Post by Bruinsfan on Nov 18, 2014 20:56:39 GMT -6
This thread is my Official Soccer News thread dedicated to the sport in North America
Lets kick it off with an Article from my home town. If the Revs get a stadium in boston they would instantly be in a top 5 Soccer Market in America. Boston is a Soccer Market. Lots of students, upper class yuppies and immigrants. It is a Perfect MLS market. Right now the Revs play 40 mins out of the city in a horrible place called foxboro. Its a great football stadium...and a decent spot for the NFL. but it is terrible for soccer.
WELP it might change in Boston
www.boston.com/business/news/2014/11/18/new-england-revolution-looking-south-boston-site-for-soccer-stadium/WMdBpypLXZPJPuYOwO7nyI/story.html
The New England Revolution’s never-ending hunt for a stadium has hit a new checkpoint. The Boston Globe reports the Kraft family, who own the Revolution and the New England Patriots, are interested in a city-owned site on Frontage Road in South Boston currently used for towed cars. According to the article, the Krafts are working with a five-year timeline in mind for securing a stadium site.
The Krafts and the team have said since 2006 they are looking for a site to build a stadium near Boston, as most Major League Soccer teams have moved into state-of-the-art soccer-specific venues. The team currently plays at the Patriots’ home, the Kraft-owned Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. The stadium is considered by many fans and analysts too large for typical soccer crowds—an attendance figure of 30,000 is considered impressive in MLS, and that fills less than half of Gillette.
And the Foxborough location, 30 to 45 minutes outside the city, is not ideal for the club, as urban areas are thought to be more fertile for soccer fandom.
You can read the full Globe report here. A few quick thoughts:
It’s important to note that this is a report of interest from the Krafts in a stadium site, which on its own is hardly a first in the now eight-year-old stadium quest. Reports of possible sites have, in fact, been pretty regular—most recently, in 2012, several reports of interest in the Wonderland site in Revere popped up in the press and then simmered down. Somerville’s Assembly Square and Inner Belt/Brickbottom areas have also been through the same process.
The most skeptical of Revolution fans have often noted that news about a possible stadium site always seems to pop up around the time the team is working to sell season tickets (which is, as a matter of fact, right about now), as if information is leaking to drum up interest in the team. That’s a little bit heavy on conspiracy theory thinking, but it serves to show how jaded parts of the Revs’ fan base has become when it comes to their hopes for a stadium. A less cynical look at why possible sites have been identified but haven’t amounted to much is pretty simple: Seeing a site as attractive is one thing; securing it is quite another. And securing this site would face its own set of challenges—including the prospect of a public bidding process for the land, the Globe notes, and that the site is also being considered as a homeless shelter for those displaced from the Long Island facility.
On the other hand, this report is particularly noteworthy for its setting: Boston, as in the city itself. While former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino seemed excited about bringing the Revolution to Boston in 2006, his enthusiasm tempered in later years. Jonathan Kraft said earlier this year that the late former mayor did not see a stadium project as a “priority.” Rumors, as a result, have been focused on neighboring cities, most regularly in Somerville and Revere. Earlier this year, new-ish Boston Mayor Marty Walsh indicated he was open to the idea. (As recently as September, the city said it had not been in touch with the Krafts, but according to the Globe, the Krafts have been meeting with city and state officials.) That a Boston site is now apparently garnering serious consideration from the Krafts may indicate that they are starting to feel it’s more likely that a stadium could someday wind up in city boundaries, rather than outside of them.
The Krafts told the Globe in a statement: “We are currently developing concepts for how a soccer stadium for the Revolution can benefit the greater Boston area. Once we have more developed plans, we will comment further.” That, for the sake of reference, is less comprehensive than past statements, such as this one in 2012 from Revolution President Brian Bilello: “I can confirm that we are still in communication with Somerville officials about potential stadium locations in their city, including the possibility of a facility in Assembly Square, which is an attractive site for development with its significant transportation infrastructure and proximity to downtown Boston.” (Talks with both Revere and Somerville have reportedly since fallen off.)
Past estimates for the cost of a 20,000-or-so seat stadium have been around $130 million. If, when, and where the Krafts gain access to a site is only one major part of the stadium puzzle, with the other being how it will be financed. The Krafts paid for Gillette Stadium, though public money covered some of the up front infrastructure financing. Whether they’d be willing to do so again for a soccer stadium will remain to be seen. As the Krafts found out in the efforts to build Gillette, Massachusetts residents are not the most eager to publicly finance sporting venues.