Hardball

Will Worcester soon have a Major League Baseball affiliate in town? The Atlantic League hopes not.

by Melissa Houston

Jordan Levy's nightly radio show is never short on entertainment. And May 24 was no exception. Levy and his guest, Worcester's chief development officer Everett Shaw, went back and forth over plans to bring minor-league baseball to Worcester. In less than two weeks' time, the city's progress in getting a team has been celebrated, killed, resurrected, and -- on this night -- blasted. "You have identified baseball as a major issue in your economic development plan," Levy quizzed. "You set the table. You put all the dishes out there. You put all the food on the table. Now you're telling us not to eat!"

But it's hard to accept Shaw should be singled out for a situation only partly his doing. For city officials have battled with Christopher English, who heads an investment group set to bring an Atlantic League team here by 2002, over where a 6000-seat stadium should be built. Negotiations have grown so tense both sides say the league's bid may be in trouble. That was never more apparent than on Levy's WTAG show: in a pointed question, Levy asked Shaw if the Atlantic League -- a fledgling but promising baseball circuit, yet one not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) -- was the best league for the city. "I would much rather see the Central Mass delegation propose in [the Fenway funding bill] a waiver that would enable the city of Worcester to entertain Triple A-affiliated ball."

Shaw's answer stunned key players involved in the ongoing discussions.

But it was revealing. Sources have told the Phoenix city officials and Worcester's State House delegation will hold private talks this morning (May 31) on how to bring a MLB-affiliated franchise to town. Such a team (similar to the Triple A Pawtucket Red Sox or the Double A Portland, Maine's Sea Dogs, who are affiliated with the Florida Marlins) would raise Worcester's sports status nationwide: the club would be subsidized -- both money- and talent-wise -- by its parent club and could generate more city revenue. Both the stadium and the planned parking garage would be publicly owned. So a larger stadium (10,000 seats is a Triple A requirement, for example) could mean more ticket sales per game.

It's difficult to say whether Worcester officials are engaging in high-stakes negotiating in a bid to get concessions from the Atlantic League or if it's serious about landing a Major League Baseball-affiliated club. Or both.

Plans by the Red Sox to build a new park in Boston have put city officials in a unique position to squeeze the Sox, who are the sole, long-standing obstacle in the path of bringing MLB-affiliated baseball here. Sources say Central Mass lawmakers plan to convince Red Sox owners -- who are desperate to secure public funds for a new ballpark before the legislative session ends on July 30 -- to allow a MLB-affiliated team to play Worcester. Such teams are now prohibited from here because of complicated league rules that dictate where major-league farm clubs are situated. (Teams can't be located in adjacent counties -- and Providence County, where the Pawtucket Sox play, abuts Worcester County. Yet the rules can be bent at the discretion of MLB clubs.) Should the Red Sox agree to relax those "territory" rules, then Worcester's state lawmakers will support the Fenway proposal, which calls for $275 million in public funds.

Last week, State Rep. William McManus vowed to rally Worcester County legislators to block new Fenway Park-construction funds unless state money -- as much as $26.5 million -- is included for a Worcester stadium. Since then, observers have speculated House Speaker Thomas Finneran is behind McManus's stance. Finneran, a skeptic of the Sox' plan for a new ballpark, doesn't want to be seen as the obstacle to public funding for the new park. Some say he may have asked McManus, his close lieutenant, to force the issue of funding for a Worcester stadium to a debate. Such talk would likely bring funding for a Springfield stadium back on the table -- making the cost of a Fenway Park deal too expensive to pass the legislature.

But reports that Worcester officials plan to ask the Red Sox to relax the territory rules have cast doubts on that scenario. It appears the delegation wants concessions. Of 198 state legislators, Worcester County holds 28 seats; seven alone are from Worcester. Without their support, the Red Sox have less hope of gaining legislative support for their plan.

"The Red Sox need every vote they can get," says one official involved in the negotiations. "I think there are a lot of behind-the-scenes talks, and there is an understanding [of what Worcester lawmakers want]. Our delegation will support Fenway if the territorial issue comes into play."

