Re: Somerville Soccer Stadium
A stadium in the seaport, unless somewhere by harpoon, would he a huge waste of space.
Tear down the Pavilion and put it there. The Pavilion is woefully undersized as far as outdoor venues go in any case.
Having said that, building any stadium at all right now is a very bad idea - soccer has only just started to gain the legitimacy it needed to take off in this country - and, because it has become a legitimate sport in other cities, those teams who built "right-sized" MLS stadia are beginning to see them fill up. Meanwhile, perhaps the most legitimate of the MLS franchises - the Seattle Sounders - still plays in a football stadium, but the Sounders are actually capable of selling it out. No, not selling out the sections that are "open" - selling out the entire stadium.
The Sounders will never build a "right-sized" MLS stadium, because they've already shot way past the capacity of a "right-sized" MLS stadium. If and when they get around to building a dedicated stadium, it'll be with the capacity of an NFL or MLB facility. Similarly, as teams who already built "right-sized" stadiums start to see their own popularity soar and their buildings sell out, they're going to come right back to their hosts with hands outstretched. Upgrades are needed, they'll say. We have to add more seating, they'll say. And if they built their pitch in the suburbs, they might start talking about mothballing the stadium entirely for a move downtown.
So, really, there's absolutely no way for Boston to win in this scenario. Either it overbuilds now and establishes an MLS facility that will take 10 or 15 years to yield a worthwhile return on investment even if you assume that the stadium will be used more than 17~21 days per year as a venue for concerts and such, or it "right-sizes" the stadium and we're right back here in 2029 arguing over the merits of pouring a substantial amount of money into renovations, or it turns out that soccer hasn't taken off in Boston because of reasons that aren't fixed by moving the team downtown, and then building the soccer pitch turns out to be a waste no matter what size it is.
And, frankly, there are cities in New England that have far more need of outdoor venue space than Boston. Cities like Providence or Worcester would be able to use a stadium regularly and to a meaningful percentage of its capacity, soccer be damned. If we're going to seriously build a stadium for the "New England" Revolution, building it literally anywhere else in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or southern NH is a safer bet than Boston, and I promise you that the dozen guys who would throw a fit about "moving" the team to Providence will get over it.
PS:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3327389,-71.057804,350m/data=!3m1!1e3
In Andrew Square there is this completely underutilized track of land that may be big enough for a small stadium. This would put the stadium on the red line with access to the SE expressway. It'll help tie Dorchester and Southie together...It would be nice to have a neighborhood team too!
Just in case I haven't already riled up enough sports fans reading this thread, this would be an excellent location for New Fenway Park once the city and the Red Sox are forced to confront the harsh reality that - structural integrity be damned - Fenway Park can't survive another 47 years of active use and placing it on the Register of Historic Places has likely precluded any sort of significant further renovations or upgrades. It's time to pull out of Fenway, and preserve what we can of it as a museum.
