White Stadium Facts
Facts and Information on the White Stadium Project.
In an effort to be transparent and clear on our approach to renovating White Stadium, we are addressing the most common misinformed claims…
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Cost
False Claim: Project costs are out of control.
“Price tag on White Stadium renovation doubles” – Tréa Lavery, Mass Live, Dec. 19, 2024
Truth: Project costs reflect new park and BPS investments outside the stadium
Over the 21 months since the City first called for a private partner to help fund the renovation of White Stadium in April of 2023, the cost estimates for the City side of the project have risen because the project has changed significantly in response to community feedback, design improvements, and rising costs of construction.
At that early, conceptual stage, the City believed that a single East Grandstand building would house the core BPS and community program. Through a process that has included 60 community meetings and more than 900 comment letters, the proposed design changed significantly, adding one-story wing buildings and narrowing the East Grandstand to protect trees and sightlines within the Park, while preserving the programs and amenities for BPS student athletes, coaches, and the community. The new design and updated cost estimate now reflect the generational investment the City is making in both our students and Franklin Park.
The City is only funding the BPS portion of the project, and the partner is providing long term maintenance costs and other community benefits. See breakdown and analysis of the City's $91 million investment
False Claim: Project costs will affect City services and taxes.
“The fiscal deficit caused by this project will require the City to reduce services and increase taxes.” - Andrew Zimbalist, testimony at Boston City Council hearing, Jan. 22, 2025
Truth: No, project costs will not affect City services or taxes.
The city’s budget for capital investments is separate from its operating budget, and Boston issues bonds to finance capital projects and investments. Due to decades of strong fiscal management and stable revenue sources, the City has earned a triple-A bond rating, which allows the City to finance capital projects at the lowest cost. While the operating budget reflects the cost of debt service, the City of Boston has budgeted for this renovation and associated debt service costs as a major capital project. White Stadium is the only dedicated athletics facility for the 48,000 students of the Boston Public Schools. The lease agreement between the City and BUSP ensures that the City will not be responsible for costs to operate and maintain White Stadium for decades to come, allowing BPS to invest significant resources elsewhere to support the schools.
False Claim: The Emerald Necklace Conservancy has a cheaper design.
“We [Emerald Necklace Conservancy] have put forth a detailed [$29 million] cost estimate for a renovation of White Stadium and in Franklin Park that could be done to provide a high quality, fully public high school stadium without many of the neighborhood negative impacts, it would be 15% of the price tag for 100% of public stadium.” – Karen Mauney-Brodek
“The private nonprofit that protects Franklin Park says the city of Boston can renovate White Stadium as a “high-quality, fully-public high school” sports venue for “a fraction of the cost” of building a professional soccer stadium.” - Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald, Jan. 15, 2025
Truth: That proposal isn’t realistic or accessible.
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s study is funded by a group that has unsuccessfully sued to stop this renovation and investment into BPS and Franklin Park.
Their study:
- Excludes key Boston Public Schools and community features, including sports medicine, study areas, and community spaces, that came from visioning sessions with BPS and neighbors.
- Proposes landscaped hill seating that is not accessible to people with disabilities and is out of line with Frederick Law Olmsted's original design.
- Does not account for utility upgrades, stormwater management, or realistic costs.
- Underestimates the costs of rebuilding White Stadium’s damaged grandstand, wrongly concluding that costs would be $13.7 million, when it is estimated that this would cost more than $50 million.
- Reduces seating capacity from White Stadium’s current 10,000 seats to only 5,000, which is far less than what is needed to host Boston Public School graduation ceremonies and successful community events.
The renovation project has earned the support of the Franklin Park Coalition, a 45-year old nonprofit dedicated to advocacy and public programs in Franklin Park. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, which is leading the dark money effort to kill the project, made its first investments in Franklin Park after the pandemic.
Read the statements by the Franklin Park Coalition in support of renovating White Stadium. (April 2024; Statement of Support).
Community Process
False Claim: Park users are opposed!
“The opposition is particularly loud and well-organized…Of the nearly 40 city residents who testified at Wednesday’s City Council hearing, only five voiced support for the project.” - Shirley Leung, Boston Globe, Jan. 23, 2025
Truth: Public comments and survey responses show strong support among Franklin Park users and neighbors
The Franklin Park Coalition, the only community advocacy organization that has been focused on investing in and advocating for Franklin Park for decades, conducted a survey of more than 700 park users that show majority support for the renovation. Throughout the last 18 months, community feedback at more than 60 public meetings and over 900 comments letters shaped the project and final lease details. Read the Franklin Park Coalition statement on the signed lease.
