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

Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

I feel like with this site, the UMass plans and student, the existing neighborhood and T plus with Krafts own patriot place success that he views this as a kind of Assembly Square/ New Balance Boston Landing for the South Side. It can have soccer and lacrosse retail, waterfront dining, integrated housing, a centered parking garage and is supported by highway and T access.

While traffic concerns are real and being something that drives the SE Xway daily at rush hour (i know tar and feather me, but its far and away my most economically and time efficient option), we can't let that kill all development. Instead, we should look at these traffic causing developments as ways to support more integrated multi-modal infrastructure and TOD housing and development opportunities and not just as all burden no benefit.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

datadyne007 said:
Despite living 10 minutes from Suffolk Downs, in the interest of urbanism & solving the housing crisis, I will be the first to say a stadium is absolutely the worst use for Suffolk Downs. SD needs to be developed into a 30,000 housing unit mixed-income green community. It has everything it needs to succeed including 2 rapid transit stops on a line that is under capacity (blue).
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This is absolutely my preference, too. I was speculating on what Kraft would want, but what I would want is housing and the supportive uses generally clustered near the T stops to make it a successful community.

Oh how I hope the owners of SD are discussing that with someone good.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Wouldn't a JFK/UMass stadium be just like Fenway Park or TD Garden? Traffic in those areas is bad at peak times, and the few fans that feel they have to drive end up sitting in traffic and waiting for long queues in parking garages. Most fans use alternate modes of transportation. Many fans coming from far away park away from the city and take the T in for Bruins/Celtics/Red Sox - especially at Riverside for Red Sox games. I see no reason why Revs fans wouldn't just park in Quincy/Braintree/Alewife and take the Red Line to the stadium.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

How would the Harbor Point complex fit with this? Does Harbor Point need to remain isolated and gated? Or can it be opened up with through-streets to an Assembly-style development here - a sort of residential extension to a mixed-use sports complex?
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

4 college football fields + Kraft Soccer should be combined into 1 or 2 stadiums.... Sell 1/2 the land on the freed up parcels back to the city for development. Status quo happened when Boston was a shrinking city. Too much wasted space in 2015.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

odurandina said:
4 college football fields + Kraft Soccer should be combined into 1 or 2 stadiums.... Sell 1/2 the land on the freed up parcels back to the city for development. Status quo happened when Boston was a shrinking city. Too much wasted space in 2015.
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We're trying to move away from the football lines on a soccer pitch status quo. That type of thing is fine for amateur ball, but it really shouldn't be acceptable any more for top flight soccer in the US. Preserving the sanctity of the pitch is something the Revs deserve after all the years at Gillette.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Wait it's 2016 right? :) i think you can do soccer/football by means of some type of retractable stands on one side of the field. it's not like Northeastern, Harvard and BU pull crowds like Northwestern.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

odurandina said:
Wait it's 2016 right? :) i think you can do soccer/football by means of some type of retractable stands on one side of the field. it's not like Northeastern, Harvard and BU pull crowds like Northwestern.
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Um, neither BU nor Northeastern has football teams. And Harvard is all set where they are.

Nonetheless, it kind of defeats the premise of a Soccer Specific Stadium, no?
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Thought exercise: If BC and Harvard decided to consolidate and play their football games in one location, where would be the most logical place? Harvard Stadium has more history and is in a better location (between Harvard and BC in Allston). Alumni Stadium is bigger and more modern and has the added benefit that a now freed up Harvard Stadium sits on more developable land for general non-college purposes.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

I'm not sure but after that happens, the two could play hockey on the frozen ponds in hell.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

datadyne007 said:
Some thoughts from AdamInJP (big Revs supporter/SG organizer) on Reddit:
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Adam's a good friend of mine and we've been salivating over this site as a possible stadium location for years.

Disclosure: I'm a 20 year Revolution season ticket holder who's been commuting to Foxboro from Peabody, Lowell and North Andover during that duration. I've been dreaming (and will continue to do so until the first shovel goes into the ground) about a downtown soccer stadium for the Revs.

Start with the nearby T access at JFK/UMass. It's a no-brainer and has been cited by Kraft Soccer as necessary part of any possible stadium development. Now, personally, I'd like to see some strategic upgrades at the station (better lighting, wider sidewalks) to accommodate the anticipated crowds. Obviously, something needs to be done about Kosciuskzo circle and this could be the perfect impetus to finally resolve that traffic nightmare.

I laugh when Rep. Lynch shuts down the idea of a stadium here over traffic concerns. Face it, just about any type of redevelopment will bring in additional traffic, especially since there aren't any vehicles using the site en masse right now. But he has a very selective memory because he neglects to remember the traffic nightmares the ensured when there were big events at the old Bayside Expo Center (hello New England Auto Show) that brought in cars upon cars to the site. With a significant number of ticket holders expected to come in from downtown and the urban ring via the T, the need for and supply of parking spaces can be put at a reasonable premium.

