Now that the R.I. General Assembly is back to work, one of the first orders of business in the Senate is to address the PawSox legislation. Recently, the Mayor of Pawtucket proposed Plan B to finance the stadium if lawmakers “lacked the courage” to approve the latest stadium-financing proposal.

Why is it when legislators, who far too often are excoriated for setting aside the will of the people, are essentially characterized as cowards when they finally listen? A recent reputable pollster found 67 percent of Rhode Islanders opposed to public subsidies.

Putting aside a moment the mayor’s quixotic proposal, which “forgot” to consider the higher interest rate and cost of bonding since the city bond rating would be lower than that of the state, the legislature should consider the “elephant in the room,” i.e. the multi-millionaire owners, jointly and severally, will not personally guarantee their portion of the bond debt. The legislation doesn’t call for them to do so.

Nor has the alternative been considered as to why the owners won’t pledge the PawSox franchise as collateral for which they paid about $20 million-plus. This, at least, would cover one-half of their obligation.

Legislators should STOP and at least consider what the lack of backing by the owners means as to whether they think that the proposal is a money-maker. No bank would finance the deal since it is too risky. While loose lips talk about the International League stepping in if the owners default, they are not a party to this transaction. Nothing in the legislation binds them to do so.

The unescapable fact is that the owners SAY they are putting in up to $41 million of their own money, but they are not since the money is based on extraneous revenue, i.e. ticket sales and naming rights, which third parties pay, other than the first one million each owner contributes.

Legislators should LOOK: In the Senate report headed by Sen. Bill Conley, the PawSox have lost about 279,000 patrons, or a drop of 40 percent since 2005 (p.19). In studying attendance at ball parks after a new stadium was constructed, the report noted an uptick of attendance anywhere from year 1 to 3 after construction, with a steady decline thereafter.

Of nine teams, the Omaha Storm and the Charlotte Knights continued with an increase, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs remained stable, and the other six teams declined in attendance (pages 19-20).

The solons should also LOOK to see that the economic impact had a one-time impact on the state’s economy (p. 21), and this was based on statistics and a budget given by the owners. Virtually every economist has dissed the economic benefits which supposedly inure by construction of a stadium. No doubt, these facts are behind the owners’ reluctance to gamble with their own money and only want to gamble with yours.

Meanwhile, the city has become so fixated on the ballpark that it is not devoting time to woo other projects. Henry Kinch, one-time Pawtucket mayoral candidate and city councilor, observed that with the CVS/Aetna potential merger, all the stops should be pulled out to have their offices set up in Pawtucket, given its proximity to Cumberland, where CVS corporate headquarters is, and the upcoming rail project extension.

The legislators should LISTEN to his idea and continue to LISTEN to their constituents, who know a bad deal when they see it.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.