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Poll results

Costs for building Worcester's Polar Park have reached roughly $132 million, with major cost overruns disclosed Friday attributed to what the city says is rising construction expenses and unforeseen costs of relocating businesses on the site. The costs include $99 million for the stadium and $33 million for the site infrastructure.

How much will Polar Park, slated to open for the Worcester Red Sox in April 2021, end up costing?
About $132 million, as the city and team encounter almost no other unforeseen circumstances. (4%, 7 VOTES)
Between $132 and $150 million, as a few relatively minor snags add to the project costs. (33%, 52 VOTES)
More than $150 million, as the complexity of the project and the tight timeline lead to significant overruns. (62%, 98 VOTES)
Poll Description

Costs for building Worcester's Polar Park have reached roughly $132 million, with major cost overruns disclosed Friday attributed to what the city says is rising construction expenses and unforeseen costs of relocating businesses on the site. The costs include $99 million for the stadium and $33 million for the site infrastructure.

  • 157 Votes
  • 4 Comments
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4 Comments

  • July 18, 2020
    Worcester taxpayers are going to be paying a steep price for a very long time for this gift to millionaire team owners. Economists had initially thought it was a pipe-dream that new tax revenues would ever reach the levels needed in order to pay off the bonds. Then the price tag rose another $30M with the city having to pick up $20M of it for higher than anticipated land acquisition costs. Then the pandemic came, halted construction, greatly altered the economic prospects for the area surrounding the park, and resulted in the developer for that area putting a hold on everything for a full year. This will further delay the generation of new taxes and be a bad look for any first time visitors. Now we have another $750,000 needed and there are still almost nine months left in the build. City leaders were reckless with the amount they offered for this project. How much more taxes will city residents now have to pay? How many police, firefighters, and teachers will be laid off?
  • January 14, 2020

    Although I am overjoyed that Worcester is finally coming into its own, and that our municipal government has been a proactive force in making that happen, big government projects always scare me. Let's hope it does not turn out like the Big Dig, originally scheduled to be completed in 1998 at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion, and it was completed in December 2007 at a cost of over $8.08 billion. (History not studied is destined to repeat itself!)

  • January 14, 2020
    There's a long history of stadium projects running way over budget, and this one will be no different. Once the city signed the deal and got its community emotionally involved with having the team here, it forfeited any negotiating leverage. The Red Sox, the contractors, the unions and the surrounding property owners know that, and they will take every advantage of the opportunity. The city will continue to tout the private investment that will follow, but in the end this will be a costly proposition that will end up being borne by the Worcester taxpayers, most of whom are business owners whose businesses will not see any significant return from having a baseball team in the city.
  • January 14, 2020

    When the bids came in, they seemed to be unreasonably low, probably on purpose in order to get agreement. Just like the Big Dig, unrealistic and poor planning, possible insider influence or even corruption seem to always happen in big projects in Massachusetts. The stadium is still a good thing though the city, and planners need to really sit down and compare this to other similar projects in other cities to understand what will more likely happen… and plan for it. How long after 2021 will it really take?
    As a side note, no parking and costly parking in the Kelley Square area right now are turning people off ... people you are trying to get to build the excitement and use!