The dramatic move caps months of tense negotiations between Worcester officials and the Atlantic League. Has the city -- sensing an opportunity to get MLB-affiliated baseball in Worcester -- given up on the Atlantic League? Or is it simply maneuvering into a better position to deal with the minor league? Either way, this latest negotiation epitomizes the wrangling, the accusations of "hidden agendas," and the nasty tone that's surfaced -- yet gone largely unreported by the local press -- since the Atlantic League announced in July 1999 intentions to bring America's favorite pastime here.

When Atlantic League CEO Frank Boulton said last summer his eight-team-large league was en route, the anticipation was palpable. Worcester has long had baseball on the brain but no local club. (Several attempts to bring a team to town have failed: the most recent being in 1994.) Though Boulton's league had approached and been rebuffed by Worcester before, this time it was embraced by city officials eager to jump-start downtown's dim economy.

Mayor Raymond Mariano showed off the league's "Worcester 2001" baseball jersey, the date first proposed to get a team in place. And Worcester Business Development Corp. (WBDC) president David Forsberg, whose private development venture was eyed as the funding catalyst needed for a costly stadium, called the Atlantic League "the Mercedes Benz of professional baseball." There was nary a critic.

City Manager Thomas Hoover convened a Stadium Task Force in the fall. The committee, which included Forsberg, had 100 days to study and to select a site, and, T&G reports say at the time, to consider funding sources for the facility. By late September, after English, who also owns the Atlantic League's Nashua Pride team, had come forward as Worcester's probable team owner -- planning work was underway.

Sort of.

English grew concerned with the slow pace of the committee's investigation. So, he, doing business as Touch 'Em All Markets LLC (TEAM), hired the highly regarded Forsberg (the city's former chief development officer) and the WBDC "to conduct a study [and] to get the momentum going," Forsberg says. WBDC quit the task force after two meetings to represent TEAM.

After WBDC became a TEAM consultant, a WBDC-owned parcel -- a contaminated "brownfield" site on Prescott Street, along I-290 and abutting Lincoln Street -- surfaced as TEAM's favored stadium location. Immediately, task-force members and Forsberg acknowledge, the Prescott Street proposal raised eyebrows because of who owned it.

"We made it very clear to everyone in the beginning," says Forsberg of the six-acre parcel, of which one-third is WBDC-owned. "It's strange that we're getting criticized for buying contaminated land and putting it back into use.

"We thought we had our good-citizen hats on. We didn't have an agenda," he adds. A re-developed Prescott Street, after all, would be great news for an area already showing signs of growth. It would certainly help Grove Street businesses (note: the Phoenix's offices are located at 108 Grove Street). A stadium garage across from the new Marriott Hotel would ease parking problems for nearby Worcester Art Museum and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Any development would tie in the northern end of Main Street, considered the city's potential entertainment district. The site was cheaper and a certainty, given WBDC controlled a chunk of the parcel. And Prescott's location next to the highway assures stadium visibility for passing motorists, which is critical considering billboard-style advertisements in the city-owned park will generate public revenue.

But certain city officials disagreed. They questioned why WBDC would offer up its own land, which as a privately funded development group it had every right to do. And Prescott, says a source, was "flushed down the throats" of task-force members. A March 16 WBDC presentation of an extensive, costly study (from pedestrian access and parking to potential costs, environmental analyses, and stadium design) of each of the four stadium sites was called "so lopsided" in Prescott Street's favor, task-force members questioned why. TEAM critics also say they felt pressured. One incident: English wrote task-force chairman Samuel DeSimone on March 22, warning the Atlantic League was holding discussions with MLB and could soon become an affiliated league, which would of course kill Worcester's chance. "I hope this will help you understand our deep concern over the effect any delay may have," English wrote.

