You know what?
Never mind. It isn't worth it.
I'm just going to leave you all with this thought instead of the angry post I was originally going to write: none of you have any guarantee that this isn't just going to be a bait-and-switch for a Gillette Stadium replacement. The complete control that Kraft has over the burgeoning "lifestyle center" in Foxboro doesn't even begin to cover the difference relative to what he could be pulling down from a lifestyle center accessible to the entire urban core, and the Revolution will never be able to sell out a 60,000 or 70,000 or 80,000 seat stadium the way the Patriots can and do. The amount of parking proposed is more than enough space to satisfy the tailgating requirement, and the Krafts will be able to charge $50+ per space 365 days a year, instead of 8.
I don't even like football (either football), and I'd rather see zero new stadiums built, but from a simple business/math perspective there's simply no reason to waste valuable downtown real estate on a 20,000 seat "soccer-specific" stadium if you're Bob Kraft and you control both franchises and you have at least four times the raw earning potential if you build the 80,000 seat NFL stadium instead. Modern NFL stadiums have a life expectancy of about 30 years - Gillette is due for replacement on a time table that lines up quite nicely with the time table for working through the political and engineering challenges associated with this particular parcel.
I'd be stunned, honestly stunned, if this turned into a soccer stadium. I expect that it's going to mutate into Gillette 2.0, and the Krafts will finally get their downtown Boston stadium that they wanted for Gillette 1.0. Remember, it was only NIMBY opposition to the South Boston proposal that sent "the Pats" out of town the first time.
25 years from now, while the Patriots are celebrating their moving in to their new digs within spitting distance of South Station, we'll all still be arguing over a Somerville Soccer Stadium and I bet a few of the more devoted fans in this thread are going to be shaking their heads over what a massive injustice it is that the second-string soccer franchise is still a road team on their own home field that belongs to the Patriots first and forever.