False Claim: Neighbors will lose parking.
“They want us to pay to park” - WCVB, Jan. 22, 2025
Truth: Neighbors will keep their parking.
The White Stadium Game Day Parking Program will protect parking for residents of the neighborhood on game days, providing resident stickers for their vehicles and visitor placards for guests. There will be no change to parking on non-game days.
False Claim: This is all about private interests.
“...a rushed, ill-conceived project driven by private interests and lacking public accountability.” – City Councilor Erin Murphy, Jan. 18, 2025
Truth: The lease protects White Stadium’s public use. The stadium will remain City of Boston property and more than 90% of programmable hours will be reserved for use by BPS and the community.
White Stadium is owned by Boston Public Schools and will remain under its ownership. The renovation’s legal documents prioritize public access by ensuring that BUSP can host no more than 20 games and 20 practices per year. There are strict parameters around when these games and practices can be scheduled. Over 90% of White Stadium’s programmable hours will be used by Boston Public Schools and community groups, with BUSP having under 10% of the overall facility usage.
There has been a robust community process and significant amount of suggestions and feedback from those sessions made it directly into the legal agreements associated with the project. Examples include:
- Establishment of a White Stadium Neighborhood Council.
- Restrictions on when games can start and end.
- Operational commitments regarding noise, light, and trash.
- Transportation mitigation commitments.
Throughout the community engagement process, including more than 60 public meetings and 900 submitted letters, significant changes have been made to the plan to align the design more closely with the priorities of neighbors and Olmsted's vision for Franklin Park, reflecting a commitment to honoring the park's historic character. Collaboration with the Franklin Park Coalition and input gathered from public meetings has been instrumental in ensuring that the design is both sensitive to the park's legacy, responsive to community priorities, and aligns with the Franklin Park Action Plan.
Additional community-driven design changes have been made to honor Olmsted’s vision and align with the recommendations of the Franklin Park Action Plan, including:
- Reducing the proposed width of the West Grandstand.
- Removing building structures within the playstead and condensing programming into the stadium.
- Shifting the stadium to better align with the North / South axial viewshed.
- Protecting character-defining elements of the park landscape.
- Removal of fencing and unnecessary additional pavement.
- Creating a more uniform and holistic design for the East and West Grandstands.
Privatization of Park Land
False Claim: A lot of Franklin Park is becoming private.
“[This project is] taking huge chunks of the park for private development” - testimony at Boston City Council hearing, Jan. 22, 2025
Truth: Franklin Park and White Stadium will remain public property. Public use will increase after the renovation.
Under state law, White Stadium is a Boston Public Schools facility, owned by the City of Boston. The renovation will keep it that way. After the renovation, BPS will use the stadium daily for school games and practices, increasing the hours the facility is usable by 400% compared to use under current conditions. The public will have daily access to the track, grandstands, public restrooms and other amenities.
Under a landmark lease negotiated by the City, a professional women’s soccer team will pay more than half of the costs to construct the new White Stadium and all the costs to operate and maintain the facility for decades to come, worth millions per year to BPS. In exchange, the soccer team will have the right to play up to 20 games per year in the facility. The team will also pay rent, provide revenue sharing, and make an increasing community fund payment, starting at $500,000 per year.
Environmental Impact
False Claim: The project is too big and will take away trees and green space.
“[The new stadium will be] twice as large as the current stadium, takes over two additional acres of recreation and open space, removes 145 trees.” - Karen Mauney-Brodek, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, WCVB, Jan. 22, 2025
Truth: The renovation will fit within existing boundaries and add an acre of new green space.
The entire renovation is within the existing White Stadium parcel boundaries and the design has been adapted to protect views and trees, in consultation with the award-winning landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand, the authors of the Franklin Park Action Plan. The project will add over an acre of new green space, which has been closed off behind fencing for 75 years.
Truth: The renovation will plant more tree canopy than it will remove.
The White Stadium renovation creates a tree bank fund of over $3 million, equally funded by Boston Unity Soccer Partners (BUSP) and the City of Boston, to plant and maintain 500 trees across Franklin Park over the next decade. This is the largest fund for tree care in the history of Franklin Park.
Due to decades of underinvestment, the majority of the trees around White Stadium are in poor health, invasive, or are structurally entangled with the ruined structures on the site. To move the project forward with the programmatic elements requested by Boston Public Schools and Franklin Park advocates, every effort is being made to preserve trees wherever possible and thoughtfully offset losses with sustainable replanting.
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