Now that I have had the day to sit with this, I have to put my baseball fan hat on for a spell. This will be emotional, subjective, and unsupported by evidence. Feel free to scroll right on through if you aren't feeling it.
The plan that's been articulated so far is fully meh to my eyes. Standard mixed use platitudes in a location that is anything but standard. The way I see it, this land is like Mookie Betts and this plan is like Alex Verdugo. Wow, maybe a hotel? Thrilling stuff. Can somebody please tell FSG that the luxury tax threshold is only a thing in baseball and not in real estate? That they have a singular asset in the Red Sox franchise, and that they would do well to treat their surrounding holdings as complementary not just to the neighborhood, but to their own asset as well? You're going to build out the land immediately surrounding Fenway Park, literally a once-in-a-century opportunity, and you're going to fill it with ... basically the same stuff it's already surrounded by?
The Globe piece linked in the OP says:
We are not some joint venture that is just looking to maximize height or density. We want to create value, but we have to make sure we do no harm to Fenway Park and the fan experience.
"Do no harm" really chafes me. When FSG bought the team, they took it upon themselves not just to "do no harm" to Fenway Park, but to preserve it and improve it. They largely did a commendable job over that first decade or so, but now they seem to be running out of steam. I suppose they feel that they have maximized their ROI on this asset. I can't help but disagree. In Fenway Park, you have one of three baseball destinations in the country capable of sustaining 365-day interest from locals and tourists alike, the others being Wrigley and Cooperstown. I think you could argue that it's the most significant American history site in the city proper that lies west of the Public Garden -- and if you don't buy that from me because it's "just" baseball, then take it up with Ken Burns.
As a cornerstone of any major development project with their name on it, FSG should be explaining what they are going to do to continue to preserve and improve Fenway Park and the fan experience, not just to "do no harm" to it. As we are constantly reminded while we squeeze into hundred-dollar seats on a concrete grandstand whose dimensions have been mostly unchanged since 1934, Fenway's footprint constitutes by far the smallest acreage of any MLB park. The music hall was at least an interesting idea from a development perspective, but it was a stunning waste of the only contiguous space available to them as a baseball franchise. All they seem to have added is a last-row function room at the top of the bleachers so that they can host more of what will certainly be the most garish weddings that any of us can ever hope to not be invited to.
The Globe briefly mentions the idea that the team might move its offices out of Jersey Street and the former Jeano Building, but to what end? "Freeing up concourse space" is squeezing blood from a stone at this point; they've cracked that nut as much as it will be cracked without taking the wrecking ball to the historical forms of the park's underbelly. Player amenities are always in short supply because of the space constraints, but that doesn't move the needle for regular visitors. More restaurants, some high-roller club space, a team store? You have all of that already, or you've just committed to building more of it in practically every compass direction. Where is the creativity, where is the stewardship of history, where is the commitment to public access, even if paid, to this national treasure?
I will continue to beat the drum for a year-round team hall of fame and museum on-site because it just seems to be such a no-brainer, and frankly shocking to me that it doesn't already exist. They should put it on either the Lansdowne parcel or the Jersey parcel, then tunnel a wiiiiide concourse underneath the street (think Logan Terminal A) to provide access directly into the park for museum visitors. Fenway tours are well and good enough as they are, but not by themselves a genuine attraction that draws real traffic to the neighborhood and probably not worth the price of entry. Those of us who care about these things have been fairly disgusted by Major League Baseball's shameful treatment of its minor league system, effectively taking organized baseball away from dozens of communities around the country where it had served as a gateway for a new generation of young fans. Where MLB has failed, the Red Sox should take the lead. Build a family friendly year-round attraction to complement the park, and those of us with kids interested in the sport and who live close by would be annual pass holders sight unseen. We would spend our days there the way one goes to the Children's Museum or the MOS. We would be far from the only ones, I assure you.
It has always been a concern of Fenway neighbors and the diehard fans alike that the gameday experience and the neighborhood at large would become some Disney-fied version of Red Sox Nation. Now that they've started to air these plans, I can't believe how much the Disney-fication has been turned down, to the point of being practically absent. With an opportunity to put a stamp on their surroundings, they're really just going to build more of the same, and I can't believe it. It's an incredible swing and a miss for everyone involved.
www.bostonglobe.com
