Mainly because the core entry-way into the stadium will likely 'require' modifications to a Boston street (circled)
New England Revolution Stadium | 173 Alford Street | Boston-Everett
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I suppose it doesn't need to be Wu specifically. After all, this thread is almost 20 years old for something that should have been a slam dunk.
Bobby K is 84 too... could easily sell the Revs or even die before any shovels get put in the ground if it gets that far.
I don't think you answered my question.
Do you think Mayor Wu is trying to kill this project?
That would be a big deal, if true. That seemed to be what you were suggesting, but I might be misreading your reply.
citydweller
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Haha.. I see what you did there. You're very welcome
Equilibria
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If this is general pessimism, then fine, it's probably warranted given the saga of this project, but Wu has endorsed this deal and has $48 million of infrastructure improvements riding on it. The whole point of this agreement is that she's not killing it.
As noted prior, Wu intervened on behalf of her constituents and multiplied the benefits they're receiving from Kraft, who has functionally infinite money as an oligarch in a gilded age, by a factor of 64. That's the job she's elected and paid to do. FWIW, the $47.25 million more she negotiated for is (at present) more than the increase in the City's share of the White Stadium project, which means that over the past six months Wu is actually in the black on soccer stadiums.
I agree with you re: Wu won big with her negotiations on the Everett Stadium - - she knew she had Kraft by the short hairs and she played it well.
Your last sentence, regarding White Stadium is also spot on…….and the key words are “at present”………there is something going on behind the obfuscation of her previously stated “disclosure” timeframe. Between that and the business wisdom for the Legacy to finance over $100 million play in an 11,000 seat stadium (below 2024 avg attendance in NWSL) they will not own and will timeshare with the City does not bode well for that franchise’s longterm economic competitiveness.
Equilibria
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Beyond Wu, I think it's worth broadly laying this out - per the Globe's numbers , Kraft is paying $138 million (or 25% of the inflation-adjusted cost of Gillette Stadium) for the privilege of privately financing a stadium in the Boston inner core. That number is a little wishy-washy given that it seems Kraft is paying PILOT percentages of ticket sales instead of property taxes, which must work out better for him or he wouldn't be doing it, but it's not the same thing as tax breaks, he bought the land himself, and the public is putting nothing into the stadium. Kraft is also apparently covering public safety costs, which might involve reimbursing the cities for those costs.
In this time of massive subsidies, it's hard to picture what a realistic better deal looks like - so far Neil deMause hasn't even found anything to complain about.
stick n move
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JumboBuc
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Interesting that this agreement is a PILOT - I hadn't seen that reported elsewhere. My assumption was that these funding agreements were in addition to standard property taxes. If so, that significantly changes the balance of this deal, and could do a lot to alleviate risk for the Kraft Group (e.g., PILOT may mean no property tax until tickets are sold, which is still many years away).
(It would be great if we could see the actual agreements themselves rather than mangled versions filtered through comms teams and the media, but alas...)
If this is indeed a PILOT deal, it says a lot about state capacity. I.e., if we want a infrastructure built we let private entities out of their property tax liabilities and have them fund it directly, rather than just making them pay their property taxes and using that money to build it publicly. Such an agreement could be a win-win for both sides -- I'm not passing judgment -- but it says a lot about where we are as a society.
Also very interesting that SO many places in this country basically straight up build stadiums for pro sports teams with public money to lure them into town, but here in MA we fight about whether or not a pro sports team payed the public enough money for the privilege of being allowed to build a stadium with private money in our community. Total opposite side of the coin...
And, possibly, the only place on earth to be chosen a national finalist for hosting the Summer Olympics to subsequently reject it.
Scott
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I thought Wynn owned the land. Anyway, here is an audit of the 1999 in lieu of taxes agreement for Gillette. Notice that Foxboro actually now owns the land, and Kraft has a 35 year renewable lease on it for 35 more years coming up fairly soon. Also the $68M state portion of this would be almost twice that in today's money.
Scott
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Because we are one of the most important sports cities in the world and not exactly dummies. If they didn't listen to us Fenway would be gone, Patriot Place wouldn't exist and they would both be playing in a Megaplex where the Seaport is now.
citydweller
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I believe the site location is highlighted in red though it's my interpretation. What's curious is that there doesn't appear to have any easy access from any direction. Looking at google-map street view, Robin St doesn't even exist.
