And you thought the Massachusetts Legislature was the GOAT of back-room deals.
According to Internal city emails obtained by the Herald, the controversial plan to turn White Stadium into a venue for a professional women’s soccer team shared with Boston Public School athletes was in the works well before the city got the “official” ball rolling.
Boston Unity Soccer Partners first reached out to the Wu administration about their plans to bring a new professional women’s soccer team to Boston in September 2022, when the for-profit group indicated interest in Franklin Park’s White Stadium as the team’s future home.
Of course they were interested: Boston Unity needed a stadium to bolster its expansion bid with the National Women’s Soccer League. No problem, Mayor Michelle Wu was all ears.
Internal emails show the eventual terms of the city’s request for proposals — required as part of a public bid process for city construction contracts — started to be shaped through seven months of conversations between Boston Unity and city officials. Those private talks took place ahead of the city’s formal RFP release to prospective bidders in April 2023.
Transparency appears to be Wu’s platform, not her policy.
Boston Unity was selected for the project after submitting the only bid in June 2023. Community pushback didn’t stand a chance.
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn called for the Wu administration to kill the costly project he considered to be “tone-deaf” amid the city’s budget crunch while citing the escalating cost for taxpayers and community opposition.
The cost has soared to roughly $200 million, with taxpayers on the hook for half. A question: If Wu aimed to keep homeowners from paying higher taxes with her commercial tax shift proposal, why is she OK with taxpayers covering an ever-increasing tab for White Stadium?
Flynn cited a community-led proposal to invest a more modest $20 million to rehab and keep White Stadium as a high-school-only facility, and critics who have argued that the new women’s team should share use of a new soccer stadium in Everett with the New England Revolution.
That fell on deaf ears.
Boston Unity needed a stadium, Boston Unity wanted White Stadium, case closed.
Members of Franklin Park Defenders, who oppose the stadium plan, issued a statement yesterday after the Herald story ran.
“It’s about time that what’s been done in the dark is now coming to light. These documents clearly show what we have suspected all along: the rush to tear down White Stadium and permanently damage Franklin Park is being driven by the needs of a few wealthy sports investors and by the soccer league’s deadlines.,” said Louis Elisa, a founding member of the Franklin Park Coalition, and President of the Garrison-Trotter Neighborhood Association. “The city and the team deliberately denied the community a voice until this backroom deal was done.”
“This issue never had to be so controversial or divisive. If the city had engaged in a true community-led process that began with the question of what the community wanted and included real alternatives, we could have developed a consensus around the renovation of White Stadium as a fully public facility,” said Jamaica Plain resident Melissa Hamel.
Perhaps the National Women’s Soccer League will find the behind-the-scenes play for White Stadium unseemly and give Boston Unity’s expansion bid the cold shoulder. Perhaps it won’t matter and the plan will keep rolling along.
One thing is for certain: the Wu Administration deserves a red card on this deal.
