White Stadium critics propose $64.6M alternative to city’s redevelopment plan
Opponents of Boston's plan to redevelop a historic Franklin Park stadium for use by Boston Public Schools athletes and a new professional women's soccer team have proposed an alternative design — again.
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the chain of green spaces that runs from Back Bay to Franklin Park, unveiled the $64.6 million proposal at a virtual press conference Tuesday morning.
The new design, they said, will meet the community's needs while cutting millions from the construction costs under the city's proposed design.
A representative from architectural design firm Landing Studio, which developed the alternative proposal, explained that it eliminated the portions of the city's plan dedicated to the National Women's Soccer League team while preserving the features intended for student athletes.
"This design is far from bare-bones," said ENC President Karen Mauney-Brodek. "It's a gold standard, state-of-the-art high school stadium that includes everything that the Boston Public Schools athletic department has requested in the design for BPS students and everything that the surrounding communities have been asking for in a new stadium and new public facilities in Franklin Park."
Boston Legacy FC, the new National Women's Soccer League team, signed a lease agreement with the city in December. The agreement included a financing deadline of Aug. 1 for its portion of the redevelopment of White Stadium, though that deadline was recently extended to Sept. 15 .
The team is expected to play its inaugural 2026 season at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, after which it will move to White Stadium. The team will have 20 practices and play 20 games at White Stadium each year, under the agreement.
The lease requires the team to pay the city $400,000 per year, starting in the first year the stadium is operational, with a prorated payment of $200,000 for the first year.
Boston Legacy will also share 10% of advertising, 10% of naming rights and 3% of concessions revenue with the city and will cover ongoing maintenance costs, which the city has estimated at $2 million annually.
The soccer team will also contribute $500,000 annually to a community fund to support local organizations and $1 from each ticket sold will go into a Franklin Park Preservation Fund.
The public school district will retain ownership of the stadium.
"We are proud to be part of the city's vision to renew White Stadium into a modern and accessible facility that is a worthy home for Boston Public School students and our club, while reserving more than 95% of hourly use for the community and [Boston Public Schools]," the team said in a statement Tuesday. "It is an honor to preserve and carry forward the legacy of White Stadium, ensuring it will continue to be a cornerstone of our community for future generations."
The city will cover the construction costs for one side of the stadium, which will be primarily devoted to BPS student athletes. The public portion is expected to be over $100 million, well above the initial estimate of $50 million .
Mayor Michelle Wu has said much of the increase is due to changes to the overall design of the new stadium in response to community feedback, as well as increases in the cost of construction materials such as steel, in part due to tariffs .
The full cost of the city's portion of the project won't be known until later this year, after construction contracts are put out to bid this fall, according to the mayor.
"There's always some level of cost escalation, unfortunately, in major construction projects," Wu said during an interview with WBUR late last month. "We end up putting out bids, and whatever the price in the market is at that moment is what the city pays."
Artist rendering of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy's proposed alternative design for the redevelopment of White Stadium in Franklin Park.Franklin Park Defenders
In January, ENC released an alternative proposal, which they said would cost the city less than $30 million. That plan would have involved replacing one grandstand and renovating the other.
Since then, however, the majority of the original stadium has been demolished, leaving only one exterior wall, prompting the new design proposal and the increased cost, Mauney-Brodek said.
What remains of the original White Stadium in Franklin Park as seen on Thursday, May 29, 2025 in Boston, Mass.Sebastian Restrepo
The new alternative proposal was designed to fit more smoothly into the surrounding park, said Daniel Adams, founding partner of Landing Studio. The design, which is mainly open to the surrounding area, is meant to accommodate people doing multiple activities at once, such as watching a high school football game while others use the track, he said.
The west grandstand, where the existing wall was preserved, would be home to BPS facilities, including locker rooms, administrative offices, multipurpose rooms, weight rooms and a press box, as well as concessions, public restrooms and mechanical facilities. The eastern side of the facility would hold additional multi-purpose space, restrooms and groundskeeping facilities, but would be a much smaller structure.
In total, the two grandstands would seat about 5,000 people, compared to the approximately 11,000 seats in the city's plan.
The entire stadium would also have a much lower profile to preserve views of the park.
