When officials from the City of Worcester and the Pawtucket Red Sox gleefully announced in August 2018 the minor league baseball team would move to the Canal District, the planned inaugural season of 2021 seemed like a long way off. Now, it is just around the corner.
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When officials from the City of Worcester and the Pawtucket Red Sox gleefully announced in August 2018 the minor league baseball team would move to the Canal District, the planned inaugural season of 2021 seemed like a long way off. Now, it is just around the corner.
Yet, as those same officials move full steam ahead to get the $132-million Polar Park baseball stadium ready for April, they should really think about giving themselves another year. The coronavirus pandemic has not been good for the team. Minor League Baseball has canceled the 2020 season, and the 2021 season is far from certain. The construction of the stadium, already on a tight timeline, was stopped for a month due to the pandemic; and while team and city officials expressed confidence in late June the project still can be finished on time, playing catch-up at the end will mean more construction crews working longer shifts. Another $19 million in costs and Polar Park becomes the most expensive minor league baseball stadium ever, even adjusted for inflation.
Even worse, the pandemic has delayed by at least a year the opening of the planned surrounding hotel, retail, restaurant and office development, which is the main source of tax revenue to pay off the city’s bonds on the project. The hospitality and retail industries have been hit particularly hard, so getting high-quality tenants to sign up will be a nightmare.
The team and city officials get one shot at an Opening Day. That first game is a guaranteed sellout, and they have about a season and a half before the new Worcester Red Sox shine wears off. Why concentrate all that buzz into a half-completed uber development at a time when the world will still be shaking off the hangover of a pandemic? Instead, wait a year, make sure the surrounding development is full of businesses ready to start generating tax revenue, and hit the full throttle on one of the city’s most ambitious modern projects. Obviously, the clock is ticking for the city to start paying back its bonds. City Manager Edward Augustus already has talked about refinancing because interest rates have dropped, so a new first payment deadline can be folded into those negotiations.
The Polar Park project is just as much about building community pride as it is about dollars and sense, so maximizing the momentum should be a top priority. This is not the time to rush things; now is the time to figure out the best way to move forward, intelligently.
