or any decadent area.”
On that basis, the BRA plans to renew the Red Sox’s no-bid contract to sell concessions and souvenirs on the portion of Yawkey Way abutting the ballpark, where the team grossed $2 million last year. The club’s financial gain is merely a side effect of the BRA’s effort to enhance the neighborhood, Masterman said; the public is the primary beneficiary.
Former inspector general Gregory W. Sullivan reached a different conclusion late last year, when he wrote a letter to the agency arguing that a Yawkey Way license should be given by the city government — not the BRA, which technically operates independently — to the winner of a competitive bid process or granted to the Sox through special legislation.
Sullivan, who joined the Pioneer Institute as research director in April, said in an interview that “declaring Yawkey Way as an area of urban blight during game days is the equivalent of declaring Magic Kingdom in Disney World an area of blight during a Mickey Mouse parade. It strains any semblance of credulity.”
******************************
Eleven years ago, the BRA temporarily took Yawkey Way from city control, citing a state law that grants municipal redevelopment authorities the eminent domain power to commandeer land and “carry out demonstrations for the prevention and elimination of slums and urban blight.”
The arrangement with the Red Sox, the BRA said at the time, qualified as such a demonstration. The agency voted unanimously to take Yawkey Way and issue a license to the Red Sox “in order to protect against urban blight” in late 2002.
Both the license and the BRA’s Yawkey Way takeover expire this year, and the street is slated to return to city government control. To sign a new deal with the Red Sox, the BRA would have to deem Yawkey Way a blighted area again and exercise its eminent domain power once more. Sullivan cautioned the BRA in his letter that such a move could expose the agency to a lawsuit.
The license agreement between the BRA and the Red Sox — which also includes air rights over Lansdowne Street, where the team built the Green Monster seating section — has proven to be a windfall for the ballclub....
Related: Red Sox Are Special
--more--"
UPDATE: Businessman offers to outbid Red Sox for Yawkey Way license
WTF? A curve during batting practice?
Also see: Time For Buffett
Fans are hungry for championships:
"Two years after the championship, Bruins ticket prices lower" by Callum Borchers | Globe Staff, May 10, 2013
The average price to see a first-round playoff game at the Garden is $236.12 on the secondary ticket market. That’s 5 percent lower than prices commanded two years ago, when the Bruins were on their way to ending a 39-year championship drought....
The decline suggests a psychological shift among fans of a championship-starved sports franchise. The pursuit of a long-awaited prize — and the hope that this is the year — may be more compelling than the quest to win it all again.
“Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it,” said Bob Lobel, a former sports anchor at WBZ-TV. “Doesn’t mean it gets old. It just gets different.”
Sports fans have long observed that teams often lack urgency in the seasons that follow a championship. After winning a title, it can be difficult for professional athletes to train and play with the same hunger that drove them before.
Fans’ appetites, too, can be suppressed in the wake of victory, especially in a city like Boston, where watching in vain as the local teams chased elusive trophies once defined the fan experience. The Patriots’ Super Bowl win in 2001 was the first in the 42-year history of the franchise. The Red Sox endured the “Curse of the Bambino” for 86 years before winning the World Series in 2004.
“I know emotionally, as a Bostonian, you didn’t really know how to root for the Red Sox after they finally won the World Series,” said George Pyne, president of IMG Sports & Entertainment, and a Massachusetts native....
Even the relatively modest 18-year span between Celtics titles in 1986 and 2008 seemed like an eternity for a team that had won 16 championships.
By 2011, the Bruins were the only remaining source of perennial anguish for a Boston fan base that had suddenly enjoyed a glut of success. When the team broke through and hoisted the Cup for the first time in nearly four decades, it removed a key ingredient from future playoff runs, Lobel suggested....
Fans elsewhere experience the same letdown: First-round playoff tickets to see the Los Angeles Kings, who won the Stanley Cup for the first time last year, are 26 percent cheaper now than they were in 2012.
Diehards might still be willing to pay top dollar, “but there’s certainly a segment of the bandwagon that feels they’ve already been served by the championship, and that was the reason for being on the bandwagon,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. “They’ll still support the team, but they feel like, ‘Maybe I’ll watch the next one from home.’ ”
There is another factor that also reduces postseason fever, said Michael A. Leeds, a sports economist at Temple University. After witnessing a deep playoff run, fans expect more of their team....
I expect more of a newspaper.
--more--"
Why don't you try getting out of the house for a change?
"The great outdoors is still a great bargain; Spending on some sports is flat, but the outdoors has seen steady growth" by Callum Borchers | Globe Staff, May 28, 2013
As the recession took a big bite out of vacation budgets in recent years, campsites filled up quickly at Indianhead Resort in Plymouth. A family of four could pitch a tent, bike a trail, and go for a swim there, all for $25 per day.
Always a popular destination for visitors to the Bay State, the campground saw an influx of locals who could not afford the getaways they had enjoyed in previous summers. Now that the economy is slowly recovering, vacationers might be expected to ditch the s’more scene. But that’s not the case.
“Nope, they’re sticking with it,” said Indianhead manager Irene Littlefield. “People found they enjoy it.”
The story is the same across the country. Participation in outdoor activities like camping, hiking, and canoeing continues to grow, according to industry data, even as the nation recovers from tough economic times that heightened interest in cheaper vacation and recreation alternatives....
Sorry, folks, but I'm sick of the narrative.
--more--"
