Last summer I covered proposed move of the Boston Red Sox spring training facility to Sarasota. Ultimately the Red Sox were able to squeeze more money out of the city of Fort Myers. The Cincinnati Reds played their final season in Florida earlier this year so Sarasota was looking at having no spring training team in 2010. Last week the city of Sarasota, the county, and the Baltimore Orioles agreed on terms to move the Orioles from Fort Lauderdale.
The elected leadership of Sarasota County and the city of Sarasota is patting themselves on the back for a job well down. Meanwhile the taxpayers have to subsidize a $30 million project. In today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune Kevin Reichard, publisher of Ballpark Digest says he believes the Ed Smith stadium renovation will cost $40 million. This is hardly shocking to anyone who is knowledgeable about these kind of subsidized projects. The Heartland Institute has an article about a recent study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. It turns out these projects always cost more than initially believed.
A 2007 study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation found heavily subsidized stadium projects were significantly more expensive on average than largely privately funded projects. The study found stadiums where taxpayers bore a majority of the cost were $65 million more expensive on average than those for which private entities paid the bulk of the tab.
While private financiers have every reason to scrutinize costs closely, “Government bureaucrats … are often more concerned with reelection prospects and PR plaudits than with cost containment,” the study notes.
In addition, the study found the average taxpayer subsidy per stadium is on the rise and shows no signs of slowing. The amount taxpayers paid for each facility rose 41 percent in just the eight years leading up to 2004.
The main argument for the agreement with the Orioles was the fact that it was going to be paid for in part by a tourist tax. Who pays for the shortfall? Here’s a hint; it won’t be the Baltimore Orioles.
The following rant doesn’t really have anything to do with current events or politics; it’s about baseball. This “Red Sox Nation” adage needs to stop and go away. It’s being imposed on us like Ted Turner’s “America’s Team,” but at least that was a marketing scheme. The Red Sox Nation was coined from a Boston Globe columnist back in the ’80s. Eventually, he wrote a book about Boston fans. The thing is that the Red Sox aren’t the most popular team in baseball. In fact, when they’re not winning they’re not even in the top 5. The sad thing is the Red Sox were a novelty team that everyone put up with because they were lovable losers; now they’re the Yankees 2.0. I can’t stand them.
Clearly Red Sox fans are taught how to be obnoxious from an early age.
I’m not the only one; when I asked Club Soda what he thought about the Red Sox he said, “I’ve gone from neutral to pure white hot hatred.” At least the Yankees have a reason to be the most popular team. The Yankees have won over twice as many championships as anyone else and have a rich winning history that goes back to the 1920s. The Red Sox are a regional team (New England) that’s popular because they’ve been winning recently. I have the data to back it up!
Since 1999 Harris Interactive has been running a poll of the most popular teams in the United States. Here are the top five most popular teams in 1999 and in 2009.
1999
1) Atlanta Braves
2) New York Yankees
3) Chicago Cubs
4) St. Louis Cardinals
5) Cleveland Indians
2009
1) New York Yankees
2) Boston Red Sox
3) Atlanta Braves
4) Chicago Cubs
5) Los Angeles Dodgers
The point of this exercise is to show that the “Red Sox Nation” didn’t exists ten years ago. Ten years ago the Red Sox were the 8th most popular team. Since then they’ve won two World Series titles and just passed the Braves (who haven’t had a winning record in three seasons) for second place. Historically speaking, the Red Sox have never been the most popular team in baseball.
The Red Sox may end up being one of the most popular teams going forward, but that’s due to winning. The Tampa Bay Rays went from 28th to 17th in one season because they went to the World Series. The true test of popularity is what happens when the team isn’t winning. That might be a question the Red Sox won’t have to answer for awhile.
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