Fenway’s Example
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

For all the post-game commentary on the Boston Red Sox world championship, the new management of the New York Yankees, and the free agency of Alex Rodriguez, one point that we haven’t yet seen made is that the Red Sox made their way to their second World Series victory in four years while playing in a ballpark that is 95 years old. The owners of the team considered building a new field, but even the sports-crazed taxpayers of the People’s Republic of Massachusetts balked at the subsidies. So the owners decided to invest their actual own money in improving the old ballpark in the fen. They managed to make more space in the park for revenue-producing activities by moving some back-office employees to commercial office space nearby.
Meanwhile in New York City, taxpayers are being forced to shoulder the burdens of new stadiums to subsidize the multimillionaire owners and players of the Yankees and Mets. The Yankee stadium project alone will receive taxpayer subsidies of nearly $800 million, according to Good Jobs New York, a critic of the project. The city’s Independent Budget Office reports that with the new stadium, the Yankees will benefit from a $144.2 million property tax break, a $21.9 million sales tax exemption, and $172.2 million in tax exempt financing. The Web site FieldofSchemes.com reports that the Mets stadium subsidies add up to $468 million from state, local, and even federal taxpayers.
One of the arguments the team owners have made in seeking approvals for the new stadium is that they can’t be competitive — i.e., win — while playing in an old stadium. Yet here the Red Sox have managed to win two World Series while playing in a swamp in a park that opened its doors in 1912. A similar story has unfolded on the football front. The owner of the New England Patriots explored seeking subsidies to build a new stadium in Boston, but couldn’t get a deal. So he risked his own capital to build Gillette Stadium. The Patriots have won the Superbowl three times since 2002.
At least the Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, scuttled a plan to lavish taxpayer subsidies on a new stadium for the Jets on Manhattan’s West Side. The owner of the Knicks, Madison Square Garden, enjoy a property tax exemption for its arena, while Atlantic Yards and its developer, who will bring the Nets to play basketball in Brooklyn, will receive at least $300 million in city and state subsidies. So as Red Sox savor their World Series victory fans of the free market will at least cheer their example. The long suffering taxpayers of Colorado sank $160 million into the stadium used by the Rockies and look what it got them.