A Farewell to the Pats

After 38 years in the Boston area, the New England Patriots announced last week they will leave Massachusetts in 2001 for a new stadium to be built in downtown Hartford, Conn. The move, which comes after negotiations with Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft to keep the Patriots in the Commonwealth failed, is hardly surprising: The sad state of professional sports has finally arrived in Boston.

Kraft, like so many other franchise owners in all of the major sports, felt the state owed him a living. He demanded, and eventually received from Connecticut, a publicly financed stadium, a raft of tax breaks and numerous financial guarantees. Were it not for the strong opposition of House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran (D-Mattapan), the state likely would have given in to Kraft's demands.

Owners like Kraft would not have the gall to make such demands if they didn't know all too well that many cities and states are willing to give in to them.

To entice the Patriots to Hartford, which only two years ago lost its NHL franchise, Gov. John G. Rowland had to commit $1 billion to a new convention center and stadium on its dilapidated waterfront. Meanwhile, the city--one of the nation's poorest--struggles to fund its schools. Hartford is not the only city with such skewed priorities. A new stadium is not a panacea for urban renewal. With so many more pressing needs, it is a wonder that cities continue to pay the ransoms demanded by team owners.

We can only lament the sad state in which professional sports finds itself. As long as state and city governments give in to the wishes of team owners, as long as owners have the arrogance to demand they be at the top of every local agenda, it seems unlikely the cycle of abandonment and betrayal will end.

Still, there may be a silver lining to the Patriots' departure. Perhaps Finneran's opposition to a plush deal for Kraft signals that, finally, civic leaders are beginning to rethink the policy of corporate appeasement that has brought us to this sorry state.