Sun-Times Whiffs on Sox Stadium Lease
The trouble with good news is that it usually means somebody’s overlooking something. To begin with, the Sun-Times was overlooking what serious critics of the stadium deal were actually saying three years ago. God knows they weren’t saying that in the very first year of the new park’s existence, even if the Sox found themselves in a scorching pennant race, no one would come. What concerned them was the way the deal was structured.
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In a year when the Sox are battling for first and attendance is projected at 2.8 million, it would be dumbfounding if the authority didn’t get back a fair chunk of change. What critics of the stadium deal still wonder is why the Sox get to keep all the revenues from the first 1.2 million tickets sold plus the first $10 million in broadcasting and ad revenues–and also every first and last penny from parking, concessions, and sky boxes.
Stadium-deal critic Paul Botts jumped on that observation. In a letter to the Sun-Times he exclaimed, “That’s precisely the point: under this lease, there IS no economic pressure on the owners of the team to field a competitive team to sell tickets. If the team stinks, their revenue drops off–but their rent costs disappear altogether! No gain, no pain.”
Total 1991 income–about $25.5 million.
“I thought it was a very courageous column idea. I think the execution could have been somewhat smoother, but I think it showed his maturing, and I’m not displeased he had the courage to do that.”