I've read and re-read the UMass Boston Master Plan for development and this parcel remains outside of it. But I would imagine that a stadium could possibly free up some space on the campus that was designated for athletic purposes. The bigger gain here is for not only UMass Boston, but possibly for UMass Amherst as well. As we all know, the decision to move to Div. 1 has been a total bust and moving some home games to Gillette have been equally disappointing. But the idea of having the state's flagship football team playing downtown nearer to potential boosters might be something that Meehan & Co. might consider.

The major abutters would be the Doubletree hotel next door, UMB and the Harbor Point housing development. I would think that any concern the hotel might have would be mitigated by the potential revenue they could gain from people staying there for big events (such as a US National team game or concerts).

For the Revolution, make no mistake, this would be a total game changer. Attendance has suffered because of playing at Gillette. The atmosphere sucks because of the size of the stadium. The fake turf has scared off many a potential free-agent. But a good number of the players live right downtown and a stadium minutes away would be a major selling point.

Just the visibility aspect alone would be fantastic. Akin to BMO Field in Toronto, it'd be right off a major highway. Planes flying into Logan on runways 4L & 4R would have a fantastic vantage point.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

For the fans that do decide to drive (along with regular commuters the rest of the week) divert them directly from the SE Expressway/Columbia Rd into a new ~2000 car garage at JFK/UMass Station before they even get to that rotary:

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Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

tangent said:
For the fans that do decide to drive (along with regular commuters the rest of the week) divert them directly from the SE Expressway/Columbia Rd into a new ~2000 car garage at JFK/UMass Station before they even get to that rotary:
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I wonder what role that could play as a park and ride. It is rather close to downtown to be an ideal park and ride, but it cuts out a nasty final 2-3 miles of commute. I'm not sure exactly who the target audience would be.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

fattony said:
I wonder what role that could play as a park and ride. It is rather close to downtown to be an ideal park and ride, but it cuts out a nasty final 2-3 miles of commute. I'm not sure exactly who the target audience would be.
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People who either don't have access to parking or the parking is really expensive.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

fattony said:
I wonder what role that could play as a park and ride. It is rather close to downtown to be an ideal park and ride, but it cuts out a nasty final 2-3 miles of commute. I'm not sure exactly who the target audience would be.
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Would be good to get those ~2000 cars that otherwise would go into downtown onto the red line at JFK/UMass without going far off the highway. Also, much more visibility for the T from the highway. Ideally people would park and ride from Braintree or Quincy stations, but JFK/UMass could provide a last chance option.

So, 70% to 80% last chance park and ride and 20% to 30% would be to enable more development at the Bay Side site. Say it costs $70 million to build. See if the Krafts will put in $20 million towards the garage as a traffic mitigation to get it done.

Either way you know you are going to fill a garage there every weekday so it isn't going to lose money.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

fattony said:
I wonder what role that could play as a park and ride. It is rather close to downtown to be an ideal park and ride, but it cuts out a nasty final 2-3 miles of commute. I'm not sure exactly who the target audience would be.
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bigpicture7 said:
People who either don't have access to parking or the parking is really expensive.
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Especially because the Quincy Center garage is getting torn down because it's literally ready to collapse.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

commuters that are currently driving all the way into Boston are not going to start using the red line because there is a new garage/park and ride option. It would only encourage people already driving and using the park and ride facilities located to the south to drive further towards Boston and longer on 93.

Skip the garage on public property, and use those funds to fix K Circle. MassDOT has been looking to replace K Circle for years.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

A garage there would turn a profit in ten years and provide a much needed option between parking downtown and parking at Braintree.

Just charge more for parking than Braintree and less than downtown to keep the incentive to park further out.

It is either a public garage there or a need for a much larger private garage at Bayside regardless of the stadium.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Don't forget that there's commuter rail at JFK as well. On weekends, all trains on all 3 OC branches stop there, making it an easy commute for south shore fans, with all of those parking lots at the various stations wide open (not sure if it's free, but no one uses OC on the weekends). The T could try offering discounts to riders wearing Revs shirts or whatever as an incentive to use the service, and tweak the schedule to bring people in and out at reasonable times. Promoting CR might even allow them to turn a few RL trains at JFK to ensure there's enough subway capacity to bring everyone in from the north if needed (just speculating, no idea if it's possible). At the very least, they could run the RL at weekday frequencies from say two hours before kickoff to two hours after the end of the game.
 
Re: Site in Hub top choice for a soccer stadium

Also, there is no reason that a stadium here cannot be compatible with UMass residential uses. Case Western U in Cleveland (Div. 3) built a residential complex ringing its football field. Not an exact analog but there is no reason that the stadium has to be surrounded by empty space or parking lots. A combo of retail/soccer pubs/pro shop with dorms hard up against the bleachers (Camden Yards, Ford Field) would be absolutely unique in pro sports. The Revs won't lose any revenue with some college kids watching from their windows and it could add some real excitement to the atmosphere.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5135325,-81.6034013,19z/data=!3m1!1e3
 
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