For nearly 50 years, the ramshackle White Stadium in Frederick Law Olmsted’s Franklin Park in Boston has been a monument to neglect. The peeling paint and potholed track a testament to a neighborhood long victimized by the city’s politics of race.

Now, this stadium may finally be getting a second life as the home of one of the National Women’s Soccer League’s newest franchises.

But in sports-crazed Boston, not everyone is happy.

The proposal to renovate White Stadium is now at the heart of a legal challenge playing out in Suffolk County Superior Court. It is also the focus of a political dispute among the families atop Boston’s glittering sports franchises.

The stadium battle has landed in the city’s mayoral race, in the form of a candidate, Josh Kraft, the son of Robert, the owner of the New England Patriots. Josh Kraft is against the proposal for the city to split the $191 million renovation cost with the owners of the new women’s soccer team, a group called Boston Unity Soccer Partners.

“You have all the ingredients for what makes Boston Boston — sports, politics, intrigue and all involving some well-known families,” said Paul Scapicchio, a former member of the City Council.

The stakes are high. The soccer team’s expansion rights can be revoked if it doesn’t have a FIFA-level venue ready by next spring. (The team has not decided on an official name yet.)