NEW: PawSox Stadium Opponents Declare Success, Rally Planned for Thursday
GoLocalProv News Team
NEW: PawSox Stadium Opponents Declare Success, Rally Planned for Thursday
"Stop the Stadium" Group
On Monday, the Steering Committee of Stop the Stadium Deal (STSD) announced success in its efforts to bring an end to a proposal to relocate the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox to the waterfront in downtown Providence.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“We needed to stop this stadium deal, and we did! Voters are angry about a culture of corporate welfare in RI. In this case, we had a group of very wealthy businessmen who engaged in closed-door meetings with influential city and state officials," said Sam Bell, Chairman of STSD. "They asked for enormous taxpayer subsidies to benefit their private corporation. This speaks to exactly what people feel is wrong with how politics is conducted in this state.”
The group affirmed their position Monday that they support the use of the land for its intended purpose -- a public park.
“It’s also about saying yes to the public park,” said STSD member Sharon Steele. “The collective vision of an animated downtown waterfront has been evolving for 30 years, and a ‘Central Park for Providence’ has been at the heart of this vision. Public spaces make cities vibrant and wonderful places to live. They add to the quality of life. They also add economic value and are a natural complement to mixed-use real estate development. We intend to continue our efforts to ensure that an urban park welcoming to everyone remains a centerpiece of the redevelopment plan.”
Rally Planned for Thursday
Another Providence stadium opponent group, "Organizing for Pawtucket," is organizing a victory rally at the State House this Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
Group organizer David Norton wrote:
"We have won this fight! It sure was a tough drawn out fight, but make no mistake, WE HAVE WON! A Celebratory Rally is very much in order to show our State leaders that we are victorious! The PawSox owners have dealt with this issue with such arrogance and incompetence that it is very necessary to show them that WE stopped them! Incredibly, the PawSox owners are still claiming to be "considering" and "digesting" the situation! As you may have heard, from every major news organization in Rhode Island "THE DEAL IS DEAD", but the PawSox owners are so full of themselves that they refuse to admit that the deal is dead!
We have won, but we need to show up at our event at the State House to put an EXCLAMATION POINT on this victory! Please Join AND SHARE our Victory Rally Event. "
PawSox Stadium Aftermath: Winners and Losers
Winner
Coalition Radio -- A small group of libertarian activists relentlessly advocated against any public financing for a private venture. Pat Ford, Dave Fisher and Tony Jones leveraged internet radio and social media to pound the project and the costs.
Loser
Speaker Nicholas Mattiello -- The Speaker was all in for the project. He repeatedly voiced his strong support for the project. Some said it was a project for his legacy and others said he supported the project as a result of influence of the ownership group and their lobbyist Bob Goldberg.
It wasn't long ago that the Speaker said the Providence Stadium would be revenue positive. In a few short weeks, the project somehow went from supposedly financially advantageous to taxpayers to DOA.
Winner
GOP -- The Rhode Island Republicans came out against the project early and kept raising questions about the cost and the approval process. Despite being in the political minority, the Republicans used their thorn-in the-side status to play the spoiler.
Loser
Old School Top Down PR Strategy -- Renderings, fact finding trips for leaders and listening tours were all the strategies embraced by the ownership team and each came back and burned them. The listening tour had higher attendance at many sites by taxpayers who were opposed to the project -- and the fact they had to write their questions down, and be lectured to in response, did not go over well by opponents.
Winner (maybe)
Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien -- It looked like the Mayor was a loser for sure with his city's most valuable asset moving from Pawtucket just 6 miles away to a gleaming new $100 Million project in Providence. With the Providence Stadium dead, Pawtucket has a window to try and create a proposal that improves McCoy, is financially viable and acceptable to the ownership group.
The window is very short, and Grebien will move from the winners' column to the losers' bracket if the PawSox leave RI.
As the Mayor wrote in a GoLocal MINDSETTER™ piece, "We remain hopeful that the new owners will see the value that Pawtucket has given their brand and that the growth we are experiencing will only strengthen it. We hope they will Join the Evolution here in Pawtucket."
Loser
Jorge Elorza -- The Providence Mayor was unable to put together a deal and a location that worked for taxpayers. There was -- and still may be -- an opportunity to bring hundreds of thousands of new visitors into the city annually at the 195 site.
Elorza needs to change the present narrative from crime, a decrepit recreation system, and visits to meet with Guatemalan corrupt leaders to where the city needs to be.
Winner
Taxpayers -- A coalition of taxpayer groups and activists scored their most significant political victory to date. This may spark an empowered effort to take on other issues with enthusiasm.
Loser
Public Financing of Stadiums in the US -- The dramatic defeat of the proposed stadium in Providence may cause other cities, counties and states to take a harder look at the economics of public financing of stadiums.
There is now a blueprint for how taxpayers and progressives can build a coalition to oppose a professional sports team, organized labor and billionaire ownership interests.
The PawSox defeat and the Boston Olympics collapse may speak to a broader grassroots movement opposed to the spending on public funds on private projects.
Winner
Grassroots Activists -- Multiple grassroots efforts sprang up to oppose the stadium move, and perhaps none as vocal - or visible -- as "Organizing for Pawtucket" and David Norton.
Even when a new stadium looked like it was on life support, Norton and supporters utilized both social media and traditional boots-on-the-ground techniques (read: canvassing the Speaker's neighborhood -- in Cranston) to keep the pressure on until the deal was dead.
