Letter from SFP's President

April 2004

Tom Werner, one of the principal owners of the Red Sox, indicates that ownership is eager to resolve the team’s ballpark issue. "I think we have to make [the decision] in the near future…We have to say, we're going to stay here under this scenario or we're not.”

The choices facing the team are: 1) stay at a modestly sized Fenway 2) dramatically increase Fenway’s size with a new upper deck, or 3) build a new stadium. This should not be a difficult decision.

Today’s Fenway Park is the second most lucrative stadium in baseball and every year its revenue lead over other stadiums increases dramatically. While Fenway has averaged about $138.3 million in revenues over the last two years, stadiums housing the World Series winners in 2002 and 2003 had revenues of about $66.1 million and $21.6 million, respectively. Overall, the Red Sox are the second wealthiest team in baseball and have the second highest payroll.

And Fenway is becoming more popular, indeed more beloved, with each passing year. Attendance is at an all-time high. The ballpark is more spacious and comfortable than ever. Fenway Park is perhaps the greatest single asset in all of baseball – a lucrative shrine for baseball fans everywhere that lends the franchise a unique and invaluable aura of tradition.

There is nothing wrong with Fenway Park. In physical terms it is on a par with other stadiums; in economic terms it is far ahead; in emotional terms it is simply untouchable.

This is why replacing Fenway with a new stadium or dramatically altering the ballpark with an upper deck would be risky ventures driven by hubris – a callous bet that if 2.8 million Red Sox fans today pay the highest ticket prices in baseball to attend games at Fenway Park, perhaps 3.5 million will pay almost as much at a new 45,000 seat stadium or a severely disfigured Fenway. Either choice would be a foolish risk since new stadiums in other cities have brought in large crowds for only a few short years. Moreover, it is Fenway’s current charming intimacy and historic authenticity that draws fans in record numbers year after year. A new stadium or drastic expansion would smack of avarice since the team does not need additional revenue to compete.

The current owners of the Red Sox have been worthy stewards of Fenway Park to date but I fear they are men used to reaching for the stars, taking chances, and succeeding. The stakes are higher this time, however. I am sure that on their way to the top they have never foolishly and needlessly destroyed something of surpassing significance that can never, ever, be replaced. Let us hope they do not make the biggest blunder since owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.

Sincerely,

Dan Wilson, President

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