The Pawtucket Red Sox called the iconic McCoy Stadium home for five decades.It gained notoriety for hosting the longest professional baseball game in history, where the PawSox defeated the Rochester Red Wings 3-2 after 33 innings.Legendary executive Larry Lucchino, who passed away in 2024, helped the team find a new homeGettyOpened in 1942, McCoy Stadium was torn down in 2025 — five years after the Boston Red Sox affiliate headed for pastures new.The state of Rhode Island offered $38 million to fund a new stadium, but a rival bid from Worcester, Massachusetts, blew it out of the water.City manager Edward Augustus revealed a bold vision for a $90 million ballpark surrounded by 18 acres of retail, housing, and hotels.Lawmakers raised $106 million in city bonds, with the team paying off $36 million.Sports economist Victor Matheson, teaches in Worcester at the College of the Holy Cross, claimed it would be “in nominal terms the most expensive minor league baseball park ever built” for a city of just over 200,000 people.It was a huge outlay, but the city got what it wanted and the WooSox were born.Those responsible for the bid pointed to the economic development that would help offset the money spent.But per Field of Schemes, nine of ten economists who were consulted at the time cast doubts on the benefits.“It really does depend,” said Nola Agha of the University of San Francisco. “There’s a list a mile long of cities where it hasn’t worked. And there’s a really short list where it has.” The only one who agreed was Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College, who was hired by the city to help devise the bid.The PawSox left behind their ageing homeGettyView Tweet: https://twitter.com/hashtag/OpeningDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw“If you can do something like this that was culturally and socially positive and at least break even, it made sense to go forward,” he suggested.Billionaire New England Revolution owner Robert Kraft is paying for the privilege of building a new stadium to revive a riverside site in Boston, proving that moguls will shell out if they have to.But as the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears are proving, teams can often secure huge deals if a bidding war emerges.“One of the reasons I didn’t see [the Worcester bid] coming is Massachusetts has a very good history of being able to say no to public subsidies,” added Matheson via Deadspin. “I think Worcester just really, really, really, really, really wanted a baseball team.“I think the city council and the mayor and the city manager had a gigantic inferiority complex, and they wanted to create an identity for the city, and didn’t care what it cost them.”The end result, was Polar Park, which opened in 2021.McCoy Stadium will always be enshrined in baseball folkloreShutterstockCapable of holding 9,508 fans, it has also hosted Holy Cross’ football team several times.Baseball fan account Blocking The Plate, which tours ballparks, visited in 2025 and was underwhelmed.The first complaint? Too many vacant lots and a lack of economic development around the area.Describing the concessions as “bare bones” and “like it’s been put together with a bunch of containers”, the reviewer claimed that despite being just an hour away from Fenway Park, he found the experience “fine” but “underwhelming” for a brand-new ballpark.Stay up to date with the latest from the MLB across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.