Baseball

Forty people showed for the kickoff of a petition drive aimed at reversing $15 million in stadium lease concessions for the new owners of the San Francisco Giants, whose bid saved the team for the city. The monthlong signature gathering drive is being organized by the Committee to Stop the Giveaway.

David Spero, drive organizer, said the group needed about 19,500 valid signatures to qualify a referendum for the November, 1993, ballot.

The group was formed in response to the five-year Candlestick Park lease package cutting the Giants’ annual rent to $1 from $750,000 and turning over parking and scoreboard advertising revenues to the new team owners.

Spero called the concessions a “stickup” of San Francisco taxpayers.

“People are outraged,” Spero said. “Essential city services are going downhill. We’re having to lay off people. We’re having to cut back services to our senior citizens and our kids, so why should we be doing this lease giveaway?”

Mayor Frank Jordan backed the lease package as part of the effort to keep the Giants from moving and the Board of Supervisors gave approval Dec. 21, contending that if the Giants had left town, there would have been no Giant-related stadium revenue to argue over.