Boston Mayor to Red Sox: Thanks for Everything, Here's No Money

You have to love the city of Boston. It had no trouble pouring billions of dollars (somewhere between 14 and 18) into the Big Dig, a disastrous tunneling project that will not greatly alleviate traffic congestion and that has already been shown to be full of leaks. But when it comes to supporting the worshiped Red Sox, the team that has pumped countless dollars into the city and the area around Fenway Park, the city says, "No thanks."

Boston mayor Thomas Menino did not even wait for the team's owners to ask for money (they were not planning to do so just yet). He made it perfectly clear that the city is willing to benefit from the Sox staying in Fenway but is not really willing to contribute to the effort. If the team wants to spend its own money renovating the surrounding public streets and commercial areas, that is fine. But the city's money is all under water.

This strikes me as the city taking advantage of benevolent owners. If the owners of professional sports teams have to threaten to leave town or move ballparks in order to secure public funding, then they will do just that. It would be nice to see the city offer to help share the costs to make improvements that will obviously result in shared benefits. I understand that the team's owners are wealthy and can afford to pay for much of these changes, but that does not mean the city should not pitch in.

The area around Fenway is old and in many ways, run-down. The subway station serving the stadium is a joke, there is no parking to speak of, and the streets have more potholes than lane markers. Much of this is due to years of neglect by the city and poor decisions that have funneled money into other areas. It does not seem right to make the Red Sox solely responsible for fixing these mistakes. The city does not have to give billions, but a pledge of some funds to improve public transportation, parking, and street conditions (all of which will have benefits far beyond the Red Sox) would not seem to be too much to ask.

Then again, perhaps the Red Sox should propose a tunnel to run under Fenway. The city would jump all over that.

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