Ruggerio: Pawtucket should get money from stadium naming rights, not PawSox

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio expects rewritten stadium-financing legislation to direct more revenue from a new PawSox ballpark to the City of Pawtucket to protect its ability to pay off the debt the city would incur to help build at the Apex department store site.

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Ruggerio wants revenue from selling the stadium's naming rights to go straight to the City of Pawtucket, not the Pawtucket Red Sox, as the legislation introduced last spring would allow. Since May, the Triple-A ballclub and city officials have said the team would use $500,000 from naming rights each year, an amount that would increase about 2 percent annually, to help pay off the PawSox debt.

"I don't think that's appropriate because they don't own the facility," Ruggerio told The Providence Journal in an interview Friday. "Whoever owns the facility should have access to the naming rights, and I think that Pawtucket's going to own the facility. This would help them with their payments."

Ruggerio expects revised legislation to be introduced Dec. 7 to the Senate Finance Committee, which would not vote then. The legislation would be available online for people to "make a value judgment" about whether it addresses concerns expressed by the committee and the public.

Ruggerio said he'll be "very supportive" of the new legislation. He wants the PawSox to stay in Rhode Island and he believes a stadium deal is "priority No. 1 at this point in time." With the team's lease at McCoy Stadium expiring at the end of the 2020 season, Ruggerio said the team's "situation is immediate because they have to find a place to land soon."

He's not suggesting another revenue stream to help the team make its debt payments without revenue from the naming rights.

But Ruggerio also said: "I don't see that the team would have a problem financing their debt."

He's especially concerned about the city's ability to pay its debt in the early years — a key concern expressed by senators on the Finance Committee throughout a month of public hearings. Any development around a new stadium would take time to construct and likely wouldn't generate additional tax revenue initially for the city, Ruggerio said.

Ruggerio also supports redirecting luxury taxes paid for premium seats — into the city's coffers and not the state's, as the legislation now outlines.

The proposed deal outlines that the team would pay $12 million upfront and the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency would issue bonds that the team, state and city would pay back over 30 years. Those bonds could total $84 million, including money set aside in reserves. The three entities would each have to pay back a portion of stadium construction costs: $33 million, PawSox; $23 million, state; and $15 million, city.

Ruggerio said he and House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello had a "real brief" conversation about the stadium on Tuesday. Mattiello said that "he was not inclined" to put the issue before the House of Representatives this year, Ruggerio said.

Ruggerio wants the Senate Finance Committee, and even the full Senate, to vote soon — perhaps even in December, he said, although the holidays may prevent that timing.

So, did he ask Mattiello to consider the matter early in the next legislative session?

"No," Ruggerio said. "I told him we were looking to do it relatively soon, I didn't think we should let it hang out there, and if we're not doing it this year, we're doing it very early in January."

A number of opponents have suggested state leaders allow Rhode Islanders to vote in a bond referendum on whether to help pay for a new Triple-A stadium.

But Ruggerio doesn't support that idea and thinks the team would find a new home before a vote next fall.

"I think they're gone by then," he said.

Tribune Content Agency
Public finance Rhode Island
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