Yawkey Way: A Sweetheart Deal For the Sox?

On game days outside of Fenway Park, Yawkey Way is filled with hawkers selling Red Sox memorabilia, food and drinks.

But what some people don't know is that during games, the public street, "Yawkey Way" is actually turned into a private marketplace leased from the city and operated for the benefit of the Red Sox. The team grosses about 6 million dollars in annual sales from Yawkey Way and from the Green Monster seats that hang over Landsdowne Street. The team pays just $200,000 a year to the BRA — the Boston Redevelopment Authority — for the rights to both of these areas.

The Sox have reaped the benefits of these rights for the past 11 years. But their deal with the BRA may be standing on shaky legal ground.

Callum Borchers, business reporter at the Boston Globe.

The Boston Globe "The Boston Redevelopment Authority has decided to negotiate an extension of the deal that enables the Red Sox to turn part of Yawkey Way into a private outdoor food court on game days, despite a warning from the state inspector general’s office that it might not have legal standing to award a new license."