New England Revolution Stadium | 173 Alford Street | Boston-Everett

Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Is there any way that the stadium could lead to a better use of the space under 93? Hell, even if some of the proposed parking was shifted there it would be a benefit.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Thats part of the plan.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

The parking lot in between the stadium and West 4th Street needs to go. There should be a few blocks of development there at least as tall as the stadium. Building there would make the walk from the South End or Broadway much more manageable and you'd stitch those neighborhoods up (not completely, but it would be a single thread more than there is now).
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

datadyne007 said:
The Seaport had a master plan that was supposed to create a large urban neighborhood. A stadium (especially of NFL size) there would have completely ruined that. NFL stadiums require massive expanses of surface parking for tailgating. Most soccer fans don't feel the need to do that. We just drink at a bar then go to the game. At the time, the Seaport was filled with surface lots which all probably would have remained if the stadium was actually built there. It's debatable how the Seaport actually turned out (see the current discussion in the Seaport thread), but the Seaport had way more potential for urban development than the site they just chose in South Boston (not the Seaport).
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Well, I'm sure that Kraft will build a Revolution Place around the new stadium so that it blends in with the streetscape.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Foxboro native here, I grew up a quarter mile away from the stadium; we were close enough to clearly hear in-game announcements, let alone the crowd.

I visited home from Tokyo for the first two weeks of October, and the wife and I went down to Patriot Place on a Tuesday afternoon, just to check it out. There were thousands of shoppers and diners milling about. Those restaurants are packed to the eves every night of the week. The Bass Pro Shop has lines. I was blown away with how busy and well-used the space is on non-game days.

Could Kraft see more foot traffic with a similar setup in central Boston location? Quite likely. But don't get the impression that Patriot Place is some dead zone on non-event days. Every time I went by it during those two weeks, it was Emerald-Square-Mall-at-its-early-90s-peak busy. Kraft knows what he's doing with his Foxboro holdings.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

shawn said:
Foxboro native here, I grew up a quarter mile away from the stadium; we were close enough to clearly hear in-game announcements, let alone the crowd.

I visited home from Tokyo for the first two weeks of October, and the wife and I went down to Patriot Place on a Tuesday afternoon, just to check it out. There were thousands of shoppers and diners milling about. Those restaurants are packed to the eves every night of the week. The Bass Pro Shop has lines. I was blown away with how busy and well-used the space is on non-game days.

Could Kraft see more foot traffic with a similar setup in central Boston location? Quite likely. But don't get the impression that Patriot Place is some dead zone on non-event days. Every time I went by it during those two weeks, it was Emerald-Square-Mall-at-its-early-90s-peak busy. Kraft knows what he's doing with his Foxboro holdings.
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I went to the Patriots Pro Shop during an away game for the Pats. It was also the height of holiday season. It seemed dead. You would have thought that all the drunk Pats fans would be up at CBS Scene.


Not so...
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

kingofsheeba said:
Well, I'm sure that Kraft will build a Revolution Place around the new stadium so that it blends in with the streetscape.
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Did you look at the site plan? Where would he build a Revolution Place? It's pretty clear that Kraft just wants to build a stadium and plop it right in Boston on a site wedged between a highway and train tracks with neighborhoods 10 mins away on either side. This proposal actually surprised me because of this. I expected to see a Revolution Place scheme (or at least some sort of additional development) with whatever the next proposal was, but that wasn't the case this time around. The thinking appears to be put the stadium down in a parcel sized to hold it and nothing else and let the neighborhood bars & restaurants fulfill the demand.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Foxboro native here, I grew up a quarter mile away from the stadium; we were close enough to clearly hear in-game announcements, let alone the crowd.

I visited home from Tokyo for the first two weeks of October, and the wife and I went down to Patriot Place on a Tuesday afternoon, just to check it out. There were thousands of shoppers and diners milling about. Those restaurants are packed to the eves every night of the week. The Bass Pro Shop has lines. I was blown away with how busy and well-used the space is on non-game days.

Could Kraft see more foot traffic with a similar setup in central Boston location? Quite likely. But don't get the impression that Patriot Place is some dead zone on non-event days. Every time I went by it during those two weeks, it was Emerald-Square-Mall-at-its-early-90s-peak busy. Kraft knows what he's doing with his Foxboro holdings.
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Unless the people are magically never there when I am I am calling BS. I go there fairly often after work since it's close to my office and my co-workers love to get drinks at Bar Louie.

Toby Keith's (Ugh) does fill up. The rest of the place seems mostly empty at night when you're walking around between bars after 8PM.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

I've only been 4 or 5 times at different times of the year. Each time it has been busy. I wouldn't call it packed, but def busy every time. Never seen it dead anyways.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Where would he build a Revolution Place?
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On the parking lots. I mean, this is pure speculation, but he could definitely pull the same thing he did with Gillete, i.e., build the stadium, wait a few years to raise more funding, and then build "Revs Place" on all or some of the parking. The northern lot on W 4th/E Berkeley especially looks like a good spot for something.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Nexis4jersey said:
Why so much parking and why the weird location? This should be built in the Seaport...
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Answer: See that MBTA Maintenance facility land next to the stadium?

