9-1 Worcester City Council vote solidifies PawSox deal
Mayor Joe Petty announced plans for a civic celebration including baseball legends and fireworks immediately following the 9-1 vote tally on City Manager Ed Augustus, Jr.’s deal to lure the PawSox to Worcester.
The announcement was met with cheers from the council chamber gallery as city officials and PawSox brass circled the room, shaking hands and talking baseball.
The mood in the room was a joyous one as the council gave the city administration approval to borrow $100.8 million to finance the ballpark construction. The loan will be paid back over the course of 30 years to construct the 10,000 seat ballpark, named Polar Park. Officials have put together a plan to pay for the loan with revenues generated from other parts of the development, like planned hotels, parking garages and an apartment complex, as well as annual rent payments from the Red Sox Triple A team, which are scheduled to pay for roughly $30 million over the life of the loan. City officials estimate the proposal will operate at a roughly $770,000 surplus in the first year, 2022, and bear a $22 million surplus over the course of the loan. City officials call the projections conservative, but outside economists critical of the deal have suggested that projections by their very nature are subject to change and, in the end, it’s the city who bears the risk.
The mood was not shared by Councilor Konnie Lukes, the lone vote against the project, who, before casting her vote, conducted a lengthy cross examination of City Auditor David Stearns on the potential risks of borrowing such a sum of money to finance a ballpark.
Read more: http://www.worcestermag.com/news/20180912/9-1-city-council-vote-solidifies-pawsox-deal
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