🔒Polar Park’s second inning: Almost five years into a 35-year project, WooSox are still drawing fans, but key parcels are underutilized

Since a tense November meeting between Worcester Redevelopment Authority and key ballpark district stakeholder Madison Properties, not much has changed in terms of groundbreakings or sales at Madison-owned parcels near the Polar Park baseball stadium.

But Denis Dowdle, president of Madison Properties, said communication has improved since the meeting, which saw WRA Chair Michael Angelini get into a back-and-forth with Madison’s counsel over missed project deadlines, in wake of it pulling out from a key tax-break deal involving the Left Field Building site just beyond Polar Park’s walls.

“There’s been more frequent and consistent conversations with the City,” Dowdle said. “The level of communication has improved dramatically. There’s a lot more back-and-forth.”

Now, Dowdle said he is nearing an agreement to sell one of the parcels in his original five-development proposal, while the highest-profile property – the Left Field Building – has been listed for sale. The long-planned hotel might unveil a new partnership for construction to begin in a few years, while Madison’s one completed development, apartment complex The Revington, is filling up.

The slower-than-expected development of the Madison properties is the main reason the City of Worcester expects to have another revenue shortfall of around $792,000 in the ballpark district this year. This will mark the second year in a row the City will need to use general taxpayer funds to cover the bonds payments on the publicly owned $160-million stadium and reverses the promise made in 2018 to only use revenues generated in the ballpark district to pay for Polar Park, even as City finance officials remain optimistic the stadium and its surrounding developments will become a net-positive for taxpayers funds over the 35-year life of the bonds.

Meanwhile, Polar Park and the Worcester Red Sox are still attracting crowds that rank among the biggest in Minor League Baseball, albeit smaller than the ones they drew in 2022, as MiLB has gone through a league-wide dip in attendance.

“I don't want to discount the importance of that financial aspect, but looking just at the [ballpark district] revenues and the [district] expenses is a myopic view of the benefits,” said Peter Dunn, the City’s chief development officer. “I think it's underdiscussed, the environmental benefits, and family benefits. I've been with the city for 12 years now, and I remember years of people saying there's nothing for families to do in terms of affordable entertainment.”

Madison properties, for sale

Madison Properties’ Left Field Building site is listed on the market, subject to offer, with Worcester-real estate brokerage Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates. The site contains a building foundation and underground parking garage.

Dowdle is open to selling the site, leasing it, or finishing the building for an eventual user. The building essentially sits within Polar Park, with WooSox fans often milling in front of the partially completed development while they enjoy baseball.

The WooSox are patiently waiting for the development beyond left field, said team President Charles Steinberg.

“We’ve watched the visions for a Left Field Building change the way a kaleidoscope changes,” Steinberg said. “Would it be an office building? Would it be a biotech building? We're still all eager to see what ultimately becomes of that area.”

New York-based Diamond Baseball Holdings, which purchased the WooSox in December 2023, has been investing more in real estate around ballparks for the clubs it owns. This is an expansion in the scope of the business that has purchased 45 minor league teams since forming in 2021. So far, DBH is taking a wait-and-see approach with Worcester.

“We’ve had conversations with Diamond,” Dowdle said. “We’ve briefed them on everything we’re doing in the ballpark district. I don’t know what their appetite for investment in Worcester is at this point, but they’re aware of everything we’re doing.”

Moving beyond left field, Dowdle said a purchase agreement with a buyer is in the works for the undeveloped residential site at 110 Madison St.

A potential partner for the planned 175-room hotel project has been identified by Madison, said Dunn.

The hotel was originally set to be completed by May 2024, according to a 2020 report from then city manager Edward Augustus. Even with the partner-related progress, Dunn doesn’t believe shovels will be in the ground this year.

Other than the 350-space Green Island Boulevard parking garage, the one Madison Properties project completed in the district is The Revington, a 228-unit mixed-used building finished in November 2023. Dowdle said he’s pleased with how that project has played out.

The average asking residential rent at The Revington is $2,600, and the building has an occupancy rate of 87%, according to real estate date firm CoStar. Retail tenants include acai bowl franchise Playa Bowls and a branch of Whitinsville-based UniBank.

Despite the public back-and-forth between the two parties, Dowdle agrees with City leaders who feel the ballpark experiment is a noble one.

“This project has been great for Worcester,” Dowdle said. “It has slowed down a bit with some of the factors that have happened in the economy and markets recently, but I’m still bullish.”

Ballpark revenue shortfall

The WooSox have met their financial obligations, and attendance isn’t the reason for ballpark district budget shortfalls, said City of Worcester CFO Timothy McGourthy.