Still talks continued. Madison Street (a 30-acre, former Wyman-Gordan plant) was eliminated because of projected costs. Shrewsbury Street was also disqualified because of, among other concerns, the prohibitive cost of relocating the city's DPW yard. That left Prescott (with a $22.3 million price tag) and Franklin Street (pegged at $26.5 million) and two sides growing increasingly skeptical of the Atlantic League proposal.

Without doubt, Franklin Street's become a source of public frustration -- exemplified by the city's failure to secure public transportation for the recently rebuilt Union Station. The December 3rd fire at the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. exacerbated the sense the city had no planning vision, no solution to the vacant-buildings plague. But there is hope: the abutting rotary will be redesigned; a hotel building is planned nearby; and the spot is a semi-easy walk to Main Street and to popular Shrewsbury Street, thus a possible cornerstone of Worcester's vaunted rebirth.

No surprise then the task force, on May 12, announced intentions to build a stadium there on a 10-acre parcel. In the course of its negotiations, and in response to TEAM complaints Franklin Street didn't afford the same highway visibility, the task force (directed by Shaw) shifted the site from that which WBDC suggested. Yet no study's been undertaken to see what contamination exists underground at this altered location. But they signed off, though estimated costs aren't certain.

And English and the WBDC were stunned. After the city went public with these plans -- before English could again make the case for Prescott as he had asked -- English and the WBDC met with Shaw in a session that's been described as "nasty," "testy," and "one that disintegrated into pure name-calling." English withdrew his proposal, declaring he'd find another city. But days later he reconsidered after Hoover requested two weeks, until June 5, to make the case for Franklin Street; curiously, Shaw (who reports to Hoover) has emphatically repeated the early-June deadline isn't enough time to conduct a thorough site examination.

Perhaps the WBDC and TEAM should have seen the writing on the wall. Shaw, for one, has recently announced a new development campaign called Centre City; and a baseball stadium on Franklin would fit nicely into the scheme. As early as April, in a report drafted by his office, Prescott Street was deemed too small a location and should "not be endorsed." A task-force member, city auditor James DelSignore, was quoted in the May 21 T&G saying Franklin Street would be easier to expand to a 10,000-seat park, exactly what Worcester would need to bring a Triple A team here.

A city-drafted traffic report, also from April, outlined potential congestion problems on Prescott, another strike against it. Shaw himself has argued -- as he did again on Levy's radio show -- even the "WBDC Board of Directors does not believe a stadium is the best use of the Prescott site," he wrote in a May 2 memo.

Indeed the intricacies over where this stadium should be built continue to be criticized in numbing detail. Both groups have scrutinized a number of facets -- from utility costs to garage funding -- in each other's preferred location. But the debate over where this park will go may have less to do with either site's viability. In fact, it may have everything to do with a) Worcester's bid for a MLB farm team, and b) concerns over English's ability to fund and run a team in a league that's yet to prove its longevity.

"What do you think [is going on]?" Atlantic League's CEO Boulton asked the Phoenix last week. "I'll ask you the question. I have no idea. It seems to me there's other agendas here. And they haven't bubbled to the top for me."

Formed just two years ago, the Atlantic League hosts teams in several cities yearning for recovery. Bridgeport, Connecticut's Bluefish are one of league's more successful franchises, drawing an average of 3685 fans (according to league statistics from last week) to its 5000-seat HarborYard Stadium, which is not located in downtown but in a blighted neighborhood and across from a public housing complex. Wilmington, Delaware's Blue Rocks play ball in a stadium located at the city's edge and in what was a vacant, industrial stretch; they too celebrate large crowds, community support, and countless advertisers. Long Island Ducks, a new team, have drawn an average of 5770 a game so far this season.

In its short life, the Atlantic League has proved its potential as a quality sports venture that's affordable -- tickets cost about $6, depending on the stadium -- and attracts support from big names in baseball: Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken Jr. recently invested in a soon-to-be-launched Aberdeen, Maryland franchise. New York Mets legend Bud Harrelson is league president. And former Red Sox coach and legendary third baseman Butch Hobson coaches the Nashua Pride.

