A hard look at Sox plan for Fenway
THE BOSTON Red Sox are waging two serious fall campaigns. The first is to win another World Series championship. The second is to win public financing for some Fenway-area development.
The Sox and their neighbors hope a proposed economic stimulus package in the works on Beacon Hill will provide for parking and public transportation improvements in the Kenmore-Fenway-Longwood area. The legislative language is not finalized, and no dollar amount is yet specified. The $100 million for infrastructure authorized for the Sox in 2000 but never tapped defines the current expectation.
Larry Lucchino, the Sox president and CEO, is the point person behind this effort. He is dealing directly with Senate President Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi.
Janet Marie Smith, the team's chief architect and spokesman on development issues, says there is no ''secret plan." She pointed out that the ballclub has presented its plans to invest $200 million in Fenway Park improvements to many civic groups. She said plans relating to parking and transportation are just now entering the public arena.
The Sox owners are marketing pros, adept at squeezing revenue from new seating, high-priced tickets, advertising signage, concerts, and even blades of grass. This season, fans were offered an 18-by-9 inch rectangle of ''Fenway championship sod" for $150. (The
Now the Sox are seeking additional revenue under the umbrella of neighborhood development. First they announced that they were staying at Fenway, ''no strings attached." Then that they are joining forces with a Fenway-area developer and cooperating with Fenway-area institutions and citizen and business groups. Next this coalition of interested parties needs planning and zoning approvals to improve the parking, transportation, development, and infrastructure from Kenmore to Longwood.
The Sox benefit from added parking and better public transportation; so, too, they say, will Boston University, hospitals, biotech companies, and other area businesses.
That is true, but it doesn't change the question of public priorities: Why Fenway now? And it does not erase the public's right to transparency about what this Sox-powered development coalition wants and what it gets.
We know this beloved ballclub with its sellout crowds is far from poor. How rich is it? Because it is a private entity, it is difficult to know precisely.
Why can't the team build its own parking garage? If a public authority borrows money to build one, will the Sox repay any of it? How will parking garage revenue be divvied up? What about neighborhood linkage commitments?
For more than two years, developer John Rosenthal pitched plans for an ambitious mini-city that would straddle the Massachusetts Turnpike, connecting the Kenmore and Fenway neighborhoods. Until recently, Rosenthal's efforts were thwarted. Then he caved, or agreed to work with the Sox -- call it what you wish. Who else besides Rosenthal is feeling Sox-fueled pressure?
When the previous Sox ownership went to bat for public money, it was front-page news. When a legislative deal was finally struck, the details surprised no one. Not everyone agreed with the outcome, but the public policy issues were fully aired.
Now is the time to start asking questions. On Sept. 28, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., the Boston Redevelopment Authority will host a presentation from the Sox and Rosenthal.
You can't blame the ballclub for the lack of scrutiny up to now from adoring fans who lust after anything Sox. People are willing to pay large sums of their own money to watch the team at Fenway, so maybe they are also willing to commit a big chunk of taxpayer money to improve the neighborhood around Fenway Park.
But it's funny, isn't it? Red Sox Nation endlessly debates, in excruciating detail, everything that happens on the playing field, in the locker room, and beyond.
The ballplayers are now this town's biggest celebrities. And with the demise of Boston's corporate base, the owners are this town's biggest business stars.
Are they so big, so powerful, so invincible that we are willing to let them control neighborhood development and help them pay for it, no questions asked?
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com. 
