This double-cross brought to you by ...
By Tracy Larsen, for Seattle Insider
Originally published by Cox Interactive Media, June 1999
So the first homestand
at Safeco Field is now officially in the books. At last -- the hoopla can now be calmed just a bit. There were a few missteps and bruises along the way, of course, but there was also an ARod grand slam and a tension-filled, extra-inning win. We came out of it with an even 4-4 split; not bad for a team with a struggling bullpen.
In other words, now that the near-ceremonial games are over and the virtual annointing of Safeco Field has passed, the "real" games -- those of the mind sort -- can now begin. Whoopee!
It's a beautiful ballpark, there's no doubt, and I was happy to reflect on that in my last column. It houses some beautiful art, courtesy of Northwest artists, throughout; a lush grass field with quality dimensions for a "real" ballpark; even the occasional peek of a sunset over the heads of fans can be seen. A chilly wind can feel welcome if you're a real fan (and were smart enough to pack
that sweatshirt along with your binoculars), and hey, I think those train whistles are kind-of cool -- for the time being, anyway. Ask me again a few seasons from now when I'm muttering something about "#%*&ing trains!" under my breath when the noise has irritated me for the umpteenth time.
Casting aside all the warm fuzzies, however, and our problems creep back into view. Just as all of us in Seattle (okay, all of us baseball fans in Seattle) were eagerly anticipating outdoor ball in our beautiful city, along came the newest Scrooges among us, that curmudgeonly comedy troupe known as "The Seattle Mariners Owners".
But, as much as I'd like to, I can't blame the exorbitant costs or the rampant greed all on them. It's not as if we've been entirely unwilling participants in this farce. We came to the party with our hands full of newly-purchased M's and Safeco Field memorabilia and assorted taxes on services to pay for this new funhouse, all the while smiling and saying, "Okay, whatever it takes to move baseball outdoors." We gleefully handed over seventy-five bucks to pay for a tiny brick stamped with our name on it, just so that nearly fifty thousand people per game (the M's hope) will have the honor of smudging it on their way to those state-of-the-art bathrooms. We've
been sucked in by more than a few ego-stroking temptations such as those, and we can't blame anyone but ourselves for that.
But it's the sucker punches thrown by the Mariners while they were lifting our wallets from our back pockets that sting, since it's the taxpayers who were the overwhelming fundraisers and who remain the woefully underrepresented owners of Safeco Field.
Just how much have
we contributed? Fifty-seven percent of every brick, blade of grass and
state-of-the-art jacuzzi bubble is publicly funded outright. Thirteen percent
more comes from somewhat more "voluntary" taxes; that is, derived from
ballpark-related lottery ticket sales, admission ticket taxes and special
ballpark commemorative license plates. Hence, it stands to reason that
only baseball supporters would contribute to that pot. But do you ever
eat out in King County? Rent a car? If you do, like it or not, you're helping
pay for Safeco Field.
Ah, yes... the name.
Safeco Corporation, the locally owned insurance giant, will spend approximately
$40 million over 20 years -- a drop in the bucket, really, for a company
with more than $30 billion in assets -- for the right to plaster its name
over everything in that ballpark from the scoreboard to the napkins to
insurance application-embossed toilet paper, if they could get away with
it.
Considering the fact
that the people of Washington State at large, and King County in particular,
financed nearly three-quarters of that field, we should at least be entitled
to a walkway named in our honor. Or why not some actual field action? "This
knuckleball pitch brought to you by 'Evergreen State Citizens Against Knuckleheaded
Owners'." Even the local Baby Bell gets a mention with its "Call To The
Bullpen" during every broadcast (I don't mind that so much, though -- think
of our bullpen).
Advertising covers
everything, from the massive main scoreboard -- sixty-four percent of which
is devoted to ads -- to the drink holders in every seat. Each section of
the park is named after some company, its relation to baseball I'm still
trying to figure out. I'm sure that just as the rest of the Northwest was
wiping away the tears from the touching (and highly appropriate) site of
Dave Niehaus throwing out the first pitch, the M's owners were in the back
room inventing new ways to exploit even more nooks and crannies. Make no
mistake, they are not in this merely to create an incredible field with
a championship team; they're in it to make money. Oodles of it.
So their latest attempt
at trying to scare the Public Facilities District (not to mention the bejeezes
out of the public) into believing that they'd trade Griffey if their demand
for $60 million more in public funding is not met would not only be terribly
disloyal to the fans, but mind-numbingly stupid, as well. It's an elaborate
(albeit attention-getting) bluff. How in the world do they believe they'd
fill their expensive new baseball park without their marquee player? Do
they really think that that cross-section of the Northwest public which
can afford to pay for all of those luxury suites -- at $75,000 to $145,000
per season -- would bother to show up and "be seen" at a game that's fielding
mostly class-B talent? And even if they did, who cares? That's not the
main source of their revenue. The rest of us who still devour burgers and
hot dogs while downing them with milkshakes and beers at five bucks a pop,
are. It's our behinds filling those seats with our eyes taking in all of
that advertising which are the real audience, the baseball equivalent of
television's sacred 18 to 34-year-old demographic.
So the reason why
there are more "luxury" seats at Safeco Field, by means of percentage,
than at any other ballpark in the major leagues escapes me. No city, even
one like Seattle, with all of its so-called Microsoft millionaires, can
rely on the opera crowd to consistently fill a ballpark, especially during
the down times (of which, when looking at Mariners history in total, there
have been many). That kind of dedicated but far less wealthy fan will most
likely be sitting at home, since most of the bleacher seats that could
be found at the Kingdome have gone the way of the Kingdog. There's not
a bad seat in the house, that's true. It's just that there's eighty percent
fewer of the affordable kind at Safeco Field than there were at the Kingdome.
They had to make room for all of those wood-adorned suites somehow.
So where does that
leave us? Simply put, if they trade Griffey, they get the empty house they
deserve. But it would be hard for me to believe that even M's ownership
would be dumb enough to not dance with what -- or rather, who -- brung
'em, and the Fred Astaire of Baseball has a Jr. after his name.
Hopefully, the Public
Facilities District will have the wearwithall to withstand this latest
round of posturing and downright browbeating by the Mariners organization.
The PFD has pledged not to raise or allocate one more penny of our money
to cover the cost overruns that were incurred -- and which were promised
to be covered -- by the Mariners.
But we've heard that
kind of promise before. Just last year, in fact, when Tom Gibbs, chair
of the board of directors for the PFD, in response to Safeco Field's budget
exceeding a then-high $498 million ($81 million more than just the previous
year's estimate), stated that, "The public's share [of ballpark funding]
was capped a long time ago." Let's hope he keeps his promise, because aside
from the Mariners providing us with the barest of modern baseball necessities
-- an outdoor, real grass, fairly splendid ballpark -- we've been consistently
blindsided by them.
"This grudge-fest
has been brought to you by..." one pretty annoyed Mariners fan. Forget
about the bullpen; we're the ones who've been hit hard for long enough.
©1999. Tracy Larsen & Cox Interactive Media. All Rights Reserved.