The Pawtucket Red Sox are likely headed to Worcester, says a beat reporter for the team’s major league affiliate.
Nick Cafardo, a Boston Red Sox reporter for the Boston Globe, told Rhode Island radio personality Tara Garnahan on WPRO Monday morning — citing anonymous sources close to the team — that Worcester is winning the fight to land the ballclub.
Cafardo cited greater corporate interest in Worcester as the factor pushing the team north.
“At first, there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm,” Cafardo said. “Then, all of a sudden, there was some great enthusiasm. Someone did a great selling job on them.”
From a public financing perspective, Cafardo said the Worcester deal is far more team-friendly than Rhode Island’s deal to stay in Pawtucket, which has the team ponying up $45 million with the Rhode Island and Pawtucket adding $23 million and $15 million, respectively.
The Rhode Island General Assembly approved the deal last month, and Gov. Gina Raimondo signed the bill in late June, but the last-minute effort may not be enough to keep the team in the Ocean State, Cafardo said.
“The state of Massachusetts has done a great job to try and lure them as well,” he said. “They had their act together. They really have since the beginning.”
Cafardo added the International League — in which the PawSox play — has to approve the deal, and his sources have said the league is much more in favor of the Worcester deal.
The league, he said, has a vested interest in making sure the deal isn’t too costly for the team.