The Eversource electric substation is far more encompassing than I thought. The location appears to be quite inaccessible, unless you have a boat.
The Eversource electric substation is far more encompassing than I thought. The location appears to be quite inaccessible, unless you have a boat.
sean99090900
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Kraft Group Invests Millions To Build New Headhouse at MBTA Assembly Stop | WBZ NewsRadio 1030
WBZ NewsRadio is the home of Traffic and Weather Together on the 3s. Breaking news when it happens. Boston's source for local news. Listen on your radio at 1030AM in Boston or take us anywhere with the free iHeart app.
Looks like some of that agreement money will be used to expand the Assembly station. I remember the renderings of the pedestrian bridge looking quite goofy with a 10 minute detour on the Somerville side, the direct connection here will be very nice. Hope someone drops renders at some point soon
The most interesting detail from the Globe article to me was
"Eventually, the stadium and casino properties will be connected by a waterfront walkway under Route 99, with help from $2 million from the Krafts included in the Everett agreement."
This would seem to facilitate the pedestrian connection coming from Assembly, across the bridge, to the wind turbine along the water, under Alford St, and into the stadium. The most obvious casino-to-stadium connection under rt. 99 would be on Dexter street, but that's not really "waterfront". It would be bizarre to have such a long detour to get around the water commission when you could span the much shorter gap over the water that is only used for the small encore ferries (but then again, we've seen how long the larger bridge has taken to settle on design). Without the smaller bridge, it could be used to connect to Sullivan Square across Alford Street bridge but that doesn't do much to "connect the stadium and casino".
Additionally, we know that Encore wants to expand East with hotels, parking garages, performance venues, restaurants, and a club directly North of the stadium site. All the renders of that (including one of the newer renders from the stadium team) include an overpass of Rt. 99. Why would Kraft pay more money to build a waterfront underpass at the South that currently puts you further away from the casino when Encore is planning a pretty direct connection immediately to the North? I think there has to be hope of some sort of short bridge between the South Lawn and the wind turbine to facilitate the Assembly connection. This would bring the walk from the Orange Line to the SW corner of the stadium down from 15-20 closer to 8-10, probably putting to rest any complaints that it's not close enough to mass-transit for a car-free stadium development.
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LtKije
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Boston dropping out as the national finalist was certainly unusual (and, in my opinion, a shame) but Denver infamously one-upped us by dropping out AFTER having been awarded the games by the IOC! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Winter_Olympics
I did some more looking into this underpass excerpt, and I think I was wrong to infer there might be a second bridge in the planning. It appears that the underpass is a planned phase 2 for the Alford Street Harborwalk Project. It uses a partially existing underpass alongside the Alford St Pumping Station and connects to a landside path which links to the main loop driveway entrance at Encore.
That puts the pedestrian-friendly (0 street crossings) Assembly to stadium route at 1.04 miles and about 15-20 minutes. On the other hand, the article mentions "a total of $13 million for community mitigation payments over time in Boston that will include infrastructure improvements in the Sullivan Square section of Charlestown" (which I hope is the Rutherford Avenue/ Sullivan Square Safety Project, along with the Ryan Playground proposed extension). This will, and will always be, less pedestrian-friendly (a minimum of 4 street crossings with significant traffic) than the Assembly bridge. However, it will be shorter at 0.7 miles and around 12-17 minutes. There are a lot of pedestrian improvements and it's difficult to say which would be preferable between the two routes once the options are presented. Assembly+ Bridge certainly provides more amenities at this point in time, but Sullivan should be quicker and will likely improve quite fast if the city can incentivize development on some of the parking lot parcels in the coming years.
I still think the second bridge is probably the best/most transformative solution to connect the stadium and mass transit but that likely lies in the hands of Encore. And since fans would arrive and depart from the South Lawn without significant access to the main entrances of the casino in that plan, it probably isn't in their best interest and unlikely.
In any case as many have said, 15-20 minutes to transit works fine for many transit-oriented soccer stadiums around the world, and I suspect the Silver Line Extension + Frequent 109 (+ less frequent 113) buses completely on separated bus lanes will be a well-used option as well for those who are willing to pack in for 3 stops or so. If/ when this all gets built I'm very excited and curious to see what routes come out on top.