By Cary Shuman
More than 100 residents attended a meeting hosted by Mayor Michelle Wu to discuss the proposed 24,000-seat professional soccer stadium in Everett and its impacts on the Charlestown neighborhood.
Moe Gillen welcomes Mayor
Michelle Wu and her baby, Mira,
to the neighborhood meeting.
Wu was joined at the head table in the Knights of Columbus hall by Sen. Sal DiDomenico, who is the lead sponsor of the soccer stadium project, Rep. Dan Ryan, and City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata.
The soccer stadium would be built by the Kraft Group on a 43-acre site of a now-closed power plant and be home to the New England Revolution professional soccer team. A new waterfront park is also part of the plans.
“We need to make sure that the community that’s most impacted by this proposal is right here with us sharing what you’re thinking, how you’re feeling, how there are other impacts already happening in the neighborhood that have to be factored in,” said Wu in her opening statement.
Wu said there has not been much happening in terms of the City’s negotiations with the Kraft Group.
“Things haven’t really kicked off very much in terms of substantive conversations because there really hasn’t been that much discussed from the project proponents – we haven’t really seen specific details and there’s not too much there. So we’re going to do our best to draw that information out as we go and put some pretty specific asks out there for the kinds of things that we are going to need to see to feel comfortable with not only a project that would bring economic activity and jobs – but the 20,000 people that are going to come on game days, potentially for concerts, for events, it’s a big deal.”
Ryan said the meeting “wasn’t just about the soccer stadium, it’s about an area of Charlestown that has been neglected for a long time for a whole bunch of different reasons.”
Ryan thanked Wu for coming to Charlestown to personally address the neighborhood’s concerns. “Mayor Wu is the first one to show up in person to say, ‘hey, what do you want, what do you need?’’’
Looking out at the standing-room-only crowd in the hall, Coletta Zapata said, “It’s a good night when the Knights is packed.”
“We are here to understand what your priorities are,” said Coletta Zapata. “We are going to be a united front working in partnership with all of you to ensure that Charlestown gets what it needs and deserves.”
DiDomenico said he had heard of other proposals for the site in Everett, such as a public park. “Yes, you find me someone that will pay $80 million to clean up the land there, let’s put a public park there.”
For three years, DiDomenico has championed the idea of a new state-of-the-art soccer stadium built by the Kraft Group as a prime use of the site. Like many area residents and soccer fans, DiDomenico believes there is no doubt that the stadium would be a gem of the league like the Kraft family’s Gillette Stadium is in the NFL, an economic stimulator for the area, and a perfect complement to the world-class, five-star Encore Boston Harbor resort-casino across the street (that replaced the Monsanto Company site).
The concerns about the stadium were mostly traffic-related, focusing on nearby Sullivan Square and Rutherford Avenue. It was noted that there will only be 74 parking spaces at the stadium on soccer game days.
Mary Boucher, vice chair of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council, was among the residents expressing concern about the increased traffic and other impacts on the neighborhood.
Charlestown resident Patty Kelley also spoke about the traffic concerns of the neighborhood.
“All we get is more traffic,” said Kelley. “We can’t get out of the town now. I went to Sullivan Square and Rutherford Avenue meetings for over 25 years. Now you’re telling me it’s going back to the surface option. I’m not happy. Make sure that one square mile of Charlestown is taken care of, so we can get in and out, and that we have the ambulances that we were promised in case of an emergency.”
Kelley seemed well-versed on the soccer stadium issue, indicating that she was pleased that no taxpayer money would be used in the construction of the soccer stadium in Everett as opposed to the White Stadium project in Franklin Park, Roxbury. She also accurately stated that there is a battery lithium center being considered for a nearby site in Everett.
For New England Revolution soccer fans living in greater Boston, a beautiful new home for the team would be a dream come true.
Said Jeff Zeserson, a graduate of Bentley University and a North End resident, who attended the meeting, “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine, not only as a Revs’ fan, but as a Boston sports fan. I’ve been to other soccer-only stadiums around the country in Kansas City, D.C., Houston, and New Jersey – and I’d like our fans to have all that. It would be great for Boston.”
DiDomenico said if no Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) is reached among the Kraft Group, the City of Boston, and City of Everett by May 1, the matter would go to mediation. The next deadline would be Dec. 31. If no agreement is reached among the three parties, it would go to binding arbitration.