NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 13, 2001

New Study Shows Red Sox Financially Competitive at Fenway Park;
Predicts Economic Difficulty if Owners Build New Stadium

Today, Ralph Nader and Save Fenway Park! released an economic report concluding that:

1. the Red Sox at existing Fenway Park are already financially competitive with the rest of Major League Baseball;

2. it is unlikely that a new stadium would enhance the Red Sox revenues to a point that allows them to be more financially competitive than they are now;

3. the proposed new stadium is such an economically risky endeavor that a worsening financial condition of the Red Sox is a distinct possibility.

The study was done by nationally known sports economist Robert Baade, a professor at Lake Forest College in Illinois who is an expert with extensive experience in examining new stadium deals.

"We've known from the beginning that this was a draining deal for taxpayers, but Prof. Baade has exposed this debacle to be a bad deal for Red Sox fans and even the team itself," said Nader.

Baade predicts in the report that the Red Sox new stadium debt service will be so steep that, "Rather than spending increased revenues on players, the Red Sox will be retiring debt. The long-term implications are worrisome. If the Red Sox are increasingly less competitive on the field, the revenues the team projects a new stadium will generate will be far less likely to materialize. If the new stadium lacks the distinctive character of the old, what will bring fans to the ballpark?"

Fans are being told that Fenway Park has to be replaced because it is economically obsolete. But the report released today demonstrates that Fenway Park is competitive with the most successful new retro-parks built in other cities. It has, overall, allowed the Red Sox to field a team with possibly the highest payroll in Major League Baseball this year, and maintain the second highest winning percentage in MLB since the advent of free agency in 1975.

"Attendance and revenues are declining at Camden Yards and the other retro-parks," notes Paul Shannon of Save Fenway Park! "The Tigers replaced their historic stadium just last year and already their average attendance has fallen below 20,000. Meanwhile, Fenway Park is bringing in record crowds and revenues for the Red Sox. Fenway is not only at the core of the Red Sox' unique mystique and team tradition, it is a proven, consistent revenue producer ­ the team's greatest asset."

"Abandoning Fenway Park would needlessly deprive fans of the opportunity to experience baseball in one of its greatest fields of historic memories," said Nader. "The stadium deal would destroy the magnificent Fenway neighborhood while giving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to wealthy owners, bankers and developers in a city with many unmet public needs."

Baade also noted the importance of Fenway Park in his report, insisting that "even if the team should flounder, a Fenway Park that is growing in historical significance will continue to be a magnet for fans from within and beyond Boston's borders. Wrigley Field in Chicago continues to attract fans despite the team's below average performance. Given growing fan alienation inspired by the commercial excesses characteristic of professional sport, this is a significant tribute to the appeal of the old ballparks that Boston would be unwise to ignore."

"It's time for baseball to value what makes the sport worth caring about -- its fans and its heritage -- by respecting and honoring its oldest remaining historic ballpark," said Shannon.

Professor Baade's analysis can be viewed, printed and downloaded from the website: http://www.savefenwaypark.org

Copies may also be obtained by fax or mail by calling Shawn McCarthy at (202) 387-8030, or email at shawn@essential.org.

Robert A. Baade is Vail Professor of Economics at Lake Forest College. He has published more than twenty scholarly articles, book chapters, and monographs about the economic impact professional and amateur sports exert on their host communities.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, author and 2000 Green Party presidential candidate. He has founded a new national sports fans project. It is an effort designed as a sports industry watchdog to assure accountability to fans and less harm to the cities that host sports franchises.

Shawn McCarthy is director of Nader's sports fans project under the Center for Study of Responsive Law. He is currently working to stop the flood of taxpayer subsidized stadiums and arenas across the country.

Paul Shannon is Director of Research for Save Fenway Park!, a fans organization dedicated to preserving one of Boston's uniquely enriching experiences: major league baseball at storied Fenway Park.

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