WooSox Facing Financial Issues, Now Lobbying for Congressional Financial Relief
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
The Worcester Red Sox are facing financial issues and the City of Worcester is behind in making payments on the stadium, according to reports.
The $160 million stadium is the most expensive in minor league baseball history. The team moved to Worcester from Pawtucket after the 2020 season.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that minor league teams are seeking a new round of federal COVID relief.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Jason Freier, the owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts Double-A baseball team in Tennessee, said the cancellation of the 2020 season forced him to bench roughly 300 seasonal and part-time employees who worked as ticket takers, groundskeepers and ushers…'The team also furloughed all front-office employees except its president. The Lookouts returned to the diamond last year, but with a shortened schedule and attendance restrictions. Revenue was down nearly 20% in 2021, compared with 2019,’ Mr. Freier said. Revenue dropped more than 90% from 2019 to 2020," reports the WSJ.
Owners of minor league teams in baseball and other sports are among the businesses lobbying Congress for $60 billion in additional relief money. Other leisure sectors are pushing for more taxpayer dollars.
The WooSox are owned by a collection of millionaires and billionaires.
As GoLocal was first to report in 2020, the Woo Sox received taxpayer funds under the Payroll Protection Program.
The team confirmed in a statement to GoLocal, “The loan facility is being used by minor league teams all over America, and it enables us to avoid furloughs and/or payroll reductions, as is intended by the legislation."
The COVID hit for the WooSox was just part of the problem.
Worcester Stadium Payments
The Worcester Business Journal reports, "The City of Worcester’s effort to pay off the $160-million cost of the Polar Park baseball stadium over 30 years is off to a rocky start. Yet, despite a revenue shortfall in the Worcester Red Sox’s first season at the ballpark, city officials so far avoided breaking the promise they made in 2018 when the team announced it was moving from Rhode Island to the Canal District: The stadium will pay for itself.”
“With a project of this size, you are constantly course correcting,” [Worcester] City Manager Edward Augustus told WBS. “You just have to keep your eye on the ball, which is getting the project functional.”
“I had hoped those accounts would have been set up when I started with the city,” said Tim McGourthy, the City of Worcester chief financial officer, who started his job on June 22, 2020.
Augustus has repeatedly said that the stadium would pay for itself.
Editor's Note: The story has been edited - the city of Worcester asserts that no payments have been missed.
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