Are the New England Revolution getting close to building a long-sought soccer-specific stadium? According to a report from the Boston Globe on Tuesday, the club’s owner, the Kraft Sports Group, is eyeing a location in Boston proper, a city-owned parcel of land in South Boston alongside I-93:
Strip of city-owned land off I-93 on Frontage Rd in Boston being considered for soccer stadium http://t.co/1TW1gQ6lZ5 pic.twitter.com/NlLQllrbQV
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) November 18, 2014
There’s no debate that a new stadium is at the top of the wish list for all parties involved. Earlier this year, Revolution co-owner/investor Jonathan Kraft noted the importance of building a soccer-specific home for the club.
“The real issue isn’t the on-pitch performance … I think the real issue is, and it’s no secret; we need a soccer-specific stadium,” Kraft told Boston sports radio station 98.5 The Sports Hub in June. “The Revolution are 18 years old, and probably for the last 12 years we’ve been working on this.”
The Revolution have shared Gillette Stadium with the New England Patriots since its opening in 2002, and prior to that, the now-demolished Foxboro Stadium. The issue, of course, is that their current 68,000 capacity home isn’t especially well-suited for a team that attracted an average of 16,681 fans this season.
Here are some quick hits on some of the points discussed in Tuesday’s Globe piece.
What’s new? The location. Unlike previous reports that hinted at locales in Revere and Somerville, Tuesday’s report points to a parcel of land in Boston proper -- specifically on Frontage Road. It’s an interesting location given that it is not a part of the industrial area at discussion for the city’s 2024 Olympic bid. At one point, there was some belief that a new stadium for the Revolution would be built in conjunction with a winning Olympic bid. Another new nugget is that the report references an unnamed source saying the Krafts are looking to have a stadium in place within five years, well before the expected timing of a venue built for the 2024 Olympics.
What is the team saying? There’s really not much by way of anything new being said by Kraft Sports Group. A team spokesperson offered a comment reiterating the organization’s ongoing efforts to build a stadium in Boston. This isn’t entirely surprising. Earlier this month, Jonathan Kraft said the organization “will stay quiet until we have something."
The big question: Who is going to pay for it? That’s really the most important question surrounding any Revolution-specific stadium. Past reports have painted a picture of ownership fronting some of the costs in conjunction with public funding. The public funding part, of course, is where things get sticky. The price tag on a new stadium is estimated at more than $100 million. Previous efforts to build new stadiums in Boston have crashed and burned. It is not a happy accident that the Boston Red Sox are still playing in 102-year old Fenway Park. TD Garden was a privately financed endeavor by Boston Bruins ownership. Gillette Stadium was financed by Kraft Sports Group after the only publicly funded appeal came from Hartford, Connecticut. In other words, the Commonwealth has shown a clear reluctance to earmark public funds for its professional sports teams.
Other stumbling blocks: The Frontage Road location itself appears to be a controversial choice. Because the land itself isn’t currently included in the Olympic bid, competing plans for a soccer stadium are in play. The organizing committee for the 2024 bid is seeking a larger capacity stadium than the 18,000-22,000 capacity home the Revolution are looking to build. If there’s one certainty, it’s this: There won’t be two professional-grade soccer stadiums within a Bobby Shuttleworth goal kick of each other.
The unknown: The Globe report suggested that other sites are on the table, but nothing by way of specifics was reported. Additionally, the report also cited information from a spokesperson for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, confirming that any proposal for a soccer stadium on a city-owned site would be subject to a bidding process and reviews by public agencies.
What that means is that any visions for a new home for the Revolution would have to be one shared by a number of public officials. The benefits of a soccer stadium to the city and state would have to be tangible, especially in a day and age in which there is a growing tide of opposition against publicly funded and supported stadiums.