Re: Somerville Soccer Stadium
All of this is relevant because of the arguments you are making about Boston. You can't paint Boston as a bad market for reasons that are the result of a lackluster front office in order to make Providence look like a more attractive move.
The front office would never get away with even half of the things it currently does if Boston wasn't a bad market. That's my point.
The fans don't hold the team accountable, the media doesn't hold the team accountable, the politicians are all too willing to let themselves be strung along in decades-long 'talks' that go nowhere, and there's absolutely no incentive for the Krafts to do anything other than more of the same.
Revs fans need to get loud, and get
angry about having smoke blowed up their asses re: soccer stadium for all this time. Whether that anger comes as skipping games or a media firestorm or anything else is irrelevant, they just need to make it clear that they're not going to keep going with the flow as it is today. When that starts happening, not only will the Krafts notice that they're not going to be allowed to get away with no commitment anymore, but I'll start believing that Boston's MLS market is getting stronger. Not before.
The Commuter Rail does not currently provide the same service as the rapid transit lines and there is nothing in the planning stages that is going to massively improve that kind of service. I don't feel like this is something that I need to argue.
I disagree with your assessment that there's nothing in the planning stages that is going to lead to a 30~35-minute trip time between South Station and Providence with a greatly increased number of actual trains on the line, but if you don't want to debate this point then fine.
You don't need to crunch any numbers because it isn't close. I'm not trying to short sell or insult Providence but it doesn't compete with Boston. I am sure that Providence has a lot of growth in its future but it isn't a major league city and thats OK!
It doesn't have to be close! It just has to be a move that we can make right now, and Boston has to be a move that won't happen for another decade or more. If both conditions are met, then it makes sense to go to Providence.
This is ridiculous. Bostonians, especially people who are only potential or theoretical fans of the team, are in no way responsible for lobbying Bob Kraft to put his stadium in the most sensible place. You keep shifting blame in all kinds of crazy directions and yet absolutely refuse to acknowledge that the front office is the source of the stadium problem.
The roughly 14,000 average people who attend Revs home games are absolutely in some way responsible for the current stadium situation. If that number was 1,400 and Kraft was bleeding money every single match, change would have happened already. It hasn't. If the 14,000 people showing up to matches took the time to bitch and complain about the stadium in person, change would have happened already. It hasn't.
The front office is the only party culpable for the team languishing in Foxbourough. Boston and Somerville are not stonewalling the Krafts by refusing to give them a free stadium.
No, but the Krafts are likely stonewalling Boston and Somerville because they feel that all the advantage is theirs, and they can wait out a favorable deal as long as it takes.
That statement is not coming off the heels of any Olympics discussion it happened because the World Cup is occurring. I have no idea why you are so skeptical of what the Mayors of Boston, Somerville, and Revere all say about a soccer stadium but you are totally fine with what the Revolution's front office says and take that at complete face value.
It can't be both? The World Cup triggered another round of media trolling by the Krafts on a stadium, and Walsh is putting out the statements that he is because he's thinking Olympics and stadium-recycling.
I'm skeptical of the front office too. They don't want to spend, and evidence of their cheapness goes well beyond the fact that they play in Gillette. They're at fault just as much as every other culpable party in this arrangement.
Saying that Boston is larger than Providence is not a dig or slight against Providence. Providence also clearly benefits from being close to Boston.
Any harsh language in this quotes probably has more to do with having to have this discussion than hate on Providence or Rhode Island.
CBS, it's clear that you're passionate about Providence. I think most people here would love to see Providence grow into a world class city, but you're never going to convince the majority of the archBoston forum that it will have the same commercial draw as a soccer hub that Boston would.
I'm not trying to.
I'm trying to convince the people here that a bird in the hand beats two in the bush, and that it's highly unlikely that a stadium is actually going to be built in Boston any time in this decade and probably also the next decade.
Sure, we
might get enough people on board that a deal for a stadium happens, or we
might end up being the last guy at the table and therefore stuck with the bill that is the 2024 Olympics, but it's far more likely that neither thing occurs and the Revs continue to languish for many years to come.
All I'm trying to get this thread to agree on is that, should I turn out to be right and no stadium deal happens in Boston (or Somerville, or Quincy, or anywhere else neighboring Boston...) for the next 10+ years, moving the Revs to Providence is the next best course of action. Providence is certainly not the best place to move them, but it's hardly the "seventh or eighth best."
