It is a tricky situation, but one that does not have an easy solution. Fenway Park is one of MLB's most iconic stadiums. It is quirky, antiquated and iconic all at the same time. While Boston Red Sox fans have no issues packing it to the brim each and every ballgame, Fenway Sports Group has been at a bit of a competitive disadvantage for quite some time when it comes to having a true home base.
It is why Fenway Sports Group is planning to implement a massive redevelopment project around Fenway Park. This would include a seven-story office building on Landsdowne that could conceivably serve as the team's headquarters. Catherine Carlock of The Boston Globe wrote about how the renderings of said development could block the views of the recognizable Citgo sign from overhead.
Right now, the site in which a new ownership group headquarters is located is where a two-story parking garage is between the Green Monster and the Massachusetts Turnpike. We have seen redevelopments provide good, bad and ugly around other ballparks before, most noticeably in the Wrigleyville neighborhood around Wrigley Field in Chicago. I lived there and have some thoughts...
With how poor the on-field product has been in Boston, are we sure the focus is in the right spot?
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The pros and cons of Fenway Sports Group finding a new headquarters
I will share a few pros and a few cons over the matter before discussing my personal experience living in Wrigleyville for a few years, as well as my fandom being tied to the Atlanta Braves, a team that moved out of the city and into the suburbs over similar issues. All three teams have great fans and have plenty of cashflow to sustain excellence in varying levels of capacity, but there are challenges.
The biggest reason to go ahead with this for Fenway Sports Group is to provide even more revenue opportunities in the surrounding area, while simultaneously landing a new place to work. For the last few decades, Carlock reported the Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group have used Fenway Park as its primary space of operation, as well as a few rented spaces in nearby Brookline. It is all so outdated.
I think from a resource and team-building standpoint, this could be to the benefit of the Red Sox. The developments around Wrigley Field have helped modernize the Chicago Cubs' operation to some extent. The Braves left Downtown Atlanta for Cumberland on the other side of the Chattahoochee over disagreements with the City of Atlanta on who should front the bill for stadium area renovations.
Again, I understand what Fenway Sports Group is trying to do here, but I struggle to see how this translates to winning on the field, as well as creating new fans. Nobody wants to play in a dump and nobody wants to watch a game in a dilapidated venue. That may be true, but nobody wants to watch a loser lose day in and day out. Fenway Sports Group seems to be focused on anything but the game.
One of the reasons why the Red Sox have the following that they do is because of the quirky nature of their ballpark, in combination with their 86-year World Series championship drought. They have won four since 2004, but their most recent in 2018 feels like forever ago. These potential real estate developments will take years to fully manifest. Maybe the team will finally be great by that time again?
As far as what I experienced in Wrigleyville from 2018 to 2020, I can say that I came in midway through the redevelopment phase put forth by the Ricketts. Yes, there were things that I grew to enjoy as a part of the new developments around Wrigley Field. However, I never really felt that they helped the team win more. More importantly, I cannot say for certain that Cubs fans really liked the changes.
Can the Red Sox pull off what the Braves did so well?
When it comes to the Braves moving North up I-75 to Cobb County, I will give Liberty Media its props for being cutting edge in trying to make something new and special. Atlanta was never going to pay to renovate Turner Field like the Braves had hoped. Going in a different direction cost politicians their jobs, but the product has been undeniable. The Braves made it work because they embodied new.
And that is kind of where I have mixed feelings about what happened in Wrigleyville and what could potentially happen at Fenway. I have only been to Boston twice in my life, but never to see the Red Sox play. I just know how special this team is to Boston, Massachusetts and New England as a whole. There is middle ground between old and new, but Fenway Sports has to learn from the Cubs' mess.
This may be what Fenway Sports Group wants, but all Red Sox fans really care about is them winning.