But then there are teams who struggle. Take Lehigh, Pennsylvania's Black Diamonds. In fact, the league's looking for someone to do just that. In February, the franchise filed for bankruptcy. Local columnists from the Allentown Morning Call have been particularly but hilariously cruel in detailing the Diamonds' woes. Among them: one recent home game drew 14 fans; another had fewer attendees than a children's match held across the street. At another game, a reporter was asked by a team official to keep score; "I'd prefer not to but would in a pinch," he wrote. Lehigh has yet to secure a stadium (for two years the Diamonds played on the road until renting a 600-seat park that fans have complained is hard to find). Team owner Thomas X. Flaherty had commenced construction of a park but ran out of funds. Now he might lose the team in August. Flaherty owes the league $167,000 and was covering $10,000 in travel and equipment expenses with an American Express card, according to the Call and much to the chagrin of the bankruptcy-court judge.

English's Nashua Pride too have suffered, though nothing even close to Lehigh's problems. In New Hampshire, officials there have voiced concern over the team's financial health and its continued residency at Holman Stadium. Attendance has been lower than hoped (1693 on average, as of last week) and the Pride's contract is up in 2001. Though everyone agrees the Atlantic League's been great for the city, certain officials wonder how long Pride will stay.

"This could be a pivotal year," says Nashua Mayor Bernie Streeter. "I'm a little mystified that they would be looking at Worcester. I would hope they'd make a commitment to stay here."

Pride's general manager, Billy Johnson, assured the public the club will remain and that contract talks won't be "that big of a deal" with "six or seven tweaks" needed, he told the Nashua Telegraph in February.

Worcester officials, though, say they're aware of English's team standing in New Hampshire. In fact, says one source, "it's considered a bargaining strength." A team here could generate more interest in Pride as there's no Atlantic League franchise in Massachusetts. English, they maintain, needs Worcester as much as the city desires baseball.

What city officials really want is a specific financial commitment from him. During Shaw's radio interview, he said English hasn't been forthcoming with how much money he'll invest here; a sentiment repeated by one city source who says, "I've never seen or heard of the financial package. Not one cent."

But WBDC's Forsberg counters. The costs of running a team reach more than $1 million a year, he says. Not only that, but also English is willing to sign a long-term lease ("probably the most favorable in the league"). He's agreed to have the lease terms re-negotiated so rent would be increased once his team are in place. In fact, he adds, English will help retire $16 million of the anticipated debt the city will incur for stadium construction. Forsberg maintains a comprehensive, four-part financial plan was presented to city officials: with garage revenue, advertising, and naming rights accounted for.

Apparently that's not enough. One source confirms the city's already had at least an introductory discussion with a MLB-affiliated team. The Penn League, which is affiliated and has teams along the East Coast, has surfaced as a potential player.

So today's (May 31) meeting with the city's State House delegation will surely get the Red Sox talks underway. If anyone, McManus, an ally of both House Speaker Finneran and Governor Paul Cellucci, could have sway (See "Not as dumb as they hoped," May 12) with the principal decision makers embroiled in complicated negotiations with Fenway execs. For one, McManus may have clout when it comes to getting Worcester's stadium funds. "Bill McManus is a good guy to have representing the delegation on this," says one city official, because of his close association with state leadership. And should local officials want, he could open the door for a MLB farm team. A larger stadium and a higher-profile team with eager baseball stars of tomorrow, after all, would certainly draw the fans. And more cars means more garage receipts means more money for the city coffers.

And none of this sits well with Forsberg. "To hear people were dealing with someone else . . . we thought that was pretty disturbing. It's probably the thing Mr. English has found the most troubling in this whole process."

Still it's impossible to ignore the strategy may be the latest negotiating gambit between the Atlantic League and the city. There's no better way for local officials to get concessions (read: Franklin Street or nowhere) than to suggest its being wooed by vested, bigger players. That is, of course, how shrewd coaches keep aging, ego-driven athletes from being late to spring training.

Melissa Houston can be reached at mhouston[a]phx.com.