New Report: Boston Legacy FC Missed Major Financing Deadline for White Stadium Project

Franklin Park Defenders Call on City to Suspend $200-Million-Plus Construction Plans and Consider Fully-Public Stadium Alternative Instead

Contact:Carlen Singmaster, 617-960-6537,csingmaster@emeraldnecklace.org

BOSTON — Boston Legacy Football Club missed a major August 1 deadline to obtain the required financing to build the team’s proposed White Stadium professional soccer stadium, casting doubt on the team’s ability to proceed with the controversial public-private project. According to a new report in the Boston Globe, on July 25, the City of Boston and the team agreed to amend their lease agreement, delaying the financing deadline to September 15. Over the next two weeks, the City made no public announcement of this major change to the lease with the team’s for-profit investors.

Members of the Franklin Park Defenders community group responded, calling for the City to:

• be more transparent about the costs and financing of the public-private stadium project;

• suspend construction plans before proceeding further on a project with unclear, shaky finances; and

• begin seriously considering the more affordable, fully-public stadium alternative that community members including the Defenders and the NAACP Boston Branch, as well as many elected officials, have been asking for.

“Boston Legacy has failed to raise the required financing to build a professional soccer stadium in Franklin Park, raising serious questions about the project's ultimate viability,” said Carla-Lisa Caliga, a Jamaica Plain resident and member of the Franklin Park Defenders. “In response, the city has cut another backroom deal with the team's investors, delaying their financial obligation to rebuild White Stadium. The lack of transparency is astounding — it's past time for the City to make all documents related to this project publicly available.”

“While the old White Stadium has been demolished, construction of its replacement hasn’t started — or even been put out to bid,” said Melissa Hamel, a Jamaica Plain resident and member of the Franklin Park Defenders. “The city and team should not begin any construction work on this $200-million-plus project, especially without full project financing in hand. Doing so would risk further irreversible damage to Franklin Park, and Boston would be stuck with this mistake for decades.”

“Because of the rush to demolish White Stadium, hundreds of BPS student-athletes have already been displaced from their home field, and much of Franklin Park has been turned into a dust bowl,” said Renée Stacey Welch, a Jamaica Plain resident and member of the Franklin Park Defenders. “With the future of the pro soccer stadium project increasingly uncertain, the city must immediately begin developing a serious alternative for a more affordable, fully-public project that can restore White Stadium as the state-of-the-art high school facility Boston students and our facilities deserve.”

Refresher: The Latest on the White Stadium Redevelopment Project

With Boston Legacy Football Club now planning to play their inaugural season at Gillette Stadium, more and more people are calling for reconsideration of the proposal to build a professional sports stadium in Franklin Park. In June, the NAACP Boston Branch called for an immediate halt to the professional soccer stadium plans, and expressed support for a significantly more affordable, fully-public stadium renovation that would meet the needs of BPS students and the community, without the many flaws of the new private soccer stadium. And multiple elected officials, including Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and several of her Council colleagues, as well as State Representative Chynah Tyler, who represents neighborhoods on the north side of Franklin Park, and State Senator Nick Collins, who represents neighborhoods on the east side of the park, have spoken out against the private redevelopment proposal.

While the existing high school stadium on the site has been mostly demolished, construction of the new stadium has still not been fully bid or begun, and residents and advocates say there is still plenty of time to reconsider plans to build a massive new professional sports stadium in Franklin Park. In June, leaked city documents revealed that the cost of the city’s half of the project could reach $172 million under ‘worst-case’ contingencies. That would put the total cost of the project as high as $344 million. Mayor Wu admitted that the project’s taxpayer cost would increase again once elements of the project are fully bid this summer, after already tripling from a $30 million estimate when first announced to $91 million as of last December.

White Stadium sits in the middle of a park, with no parking, surrounded by residential neighborhoods, almost a mile from the nearest train station. Since the proposal by Boston’s new NWSL team Boston Legacy Football Club was announced, questions about game-day transportation planning have gone unanswered, and proponents have released a changing set of transportation plans that fail to address local residents’ concerns about traffic gridlock and disruption. In May, the city official overseeing the White Stadium project admitted that transportation plans are “still a work in progress,” even as the existing high school stadium was being torn down.

Background on the White Stadium Redevelopment Project

Residents of Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain and Mattapan have significant concerns about the plan to lease White Stadium to a professional sports team — rather than renovating it as a public stadium for the sole benefit of BPS students and the local community. The City of Boston and Boston Unity Soccer Partners (BUSP) have demolished the existing White Stadium in order to build a new, significantly larger for-profit professional sports stadium, entertainment venue, and multiple restaurants and retail shops in its place.

In addition to the legal concerns expressed in an ongoing lawsuit against the project, neighboring residents and park advocates have expressed opposition to the project over issues ranging from increased air, noise and light pollution, increased litter, the removal of 145 mature trees, increased traffic and parking restrictions, and decreased student and community access.

Pro soccer games and other private events would displace BPS students and the community from White Stadium and surrounding parts of Franklin Park on 20 annual game days, 20 practice days, and additional concert and event days - more than half of all weekends during the summer, when residents use the park the most. BPS football teams would be displaced from the stadium entirely during the bulk of their regular season, because the soccer league doesn't want their cleats on the field.

Background on the Alternative: a Fully-Public Renovation of White Stadium

Neighbors and parks advocates support an alternative plan to renovate White Stadium as a public high school facility for BPS student-athletes, at a much lower cost to taxpayers and the environment.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy has proposed such 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 conducted by Vermeulens, Inc. included in the report found that Boston could renovate White Stadium as a high-quality, fully public high school stadium for $28.9 million.

There are numerous examples of high school and even college sports stadiums being built or renovated for similar amounts. Stadium expert Andrew Zimbalist states that “it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Boston taxpayers are subsidizing a professional sports stadium on public recreation land in Franklin Park.”