"We're starting to create, instead of sort of rigid architectural stadium seating, more of a landscape treatment," Adams said. "As community users are coming through the park, they maybe want to stop casually to watch some of a high school game and they don't have to buy a ticket, they don't have to go through gates or security. They can just sit down and watch."
The estimated $64.6 million cost was broken down to $5.9 million to replace the track and field, $9 million for the east grandstand, $39.6 million for the west grandstand and $10.1 million for additional site improvements.
Artist rendering of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy's proposed alternative design for the redevelopment of White Stadium in Franklin Park.Franklin Park Defenders
The redevelopment has become a mayoral campaign issue, with Josh Kraft, philanthropist and Wu's primary opponent in the race, loudly opposing it. In June, Kraft claimed that his campaign had received information from within city hall that the price tag had risen all the way to $172 million.
Wu strongly denied this claim, stating that the number came from a worst-case scenario exercise and was never used as a realistic cost estimate .
Kraft is the son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The family, through the Kraft Group, also owns the New England Revolution men's pro soccer team. Kraft Group seeks to build a new soccer stadium in Everett . The team currently plays at Gillette Stadium, home to the Patriots.
Wu and others in Boston have expressed concerns over the Everett stadium proposal because of potential traffic issues in neighboring Charlestown. City officials are negotiating with the Kraft Group, who have so far offered $750,000 as mitigation costs.
On Monday, opponents of the White Stadium project contrasted it with the mayor's response to the Everett stadium proposal, saying it was an "insulting and disrespectful" double standard, according to the Boston Herald .
Former State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson said during a Monday rally that while Wu has requested both an environmental review and transportation plan for the Everett stadium, the public has not seen either for White Stadium, despite their requests, the Herald reported.
The city released a draft transportation plan for White Stadium in April, and will release an updated version incorporating public comments at a later date.
What remains of the original White Stadium in Franklin Park as seen on Thursday, May 29, 2025 in Boston, Mass.Sebastian Restrepo
While the new ENC proposal, like the official plan, did not include any parking, Mauney-Brodek said Tuesday that because the stadium would seat fewer than half as many people and would not host professional sports games drawing many spectators at once, it would be much less of a strain on local parking and traffic.
After Monday's rally, Kraft released a statement criticizing Wu's handling of the project.
"Mayor Wu's refusal to listen to residents who live in the neighborhood around White Stadium, despite repeated requests to do so, is the clearest sign yet that she doesn't care about their concerns," he said. "It's also clear that the mayor has decided Bostonians don't deserve to have any input on what happens to their beloved community landmarks, to their neighborhoods, to their quality of life."
Wu said during an unrelated event Tuesday that the project had had "more public engagement ... than any other public project that I have been a part of or seen in my nearly 15 years in city government," through community meetings, public hearings and other methods.
The mayor denounced the new proposal, saying it was not "real" and that it would not be possible to deliver on all of the promises of the project for the $64.6 million the ENC has suggested.
"I will never apologize for investing millions of dollars into the students of Boston and into our parks and into our community," she said, adding that many members of the community had given input to shape the official plan. "These are the voices that Kraft and a small group who continue to try to sabotage and slow down this project are ignoring."
Some of those community members publicly expressed similar sentiments Tuesday. Dot Fennell and Beth Santos, two BPS moms who live near Franklin Park and have organized a grassroots campaign of supporters, called on ENC Tuesday to listen to student athletes , coaches and the community members who are in favor of "an inspiring new chapter for BPS athletics and White Stadium."
"ENC, its wealthy, anonymous backers, and Josh Kraft are continuing their tired sabotage campaign against the Boston Public Schools and a White Stadium renovation that is already well underway," Fennell and Santos said in a statement. "After more than two years of public meetings and their resounding defeat in court, it is time for ENC to accept that the renovation is happening."
The Franklin Park Coalition, too, reiterated its own support for the city's plan. President Rickie Thompson said in a statement that the organization had been actively involved in the planning process and the agreement with Boston Legacy would provide many benefits to the community.
"This project delivers jobs, local contracting, internships for BPS students, and a state-of-the-art facility without new city operating costs," Thompson said. "If opponents get their way, we will break another promise to BPS students and the communities of Franklin Park. That is unacceptable. It is time to move forward."
The ENC and other community members formed a group known as the Franklin Park Defenders, which was one party to a lawsuit opposing the project that was dismissed in May . The plaintiffs in the case have since appealed .
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