For years, we’ve periodically heard chatter from the New England Revolution and their controlling owners, the Kraft family of New England Patriots legend, that they’d love to stop playing in a mostly-empty suburban football stadium and move to a purpose-built urban soccer stadium closer to their fan base – with Somerville and Revere cited as two potential venues.
Monday, The Boston Globe reported that the Krafts are now interested in the city-owned tow lot and public works yard off Frontage Road alongside the Southeast Expressway as a potential Revolution soccer stadium.
Through a team staffer, the Krafts issued this 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."
Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s administration had no comment in response as of late Monday. The city’s also begun to look seriously at the same parcel as a location to replace the homeless shelter and drug detox programs formerly housed on Long Island before its hundreds of residents were abruptly kicked off last month after engineers said the island’s sole bridge to the mainland was no longer safe.
City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who chairs the committee that oversees homelessness and human services issues, did not return calls seeking comment. Officials at the Pine Street Inn, the city’s largest shelter and homeless services program, had no comment Monday on questions about the optimal use of the city-owned land, which is just a few hundred yards from their main operations.
One group that immediately loved the idea, however, was ardent New England Revolution fans whom we reached through their Midnight Riders support group. They said the current home field for the Revolution, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, discourages attendance and creates a poor fan experience, and they agreed a true soccer stadium closer to Boston could help the team attract a far larger and more passionate following like so many other Major League Soccer teams enjoy.
Midnight Riders supporter Will Sablove, who is also a youth soccer referee, said, "In Gillette, where there's so many empty seats, it feels like there are not that many people who really care."
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Connor Steck, a third-year student at Berklee Collegel of Music who grew up in Madison, Wis., but has been a Revolution fan for four years, said, “Why not have the stadium here in Boston, that we can all get to easily, and we can all hop on transit and be there?’’ Steck said going to games at a typically 65 to 80 percent empty 68,756-seat Gillette Stadium doesn’t do justice to the sport or the potential fan experience. “You have fans here, but still, half the stadium isn't full. You'd much rather that the stadium be packed full of people screaming their lungs out for your team.’’
Sablove said he’s not certain that the location right alongside Interstate 93 is necessarily the optimal location within Boston, especially for fans coming by car. And after years of having one in-city stadium plan after another floated, with no results, he describes himself as “cautiously optimistic” a Boston-area soccer stadium will ever happen.
But Sablove said the reaction the plan is getting from Revolution fans should send a loud message. "I hope that the Krafts and other powers that be really push to build something that will attract more fans and give us a better experience," Sablove said.
Backers of the Boston 2024 Olympics bid have signaled interest in using some of the area around Widett Circle south of the West Fourth Street Bridge – today, a tangle of railroad and wholesale food operations – as part of a possible Olympic campus. Erecting a Revolution stadium in the near term that could become part of an Olympic venue a decade from now appears to be one key part of the strategic thinking about the site – but a big debate that’s certain to come: Does and should using this site for a professional soccer stadium trump a chance to serve some of the neediest and most vulnerable people in Boston who have been thrown off Long Island?
