For Immediate Release
January 22, 2025
Contact: Carlen Singmaster, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, csingmaster@emeraldnecklace.org, 617-522-2700
Taxpayer Cost of Pro Soccer Complex at White Stadium Climbs to $100 Million, As Residents, Park Advocates and Experts Speak Out During City Council Hearing
Taxpayer Cost for New Stadium Complex Now Double Initial Estimate; Project Would Evict BPS Football Teams, Reduce Public Access, and Destroy Acres of Public Parkland & 145 Trees
BOSTON — During a Boston City Council hearing on the city’s plans to build massive private sports and concert complex at White Stadium in Boston’s historic Franklin Park, city Chief of Operations Dion Irish revealed that the taxpayer cost of the project has risen once again, and now sits at $100 million — up from $91 million just last month, and more than double the estimate when the project was shepherded through a series of city approvals.
The latest estimate comes before the project to tear down White Stadium and build a massive private sports and concert complex in its place has even been put out to bid, but as the city plans to begin demolition of the existing stadium and the removal of 145 trees in Franklin Park, as soon as this week.
The project has encountered widespread public opposition, and faces a March 18 trial date in a citizens’ lawsuit that could block the entire privatization scheme. On Wednesday, dozens of local residents, park advocates, and experts testified against the project at a hearing of the Boston City Council’s Committee on Post-Audit: Government Accountability, Transparency and Accessibility.
“Boston taxpayers are being asked to pay through the nose to build an oversized professional sports complex for the benefit of a few millionaire sports investors,” said former Boston School Committee member and community activist Dr. Jean McGuire. “The fact is, we were never asked if we wanted a professional sports and entertainment complex in our park. Community members’ concerns about public access, transportation impacts, and countless other issues are being ignored, all in a mad rush to demolish White Stadium in order to meet the soccer team’s desired opening date.”
The plan by BOS Nation and the City of Boston includes the demolition of 95% of White Stadium to build a new for-profit professional sports and concert venue that is twice the size of the existing public school sports stadium. The project would tear down 145 trees and pave over acres of historic public parkland in the process.
“We all agree that White Stadium should be renovated for student athletes; where we disagree is on the idea that building a $200 million stadium for a professional soccer team is the only way the stadium can be renovated for Boston’s student athletes,” said Dorchester resident Marti Glynn. “This plan isn’t about Boston student athletes – instead it is a move to line the pockets of a group of enormously wealthy investors, who will reap ten years of tax benefits, while the residents of Boston assume at least $100 million in debt, to turn White Stadium into a white elephant.”
Last week, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy released a report proposing an alternative concept: a high-quality, fully public renovation of White Stadium that would avoid the many negative impacts of building a professional sports venue in the middle of historic Franklin Park. A detailed cost estimate included in the report found that Boston could renovate White Stadium as a high-quality, fully public high school stadium for $28.9 million — a fraction of the cost of the professional soccer stadium plans.
In December, a state Superior Court judge awarded a group of citizen plaintiffs more time to gather evidence in their lawsuit against the project. The lawsuit alleges that the proposed project would violate the Massachusetts Constitution by transferring public trust land to private use. A trial in the lawsuit is scheduled for March 18, 2025.
###
Background
The City of Boston and BOS Nation FC are preparing to demolish 95% of White Stadium in Boston’s historic Franklin Park, in order to begin constructing a massive private sports and entertainment complex that would house the new National Women’s Soccer League team. In December, news broke that the cost of the project has ballooned, with Boston taxpayers now on the hook for $91 million and the total cost rising to at least $200 million, more than double the original estimate.
The proposal would grant a professional for-profit sports team the right to lease the property for up to 30 years; build dedicated private facilities and other uses like offices, luxury boxes, restaurants and shops; and displace Boston Public School (BPS) students and the general public from the stadium and effectively much of the rest of the park for 20 games and 20 practices on the majority of Fridays and Saturdays from March-November. The plan would tear down 145 trees and change the use of historic public parkland in the process.
Local residents and parks advocates, many who are members of the Franklin Park Defenders citizens group that is suing the proponents of the project in State Superior Court, have highlighted several major issues with the proposed project:
The proposal would displace BPS football teams from the stadium for their entire regular season and limit the availability of one of the most-used free public areas of Franklin Park for music and cultural festivals, basketball and tennis games, and cross-country running meets.
While White Stadium is almost a mile from the nearest train station, proponents claim that 40 percent of fans will travel to the stadium via public transportation, and most others will drive to as-yet-unidentified remote parking lots and take large tour buses to the stadium. Proponents claim that their transportation plan will work by comparing it to Fenway Park, which is within a third of a mile of a T station and the commuter rail. But even at transit-rich Fenway, barely 23% of attendees use transit, and nearly two-thirds drive or take Uber or Lyft. Properly analyzed, it is likely that game and concert days will result in more than 4,000 new vehicle trips, triggering the need for state environmental reviews that have not occurred.
Gameday neighborhood parking restrictions would prevent local residents from hosting backyard BBQs or birthday parties without applying for a city event permit.
The massive new stadium complex would reduce public access to green space in the center of several of Boston’s environmental justice neighborhoods, which already suffer from high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
A flawed public process has seen the City of Boston-backed project rubber-stamped by a series of mayoral-appointed city boards, without any required independent environmental review by state agencies.
The City of Boston has already identified $91 million in taxpayer funds to be used for their portion of the White Stadium project. That is more than enough to complete a state-of-the art public stadium, without limiting public access or disrupting our park and surrounding neighborhoods. In 2013, the last time renovating White Stadium was seriously studied, the project had a $23 million price tag.
There are numerous examples of high school and even college sports stadiums being built or renovated for far less than $91 million. Cawley Stadium in Lowell received an $8 million renovation last year, including a new turf field; an athletic training center with a weight room, locker rooms, coaches/meeting room, concession stand and bathroom facility; and an expanded track. In Boston, Daly Field in Brighton was renovated for $13.5 million in 2016, including a new field house, 6 tennis courts, a track, and synthetic turf fields used for soccer, lacrosse, softball, field hockey, and football.
White Stadium, an open space for public recreation and public school sporting events, has been held in trust for over 74 years for the beneficiaries of the White Fund Trust — the residents of Boston. A citizens lawsuit scheduled for trial on March 18, 2025, alleges that the proposed redevelopment of White Stadium by Boston Unity Soccer Partners, LLC would violate Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution by transferring public trust land to private use, charging that “it would fundamentally alter the nature and feel of a significant portion of Franklin Park during the majority of fair weather weekends each year.”
Learn more at franklinparkdefenders.com.
Kommentarer