“The attendance at the ballpark has no bearing on the City,” McGourthy said. “It would impact parking revenues potentially, but ticket sales and all that has no bearing on the City.”

Instead, the shortfalls are the result of slower-than-anticipated developments of key parcels, many of them owned by Madison Properties. Building permits and additional taxes on new development are a key part in funding.

Fiscal 2024 saw a $792,000 shortfall between what was budgeted for versus what was collected for revenues in district improvement financing (DIF) area around Polar Park. The final fiscal 2025 revenue numbers are still to be calculated per the three-month schedule, but McGourthy expects around a similar shortfall.

The City continues to make bond payments and expects future district revenue to eventually make up for year-to-year shortfalls. This is a budget shortfall, rather than an account shortfall, and isn’t coming from money budgeted for other purposes, McGourthy claimed.

“When we do the budget, if we weren't moving monies into the District Improvement Financing account, those monies would be used for other municipal purposes,” McGourthy said. “So in that sense, the DIF would compete against every other public purpose that the City does. But we've never taken money out of a school account or road account and moved it over to the DIF.”

Revenues are generated from other projects in the district, like the 173-unit mixed-use building The Cove and 83-unit affordable housing District 120.

A 53-unit mixed-used project by Newton-based Rossi Development at the former Table Talk Pies site is under construction, with other projects planning to bring 450+ more units to a Canal District neighborhood that looks much different than just a few years ago.

“If you look at fiscal 2019, which was the year the DIF was established, it was about $10.5 million in private assessed value within the ballpark district,” McGourthy said. “Today, it's $128 million in private assessed value. That's both the combination of these new projects ... and the increase in property values on all of the land owners in that area.”

Dunn and McGourthy said shortfalls are a temporary adjustment to a long-term project they still see as a home run, stressing the other benefits of turning the formerly contaminated industrial lot into a $160-million ballpark.

The home team

The WooSox made their rent payment of $2.8 million in fiscal 2025, with an increase to $2.84 million slated for 2026.

The team has regularly ranked at the top of MiLB in terms of attendance per game, coming in 10th of 120 in 2024 and 6th in 2023. Through 50 ticketed events as of Aug. 14, the WooSox have drawn an average attendance of 6,476.

This is about 87% of the 7,395-per-event the team drew through 50 ticketed events in 2022, its first season without COVID restrictions, and about 99% of the attendance through 50 events last season.

MiLB attendance figures represent tickets sold to a game, not turnstile numbers. So, 6,400+ tickets sold per game doesn’t necessarily mean 6,400+ people came to the Canal District to pay to park, eat at restaurants, etc. Doubleheaders are single-ticketed event, with attendance counted just once for both games.

The WooSox drew a total of 479,636 fans in 2024, about 90% of what it drew in 2022, its first full-capacity season. Triple A-level clubs in Minor League Baseball saw a total attendance of 9.16 million in 2024, about 95% of the 9.52 million fans drawn in 2022.

For comparison, the Charlotte Knights drew 628,173 fans in 2016, about 91% of what they drew in 2014, their first year at a new stadium. The Nashville Sounds drew 565,545 fans in 2017, actually 5% more than what they drew in 2015 when they opened their new stadium. The Omaha Storm Chasers drew 390,957 fans in 2013, about 95% of what they drew in 2011 as they opened a new park.

Polar Park is the only Triple A ballpark built in the last decade. All three other clubs play in markets bigger than Worcester, and the International League, the league within Triple A the WooSox play in, has seen attendance dip from 9,827 per game in 2014 to 6,157 in 2024.

This year's International League attendance sits at 5,302-per-game as of Aug. 14, although MiLB attendance tends to improve as the season goes on, according to Baseball America.

Steinberg is pleased with how the ballclub is performing from an attendance standpoint and new developments in the area, including American Flatbread’s new candlepin bowling alley.

“It's amazing where the people are coming from,” he said, noting an increase from Rhode Island, former home of Pawtucket Red Sox. “They're coming from Williamstown in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. They're coming from Hingham and Weymouth, from New Hampshire and Maine.”

Last off-season saw the addition of the Royal Wooters Club, a space with a bar and pool table allowing season-ticket holders to escape the elements. More upgrades are in the works.

“We're in the conjuring stage right now of plans for 2026, and it does follow that theme of listening to people to hear what are the turning points on the decisions to come to a game,” Steinberg said.

CORRECTION: WBJ's initial attendance calculation did not account for doubleheaders, which are single-admission events where only one attendance figure is given for both games. Corrected attendance figures show the WooSox drew an average of 6,476 fans through Aug. 14, about 87% of the average of 7,395 the team drew through 50 ticketed events in 2022.

Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.