Rising cost estimates jeopardize park plans

By Clea Benson

June 15, 2000 Web posted at: 12:53 PM EDT (1653 GMT)

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia Inquirer) -- After weeks of confidential talks between the city and the Phillies over a new downtown baseball stadium, there are clear signs that rising cost estimates could put the plan in jeopardy.

Mayor Street says he still is confident that a stadium could be built at 12th and Vine Streets, and he plans to announce this week how much he thinks the facility would cost and how he believes the city and the Phillies would pay for it. He also plans to release his ideas for financing a new stadium for the Eagles in South Philadelphia.

"I am optimistic that the 12th and Vine Street site can be done," Street said yesterday.

But recent reports estimate the cost of a stadium at 12th and Vine at $627 million - more than $100 million over Street's original estimate. The mayor has refused to dispute or agree with those estimates, saying he will release his own numbers tomorrow.

Sources familiar with the talks say members of Street's own negotiating team have become pessimistic and have been arguing with the mayor about the chances of working out such an expensive deal. Street yesterday denied there was friction. The Phillies stadium and a stadium for the Eagles in the sports complex together will cost well over $1 billion.

Perhaps the clearest sign of trouble with both stadium deals is that the teams and the city have not begun to negotiate terms - despite Street's announcement when he chose the stadium sites at the beginning of May that "by June 15 these deals will essentially be worked out."

The mayor continued to say that a conceptual agreement would be presented this week to City Council - until Friday, when he denied ever having said that.

"We did not say we would have a conceptual agreement for City Council by June 15," Street said Friday. "I said we would have a conceptual agreement by the end of June. . . . On June 15, I intend to come out and tell you what I think can happen."

Typically of the way things have gone throughout the entire stadium process, no one except Street seems to know exactly what might happen.

Even members of the mayor's negotiating team - composed of private-sector finance experts and public officials - seem to be out of the loop.

"They feel for the most part they're somewhat in the dark, kind of feeling rudderless on their own," said City Councilman James F. Kenney. Kenney said he had spoken with everyone from team representatives to business leaders to find out what's going on.

"I keep getting the same answer: 'I don't know,' " Kenney said.

Council members are especially eager to get some answers. They plan to hold a hearing on public financing for stadiums on Tuesday, two days before they recess for the summer, and were hoping to have the outlines of a plan to mull over during the coming months.

Though there is no penalty if Street fails to turn over an agreement by the end of June, the delays could make it harder to meet deadlines in the fall.

Under an agreement approved by Council this spring, the mayor has until September to give Council legislation that would enact deals for new stadiums. Council has until November to approve the deals. If it does not act by then, the city must pay up to $80 million to renovate Veterans Stadium and $23 million to buy the Eagles' new practice facility. That would effectively kill efforts to build new stadiums in the near future.

At a meeting of The Inquirer's editorial board, Paul Levy, head of the Central Philadelphia Development Corp., made the case that building a downtown stadium was the only way to justify public spending on such a project, because stadium revenues would be higher downtown than in outlying areas.

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