New Buildings Are a Sign Sport Is Rebuilding Its Popularity

A week before the start of what is expected to be baseball’s first full season since 1993, season-ticket sales are up 7.1% in the American League and 6.3% in the National League.

Of course, attendance was down almost 20% in the 1995 aftermath of the strike, and a better measure of the industry’s recovery may be the ballot box acceptance of the luxury box.

It hasn’t happened in Anaheim yet, but new stadiums seem to be winning approval everywhere, with more on the way:

--Although a similar package was defeated at the polls, the Washington Legislature has approved $320 million in financing for a retractable-roof baseball stadium in Seattle, scheduled to open in 1999.

--A $250-million retractable-roof baseball stadium that received narrow financial support in the Wisconsin Legislature requires only the anticipated approval by the stadium district on Monday to become reality. The Milwaukee Brewers hope to be in it in 1999.

--Voters in Hamilton County, Ohio, approved a half-cent sales-tax increase as the initial step in financing new baseball and football stadiums for the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals.

--Detroit voters last week overwhelmingly approved a $40-million component of a $240- million package for a downtown baseball stadium that also overcame a court challenge by the Tiger Stadium Fan Club on Thursday and is tentatively scheduled to open late in ’98 or early ’99.

It’s an impressive addition to Camden Yards in Baltimore, Jacobs Field in Cleveland and the Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, and there’s more:

--The Boston Red Sox are producing a private financing plan for a new stadium incorporating the charms and idiosyncrasies of Fenway Park. They say it will be built within five or six years.

--George Steinbrenner continues to push for a new Yankee Stadium somewhere besides the Bronx.

--There have been ongoing discussions involving a new stadium for Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

--And voters in San Francisco on Tuesday will get one last chance to approve a new home for the Giants.

At issue is a change in building codes. The $255-million stadium at China Basin near downtown would be privately financed, and is scheduled to open in 2000. It’s a first test for Mayor Willie Brown, and polls predict victory.

The Giants are cautious. Beaten in four previous elections, they have avoided threats as counterproductive.

“We’re not thinking about losing,” said Larry Baer, executive vice president. “The only thing we have said is that if we win, we’ll be able to make the long-term commitments to the team that we haven’t been able to because of the uncertain future.”

As part of the campaign, perhaps, the Giants have let it be known that they are talking about contract extensions with Barry Bonds and Matt Williams.

Said John Harrington, Red Sox chief executive officer: “What we’ve seen in Toronto, Cleveland, Baltimore and Texas is that the revenue from new stadiums represents the best way to remain competitive while coping with rising salaries and industry expenses.”

John McHale Jr., president of the Tigers, agreed. He said the club holds the same affection for Tiger Stadium that the fan club does, “but it’s 65 years old at best, can’t be retrofitted and can’t assure profitability in the next century, particularly considering our division rivals.”

“I mean, the Orioles are in a smaller market but produce more revenue in Camden Yards; the Yankees will have a new stadium soon, as if they need more help; Boston expects to have a stadium by the turn of the century and Toronto has been going great guns in the SkyDome. We need the stadium to compete.”

The fan club may further delay the project by appealing Thursday’s court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of a $55-million state grant, but the supporters of Tiger Stadium seem to be blowing against the wind.

Voters approved the $40-million component by 81% to 19%, a margin that stunned McHale. “I come from a universe where a 54%-46% baseball vote is a landslide,” he said. “This was an overwhelming endorsement of the project and rebirth of the city.”

And part of what seems to be an impressive rebirth for baseball.

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Laboring on: Management’s latest negotiating proposal won’t produce an agreement by opening day, but it opens the door to compromise and puts the onus on the union to prove how seriously and swiftly it wants a deal. There are numerous complexities to be resolved, but on what has always been the pivotal issue of a payroll restraint, it seems this simple:

Management has accepted the union’s concept of a salary tax in the first two years of a six-year agreement and proposed that a 40% tax on payroll dollars over $46 million begin in the third year, with that payroll threshold increasing yearly by 7%. The union has long proposed a 25% tax at $50 million, but went to 30% in its last proposal, tying it to industry revenue.

Thus, they are only $4 million apart on the threshold at which a tax would be triggered, suggesting a compromise at $48 million; and 10% apart on the rate, suggesting a compromise at 35%.

Will they get there? The process has never been as easy as it seems on paper.