Watch Bob Kraft buy up that land (MBTA may want to move it to a less real estate dynamic area anyway), build "Revolution Place" right there so the folks coming off the Broadway T Station have to go through his shops and restaurants, etc. to get to the stadium.

Brilliant.

With the South End and Southie right there, it will become a new entertainment district.
 
Re: Somerville Soccer Stadium

davem said:
The only thing I don't like about this proposal is you are required to walk across a sea of parking to access the stadium. So instead of Broadway turning into the soccer version of Fenway, it will feel far more disconnected.


While it would require the stands to cantilever over the railroad tracks, I think pushing the stadium further north to form a streetwall along W. 4th St would be far better for the area. This could also be accomplished by developing the site between the stadium and W 4th. I wonder if that's what the colors represent on the pics above.
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Hence "Revolution Place"
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

shmessy said:
Answer: See that MBTA Maintenance facility land next to the stadium?

Watch Bob Kraft buy up that land (MBTA may want to move it to a less real estate dynamic area anyway), build "Revolution Place" right there so the folks coming off the Broadway T Station have to go through his shops and restaurants, etc. to get to the stadium.

Brilliant.

With the South End and Southie right there, it will become a new entertainment district.
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Where's Cabot going? The T won't want to move it. Where is a better location for them? It's the Red Line Yard and Maintenance facility. Don't count on Cabot going anywhere. The T won't sell, and Kraft can't make them.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

shmessy said:
Answer: See that MBTA Maintenance facility land next to the stadium?

Watch Bob Kraft buy up that land (MBTA may want to move it to a less real estate dynamic area anyway), build "Revolution Place" right there so the folks coming off the Broadway T Station have to go through his shops and restaurants, etc. to get to the stadium.

Brilliant.

With the South End and Southie right there, it will become a new entertainment district.
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One doesn't just "buy" MBTA maintenance facilities, dude. Cabot Yard is pretty much immovable. The Revs and Boston 2024 are looking at sites around it, but you can't touch the yard itself.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Equilibria said:
One doesn't just "buy" MBTA maintenance facilities, dude. Cabot Yard is pretty much immovable. The Revs and Boston 2024 are looking at sites around it, but you can't touch the yard itself.
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If he wanted to create a "Revolution place" there, couldn't he deck over the yard?

I could see him decking over the yard between W 4th st. and the maintenance facility, and you could easily put 1-2 story buildings on the deck. Buy up the parking lot at the corner and you can make a walking path directly from the intersection of Dorchester ave and W 4th st. to the stadium through all these shops.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

couldn't he deck over the yard?
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You could deck the Grand Canyon if money is no option. I think the more realistic move is an Assembly Row style project on where the current north lot is, aka ground level retail with a multilevel garage over it. That's infinitely less complex and expensive than a full Cabot deck.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Mongo said:
If he wanted to create a "Revolution place" there, couldn't he deck over the yard?

I could see him decking over the yard between W 4th st. and the maintenance facility, and you could easily put 1-2 story buildings on the deck. Buy up the parking lot at the corner and you can make a walking path directly from the intersection of Dorchester ave and W 4th st. to the stadium through all these shops.
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Decking anything over a maintenance yard is pretty nasty, because the yard has to operate while crews are in there putting in columns in the narrow space between tracks (which has to be expanded to accommodate them). A tiny portion of the Riverside Yard was at one point going to be decked over for a parking garage as part of that project - they canned the idea when the T got a look at the operational impact.

The T may have no money, but it also has no profit motive, and is thus not going to screw with its operations just to make a buck. Even with infinite money, there's very little chance any maintenance yard will ever be built over.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Equilibria said:
Decking anything over a maintenance yard is pretty nasty, because the yard has to operate while crews are in there putting in columns in the narrow space between tracks (which has to be expanded to accommodate them). A tiny portion of the Riverside Yard was at one point going to be decked over for a parking garage as part of that project - they canned the idea when the T got a look at the operational impact.

The T may have no money, but it also has no profit motive, and is thus not going to screw with its operations just to make a buck. Even with infinite money, there's very little chance any maintenance yard will ever be built over.
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It's got to be easier than decking the pike, because there are at least a few hours at night where there isn't really any traffic through the yard.

Also, the T should see this as an opportunity . Leasing air rights over the yard would boost their revenues with no investment needed. I disagree that the T would look at this opportunity and say no because it might interfere with schedules for a few months. That would be foolish.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Equilibria said:
The T may have no money, but it also has no profit motive, and is thus not going to screw with its operations just to make a buck.
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The T is in the red. And while IT probably doesn't care, the institutions from which it is asking more money to keep its operations going DO.
 
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