I'm with Ray. What would the cost of a new ballpark be? Yankee Stadium cost $1.5 billion, ad the city helped clear out a public park because urban dwellers don't need green spaces, millionaire ballplayers do. So let's say a new park would cost $1 billion with land acquisition, and $800 million if the present park were torn down and rebuilt. The debt service on that would be between $40 million and $60 million. Is a new park going to create that much extra annual revenue? I'd be hard pressed to say yes. And if it didn't create that much extra revenue, the team would be forced to spend less on player payroll and development. The owners have the right idea. Keep refreshing and refurbishing the present ballpark. -- Matt
--- On Fri, 6/26/09, Ray Salemi <[email protected]> wrote: From: Ray Salemi <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Nats park To: [email protected] Date: Friday, June 26, 2009, 12:23 PM There was a time when I was all for tearing down Fenway. I used to say that I would work the wreaking ball myself. I felt especially strongly about this when I came home from The Ballpark at Arlington, or Camden Yards. Since then my feeling has changed. Why? The new ownership. I think the new ownership has shown a love of Fenway that comes through in the way they have improved the park, whether it was adding the block party before the game, putting a bar under the center field bleachers, or knocking down the wall behind the first base seats and installing a plaza, the Red Sox ownership has shown imagination and a passion for their park. Contrast this to the moribund and, frankly stupid, Yawkey years. Towards the end we got a constant litany of whining from the Red Sox ownership that the park was leaking, and that they couldn't keep it up to code, and that they needed a new one. Then, they were too incompetent to negotiate the space for a new park with the city. I can't imagine the horror show we'd have now if the likes of Harrington, Dan Duquette (the man who brought us a New Hampshire baseball team who wears camouflage uniforms), etc had built the new park. It would have had the charm of Schaffer Stadium and the cost of Yankee Stadium. I enjoy all my games at Fenway even though I don't have a cup holder. My biggest complaints are the cold April days and the lack of a roof. But we'll have those problems as long as we want outdoor baseball and real grass. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Red Sox Citizens" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/redsoxcitizens?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
