Since 1970, Pawtucket, R.I. has been the home of the Red Sox’ top minor-league farm club. It has been the final stop on the road to The Show for many of Boston’s hard-balling stars, and has been, at times, a short stop for those Big League stars when they’re recovering from a stint on the disabled list.
But in three years, that’ll all change.
Officials in Worcester announced Friday afternoon that the city and team management have come to an agreement to move the Triple-A franchise northwest along Route 146, bringing the top farm club into the heart of the Commonwealth.
According to published reports, the new double-decked 10,000-seat ballpark — named Polar Park, after the Worcester-based beverage company along Interstate 290 — in the Kelley Square neighborhood will cost between $86-$90 million and is expected be ready for the start of the 2021 season. It’s part of a larger revitalization plan for the area, costing $240 million, with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts chipping in $35 million over the next two-to-three years.
BSJ Analysis
A project 15 months in the making — a project this born, burped, and raised Central Mass. resident has kept a close eye on in our local media out here, especially in the last few months — is finally coming true.
I won’t say that I wasn’t skeptical, at least at first, when The Woo's wooing of the PawSox began. I had originally thought, and with good reason, that Larry Lucchino and the PawSox brass were using Worcester as a bargaining chip with Pawtucket and the Rhode Island Assembly. I thought that once the Assembly passed their respective bills at the end of June, the PawSox would take the deal and build a brand new stadium in Pawtucket, replacing longtime home McCoy Stadium … and hopefully leaving the Calvin Schiraldi photo somewhere in the deep recesses of its old home. They would have said thanks but no thanks to Worcester, and I had hoped — secretly hoped — that if it fell through, the Krafts would look at that property as a starting point for a potential Revolution stadium.
Another reason why I was skeptical? History wasn’t really on their side here. Worcester has seen several minor league franchises, mainly hockey, evaporate from the local sports scene: first the IceCats (1994-2005), then the Sharks (2006-15), both headed west of here after entertaining modest crowds at the DCU Center. In baseball, we had the Tornadoes — I covered a few of their games while at the Southbridge paper, and got to interview Rich Gedman, a big thrill for a Fitchburg kid who really started following the Sox and their catcher in 1986— but they were independent league ball, and they closed when they didn’t pay their bills. Que sera, sera.
Yet the recent surge to the HIP — Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field, the Holy Cross diamond — over the Worcester Bravehearts, the Futures League of College Baseball (third level of summer baseball, compared to the Cape League and the NECBL) entrant has proven that yes, if you provide an entertaining product, you can get some fans into the park — yes, even in Worcester.
(Quick aside: the Bravehearts folks, fresh off a Futures League co-championship with Martha’s Vinyard, aren’t exactly thrilled by this announcement.)
— Worcester Bravehearts (@WooBaseball) August 17, 2018