The Bollard Bulletin: April 16, 2024
State lawmakers rally late against Sea Dogs financiers
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED…
The Portland Sea Dogs, who start a five-day home stand at Hadlock Field tonight, were owned by a rich yet benevolent family of baseball fans for nearly 30 years until the minor-league team was sold in late 2022 to Diamond Baseball Holdings, a subsidiary of the sports and entertainment conglomerate Endeavor that owns a dozen other (supposedly) competing teams. Major League Baseball’s players’ union also thought this arrangement created potentially serious conflicts of interest, compelling Endeavor to sell Diamond to a private equity firm called Silver Lake Partners.
Earlier this year, we learned that the league is requiring minor-league franchises to upgrade their clubhouses, and the cost to get city-owned Hadlock Field up to the new standard could be as high as $10 million. Luckily, as just noted, the Dogs, who lease the ballpark from the city, are owned by a private equity firm with boat-loads of cash at its disposal. Schmuckily, these fat-cat financiers want the people of Maine to help foot the bill for the players’ swanky new locker and weight rooms and such, and as oligarchic team owners have done nationwide, their ask is backed by an implicit threat that if we don’t pay up, they’ll take their balls and bats to a new town.
Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, a Democrat from up in Allagash, fell for this cynical old trick and sponsored a bill to give the private equity firm a tax break worth up to $2 million. “Jackson said previously that he wasn’t willing to risk the team seeking greener pastures or being lured away by another state,” the Press Herald reported this March.
Jackson’s Senate colleagues sheepily passed his bill last week, but this week the Maine House shot it down by a decisive margin, greatly dimming the prospect of its passage this year or evah.
What will that mean for fans? As Bollard columnist and OG Sea Dogs season-ticket holder Al Diamon observed, price gouging at the concession stand has already gotten ridiculous under Diamond’s ownership. If, as seems likely, they don’t get this huge chunk of corporate welfare, the price hikes may go from being ridiculous to patently offensive, because teams are generally averse to hiking ticket prices and, Jackson’s fears notwithstanding, the Sea Dogs are not going to leave Portland.
“We are definitely committed to calling Maine home for the long term,” team president and GM Geoff Iacuessa told the Herald, perhaps unconsciously leaving open the possibility the Dogs could play in another Maine city if they don’t get a big handout. News flash: they can’t. The cost to upgrade a field in another city would far surpass the price tag of improvements to Hadlock, and the damage to the Dogs’ brand would be catastrophic.
That said, we know those sneaky and jealous South Portlanders have been eyeballin’ our shit across the harbor for centuries, so it’s best to remain vigilant.
HIGHLIGHT
As noted above, the Portland Sea Dogs return home tonight to play the first of five games against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats at Hadlock Field (271 Park Ave., Portland) at 6 p.m. Tix: $17-$21. 874-9300. portlandseadogs.com.
MUSIC
Blue Portland Maine
Open mic feat. High Tea
7 p.m., free (all ages)
Gritty McDuff’s
Travis James Humphrey (country, rock, pop)
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Flask Lounge
Open Decks night hosted by APG
8:30 p.m., no cover (21+)
Maine Craft Distilling
East Bayside Bluegrass Collective
7 p.m., no cover (21+)
Portland House of Music
John R. Miller & The Deslondes (Americana and rock)
8 p.m., $21 (21+)
VISIT OUR CLUB GUIDE FOR VENUE CONTACT INFO
PERFORMING ARTS
Sesame Street Live! presents “Say Hello” at Merrill Auditorium (20 Myrtle St., Portland) at 6 p.m. Tix: $32.50-$72.50. 842-0800. porttix.com.
Comedy open mic at Blue Portland Maine (650 A Congress St., Portland), 9:30 p.m., free (all ages). 774-4111. blueportlandmaine.com.
HAPPENINGS
Bruce Robert Coffin launches The General’s Gold, a new mystery series co-written with LynDee Walker, at Longfellow Books (1 Monument Square, Portland), at 6 p.m. Free. 772-4045. longfellowbooks.com.
Podcaster and author Kemper Donovan discusses his new mystery, The Busy Body, at Print: A Bookstore (273 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m. Free. 536-4778. printbookstore.com.
A reading by Maine Jewish poets who contributed work to Longing: Poems of a Life, at the Jewish Community Alliance (1342 Congress St., Portland) at 6 p.m. Free. 772-1959. mainejewish.org.