PORTLAND, Maine — The Portland Sea Dogs may seek public money to partially fund park upgrades needed to ensure the team keeps its MLB affiliation, something that could draw the beloved team into thorny political talks over the next few months.
The Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox is looking to raise up to $10 million for renovations at the city-owned Hadlock Field, the team’s home since it began play in 1994. Those changes need to be made by the 2025 season or the team risks losing its affiliation with MLB, even though the Red Sox have already agreed to keep their affiliate in Portland through 2030.
Policymakers from Maine’s largest city to Augusta are mulling ways to help the team. A top Democratic lawmaker from the opposite end of the state is already eyeing a tax credit to help the Sea Dogs, even though influential groups from opposite ends of the political spectrum have already flagged the idea as potentially an inappropriate giveaway.
“Things are in motion, and I’m optimistic that we’ll get there,” Geoff Iacuessa, the president of the team, said.
The new requirements came when MLB revamped the minor leagues prior to the 2021 season, eliminating a net total of 40 teams, increasing player salaries and increasing field standards. Hadlock Field’s player clubhouses were among the major items deemed deficient at the park. The Sea Dogs have already addressed issues including turf and netting to protect fans.
As a result, the team plans to move and expand the clubhouse for the home team. The away clubhouse would be moved from the neighboring Portland Expo into the current home space, a change that Iacuessa said will free up space for the high-school teams that use the Expo.
The Sea Dogs were sold by Bill Burke and his family, which originally owned the team, to the private equity-backed Diamond Baseball Holdings in a deal announced in late 2022. Diamond has changed little in the operation of the team, leaving the local leadership team in place led by Iacuessa, who joined the team in 2001 as an intern.
The company has quickly snapped up minor league teams over the last few years. It now owns 28 of them, including the Worcester Red Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston team. While the Sea Dogs have known about the need for upgrades since the realignment, Iacuessa said the sale delayed action on them until the last few months.
The new owner could feature prominently in any debate over upgrades. Both the conservative Maine Policy Institute and the liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy have added a proposed bill aiming to help the Sea Dogs to watchlists. The former group said the idea “reeks of corporate welfare,” while the latter one termed it a business tax giveaway.
“I might go to 20 to 30 Sea Dogs games every year. I love the team,” said Matt Gagnon, the CEO of the Maine Policy Institute. “But I’m not in any way, shape or form interested in subsidizing them through the government.”
The Sea Dogs are a highly successful franchise. During the 2023 season, the team was 18th in average minor league attendance, putting them directly between teams in Rochester, New York, and Salt Lake City, two communities with more than 200,000 people. Portland is a city of 68,000. The team’s mascot, Slugger, won a spot in the Mascot Hall of Fame this year.
While a large body of research shows that local governments hardly ever see returns from subsidizing major sports teams, the scale of the proposed renovations are smaller than many of those often-studied projects. A study by University of Maine economists found the Sea Dogs generated more than $37.1 million per year in total economic output and labor income.
A Diamond spokesperson did not answer a question about how much money it would be willing to kick in for upgrades. A firm cost estimate is expected in the next two months, Iacuessa said. Both he and Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, who is sponsoring the measure aimed at the Sea Dogs, said they envisioned some mix of public and private funds.
In a statement, Christine Kirby, a spokesperson for Jackson, said the structure he is proposing would be similar to tax credits worth tens of millions of dollars in recent years issued for Bath Iron Works, IDEXX in Westbrook and the Penobscot McCrum potato plant in Washburn.
“We are engaging with the Sea Dogs about these new standards and intend to work closely with the Legislature, with the goal of supporting the Sea Dogs with a reasonable solution that will allow them to continue to grow their involvement in the state that loves them so much in the years to come,” Commissioner Heather Johnson of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, said in a statement.
