Demolition Started for Boston’s $200M Professional Women’s Soccer Stadium Renovation Despite Looming Trial

Work on a public-private partnership to renovate Boston’s dilapidated White Stadium stadium kicked off weeks before a scheduled trial over the controversial $200 million project. Located in Franklin Park—the centerpiece of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead’s Emerald Necklace—the 11,000-seat stadium is being built for a professional women’s soccer team, Boston Public School athletes and community use.

Crews began demolishing portions of the deteriorating historic stadium in late January in hopes of finishing the project in time for the National Women’s Soccer League 2026 season. The trial over a lawsuit brought by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit, and 15 Boston residents, starts March 18 and is expected to extend into the following week.

Opponents decrying ballooning costs for the city’s portion of the project from an originally estimated $50 million to $91 million pitched a $30 million alternative design, which includes a new track, field, student athlete training facilities and public amenities.

Early renderings of the White Stadium renovation in Boston. The plan has been revised.
Rendering Courtesy Stantec

The alternative plan is supported by mayoral challenger Josh Kraft, the son of New England Patriots and New England Revolution owner Robert Kraft. Looking to build its own soccer-specific stadium for the Revolution on the Boston border in Everett, the Kraft Group’s community mitigation negotiations with Boston didn’t start well, according to The Boston Globe. The two sides have until May 1 to reach an agreement or the process will go into mediation. 

The younger Kraft, who accused the city of conducting a “rigged” bidding process for White Stadium, says he will recuse himself from community benefit negotiations for his family’s proposed Everette stadium if he’s elected mayor.   

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says the RFP process followed standard timelines established by state and city law.

“We were contacted by the members of the ownership group when it came to the opportunity to keep the city in the loop about the potential to bid for a new team,” Wu told reporters, “and the city has been very supportive of bringing as many new opportunities as possible.”

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy proposes a $28 million renovation of White Stadium that would include a new track, field and athletic training facilities for Boston Public School students with public bathrooms and accessibility upgrades.
Photo Courtesy of Emerald Necklace Conservancy

Build It and They Will Come

The Boston Planning and Development Agency approved Stantec’s design for the project last year. 

Medford, Mass.-based Bond Building Construction, construction manager at risk for the city’s half of the project, began site mobilization on Jan. 6, says Carolyn Campot, Bond spokeswoman. 

The project is targeting LEED Gold and would be one of only three net zero carbon stadiums in the country, the city of Boston Planning Dept. says. 

“The public project is unique as it involves two distinct entities: one for the City of Boston and the other, a private development deal for which the construction manager selection is currently underway,” says Campot.   

The soccer team’s ownership group, Boston Unity Soccer Partners, will cover capital costs for renovating the west grandstand and build at least two new buildings, in addition to developing thousands of feet of open space public trust land to the southwest of the stadium, the lawsuit says. The city will rebuild the east grandstand that was rendered unusable after it was damaged by fire in the 1990s.

“This is a major milestone for a project that is decades overdue,” Wu said in a statement, “finally giving BPS student athletes and community a beautiful new home at White Stadium.” 

On Jan. 30 community groups gathered outside White Stadium. Calling to halt plans to redevelop the site for a professional soccer team, the group instead supports a less expensive and what they say is a greener alternative stadium design that would serve as a facility only for Boston Public School students.
Photo courtesy of Franklin Park Defenders

Red Card

Following two years of public feedback and regulatory review, the city signed a lease with Boston Unity Soccer Partners in December. “The lease itself includes protections for various scenarios we hope might not come to pass, but that the city and public will be protected from any risks to the project,” Wu told WBUR.

BPS athletes are also advocating for the Boston Unity plan. 

Opponents say the project’s approval project was fast tracked. They say the for-profit stadium and entertainment complex project will disturb conservation areas of green space with noise and traffic. Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy says, “We all agree that White Stadium and Franklin Park need a renovation to meet the needs of Boston students and the public,” she says in a March 3 statement. 

Mauney-Brodek says more than 18 community groups and other organizations and elected officials denounced the plan. “The lack of a truly public and lawful process—what is happening in Franklin Park to our public facilities for Boston public School students and the sider public—is environmental injustice,” she adds. 

Supporters say more than 50 public and small group meetings held during a two-year period—as well as thousands of public comments collected during the same timeframe—informed the updated design. 

“The project will maintain a high level of engagement moving forward to ensure the renovation offers more open public space, enhanced amenities for community events,” the mayor’s office said in a press release,” and closely aligns with the recommendations of the Franklin Park Action Plan.”