Report: Celtics to look into building new arena

[greenbeans]

Washburn floated it in the Globe this past weekend.

At first glance it seems incredibly daunting, but if you can put together 6 billion in the first place...

 

[sean99090900]

Would be a shame, I love the whole complex pretty much as is

Bill Chisholm will consider move that could change Celtics forever

According to the Boston Globe's Gary Washburn, Bill Chisholm's ownership group could look to build a new arena in Boston.

hardwoodhoudini.com

Everett has been floated as a possible home to this sort of project. Some have speculated that ownership could look into the areas surrounding the Encore Boston Harbor Casino, which opened its doors in 2019.

 

[Arenacale]

The Bruins and Celtics have shared a venue full-time for 70 years now, part of the culture of Boston is going to Causeway to watch both. From that standpoint, it would be a tremendous shame for the Celtics to move out to their own place, and I think the Garden would be lesser for it (I wonder if, given that scenario, the Jacobs would try to lure the Fleet in, or maybe move the P-Bruins up to fill in dates). By the same token, Boston is somewhat under-arena'd. The Garden is the only arena in the metro that has more than 17,000 seats - Worcester has ~13,000 and Hartford has ~15,600 for basketball. There's an argument that another arena would be a solid financial play, though it would hurt the Garden's schedule and almost certainly pull concerts away from Worcester.

Selfishly, if the Celtics could build a new arena, with the floor on solid ground, and enough collapsible seats, we could have the first Monster Jam in Boston, which I'd definitely be there for.

 

[Equilibria]

Seems like the chatter is entirely from pundits outside the ownership group...

 

[greenbeans]

Seems like the chatter is entirely from pundits outside the ownership group...

That was my thought on the subject as well, up until the report that came out this weekend. Seemed like an easy way for commentators to put 2 and 2 together initially, but Washburn is (generally) a little more clued in than that.

With ownership of the venues they play in and the associated revenue streams that come with them being as much of a selling point as media rights for most of the big recent team sales though it almost seems like an inevitability

 

[BronsonShore]

I'm highly skeptical that this will ever happen for two reasons:

1. There is absolutely no other potential site anywhere in the city that is anywhere near as good as the one they currently rent. Widett Circle? The Allston railyard? Those could work, but no matter what the Celtics build there, the location would be a significant step down from the West End and they'll struggle to compete with the Garden to draw concerts and other major events. Maybe something could get done in Everett, but that's still a major step down and is complicated by number 2...
2. There is absolutely no political appetite in the city or state to provide any public funding for stadium construction, which is what every billionaire owner really dreams of.

 

[bigpicture7]

I'm definitely a fan of keeping things as-is. I love Causeway street as a sort of sports hub for the B's + C's.
However, if there were one configuration I could possibly get excited about, it might be for the feds to sell the O'Neill and have have that parcel host a C's arena built right next to the B's arena right on Causeway (and throw up a couple more residential high-rises as part of that O'Neill re-dev!).

 

[Justbuildit]

This is the only good way to "move" the Cs. As long as taxpayer money isn't going to the arena I'd be fine having a second venue on that block with more development. Keep them at North Station!

 

[BeeLine]

Could the Haynes Convention Center be repurposed into an arena for the Celtics? Great location.

 

[chrisbrat]

Or get the Jacobs family to partner w/ Celtics ownership somehow. It's always been incongruous that the far (far!) more successful (in every metric) team has to take second billing in terms of scheduling and acommodation to the lesser. And don't get me wrong - I love the Bruins! And I get how, yeah -- Jacobs owns both the stadium and one of the primary tenants, so the Bs get preference, but it'd make sense to strike a deal where there's more parity. The fact that the Celtics have had to (albeit not for a while) play in Hartford or Providence b/c the Bruins needed the Garden always was idiotic.

 

[Stlin]

Could the Haynes Convention Center be repurposed into an arena for the Celtics? Great location.

Now thats an interesting thought. Hynes is on a physically bigger site than the Garden, and the arena space would easily be accommodated in the exhibit hall volume, so you could use the meeting room areas for hospitality spaces and still maintain the auditorium space, but I suspect the structural mods required may be too intensive - the exhibit halls weren't designed as open spans and are full of columns as halls C&D are stacked above A&B ‐ and even combined its not tall enough. The garden has a ceiling of 160ft? Hynes is only 60 something across the 2 floors of exhibit hall.

 

[HenryAlan]

Could the Haynes Convention Center be repurposed into an arena for the Celtics? Great location.

That could work. Another possibility might be the pier just beyond Lewis Mall in East Boston. It's close to Maverick, which would provide transit and pontentially pre/post game entertainment. The view from there is, of course, quite spectacular.

But no location is as good as North Station.

 

[greenbeans]

The pros of North Station are unmatchable, and probably countless if we're listing them out, but a couple out there ideas I like would be to deck over the Pike next to Back Bay, or the Gillette site or postal annex to pair with South Station.

 

[JohnCostello]

I have been saying for decades that the T should sell the Air Rights over the tracks west of Dot Ave, north of the Broadway Bridge for a waterfrontish arena for the Celtics. It has nearly as big a footprint as the Garden and the abutting retail / towers.

 

[KCasiglio]

The pros of North Station are unmatchable

Honestly the beginning and end of the discussion as far as I'm concerned. I think there are arguments for other places strong enough that people, including Celtics ownership, could talk themselves into, but the best ones read like that meme:

"sure, the garden is the garden, but look at [insert site]! It could be anything! It could even be the garden!"

 

[kmp1284]

That could work. Another possibility might be the pier just beyond Lewis Mall in East Boston. It's close to Maverick, which would provide transit and pontentially pre/post game entertainment. The view from there is, of course, quite spectacular.

But no location is as good as North Station.

That would seem like an enormous waste of waterfront property.

 

[HenryAlan]

That would seem like an enormous waste of waterfront property.

Absolutely! I mentioned it only because the footprint is large enough for an arena. But really, any location is a waste of property with other potential beneficial uses, because the Garden is already available.

 

[astroTrain27]

I have been saying for decades that the T should sell the Air Rights over the tracks west of Dot Ave, north of the Broadway Bridge for a waterfrontish arena for the Celtics. It has nearly as big a footprint as the Garden and the abutting retail / towers.

I don’t imagine the T will allow anything to get built there until the plans for South Station Expansion and/or NSRL are finalized and underway.

I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for NSRL. But, it’d be really cool to eventually have some sort of air rights project there to help finally bridge the gap in the urban fabric between the Leather District and Broadway/Southie.

 

[BronsonShore]

But really, any location is a waste of property with other potential beneficial uses, because the Garden is already available.

This has to be the foundation of every conversation about a potential new arena. Boston is not the same city it was in the late 90s, when ballparks and football stadia were repeatedly proposed throughout the city -- and Bostonians aren't the same, either. Boston is now a thriving city that's trying to house more people, build more labs, and stitch together neighborhoods that were torn apart by urban renewal. And the sham that is public financing for professional sports teams has long been exposed.

I just don't see any kind of municipal appetite for a needless second arena. Today, I think the vast majority of Bostonians would prefer places like the Hynes site or a pier on the East Boston waterfront be turned into new micro neighborhoods than build an arena.

 

[393b40]

Yea I dont see this working out unless they want to build over something like Widett. North Station is the perfect location for a variety of reasons.

If they ask for tax payer money hopefully Boston tells them to go fuck themselves. I feel like Wu would at least but if Kraft somehow wins I expect they'll be looking for a hamdout.