Re: Somerville Soccer Stadium
Boston is a much, much larger city and more powerful TV media market than Providence or any other city in New England. There is not a single compelling reason to locate in Providence over Boston.
Here's one: Boston doesn't need the additional venue space. That's a single compelling reason against locating it in Boston, or Somerville, or Charlestown or Quincy or anywhere else inside of 128.
Traveling from Boston to Providence is much more feasible than Foxborough but it is still inconvenient and time consuming. Dealing with the commuter rail schedule is a pain in the ass, spending like two hours on travel time to and from a 90 minute game is a pain in the ass.
If no one is going to Foxborough no one is going to Providence.
Gosh, you're so right, it hurts. That's why literally nobody ever goes from Boston to Providence, ever. Every single outbound train just straight empties in Mansfield, and I-95 is a graveyard south of 495.
If they were to move to Boston I guarantee you that would undergo a complete rebranding and become 'Boston Nickname' or 'Boston F.C.'
If they were going to rebrand, they would've done it already - they don't need to wait to be inside of 128 to start calling them the Boston Whatevers, and their stupid crayon-drawing flag logo was tired and trite from the moment it was introduced.
The logo's also nearly 20 years old now, the Revs have shown zero indication that they plan on rebranding, and there's real history attached to the team at this point.
I guarantee you they're never going to hit the reset button on their brand identity, because if they were going to at any point it would have been a decade ago.
Also its totally possible to put a soccer team in Boston or a directly adjacent city near the MBTA. Many people in this thread and the 2024 Olympics thread have pointed out locations for a stadium to go. Finding some other place in New England to go is unnecessary and not an exercise that the league would even go along with.
When you dare to dream, everything's possible - but that doesn't make it a good idea. In fact, those places that have been identified as desire sites for a stadium often have better potential uses instead.
If the Krafts tried to move to Providence or Hartford then Don Garber would go Chivas on their ass and try to move the team to Boston themselves or grant the franchise to Minneapolis.
The reason that MLS did they seemingly ridiculous NYFC expansion process even though they didn't have any stadium plan lined up was because having another New York team benefitted them in negotiating a new TV contract. Losing one of the most powerful TV markets in North America for Providence or Worcester or Hartford would significantly damage MLS's brand and business to the point where the Krafts would get booted.
And again, Providence and Boston are not mutually exclusive markets - especially not when you consider that the branding isn't going to change. New England is New England, and the team playing in Providence will have exactly zero impact on the televising market in Boston.
But have you looked at the state of the TV (and radio) market in Boston recently? The Revs get less airtime than every other major league sport. NESN/WEEI are, at best, silent on the Revs - having been listening to WEEI somewhat regularly I can assure you I've heard more coverage about their cheer squad (and about why soccer is a terrible sport from a guy who wasn't even made to apologize for it afterwards) then I have about their players, and once World Cup fever subsides I doubt I'll be hearing very much more about soccer. Haven't tuned into CSN/WBZ as much, but I somehow doubt that the situation is very much different with those guys.
So the argument that there's a strong TV market (or really, a TV market with anywhere to go except up) doesn't really hold water with me.
As for Don Garber - let him try and move the team himself. I doubt he's going to have any more success than the Krafts would in moving the team into Boston. Hell, I somehow doubt he'd be able to wrestle control of the team away from the Krafts - given their managerial neglect, if he could have Chivas'd them he would have by now.
Remember, MLS probably doesn't exist without the Krafts. Getting rid of them, wresting control of and rebranding an original franchise - that's on an entirely different level then taking over LA's second team from guys who showed up to MLS a decade later.
