White Stadium

The Boston School Committee approved unanimously the White Stadium renovation plan, shortly after a group of community members, Franklin Park neighbors and elected officials gathered at Franklin Park to protest the project.

The Boston Parks and Recreation Commission approved last Monday Mayor Michelle Wu’s ambitious plan to renovate White Stadium, the rundown sports arena at the center of an ongoing controversy, into a larger sports facility.  The new space would be used by Boston Public Schools and a professional women’s soccer team.

As a member of the White Stadium Impact Advisory Group (IAG), observing injustice and seeking justice isn’t new to me. I see the privatization of White Stadium to women’s soccer as seminal as the harms of Urban Renewal and bussing combined

The city of Boston and Boston Unity Soccer Partners (BUSP) have created a public-private-community partnership to revitalize White Stadium for the neighborhood, BPS student-athletes and our city’s new National Women’s Soccer League team. This co-investment of more than $100 million will renew a community jewel and bring White Stadium back to prominence.

On July 11, the city of Boston and the National Women’s Soccer League Boston, whose local expansion team is owned by Boston Unity Soccer Partners, will host a community event to usher in the warm weather with various art and music offerings.

A group of Franklin Park area residents convened on June 4 to gather community input as they pressed forward with a lawsuit against the proposed plan to revamp White Stadium for use by a professional women’s soccer team.

After a Suffolk Superior Court judge denied a preliminary injunction against the planned renovation of Franklin Park’s White Stadium, Boston Unity Soccer Partners and its development partners are ready to forge ahead with the project.

More than half of residents generally support the City of Boston’s proposal to renovate White Stadium, a survey released last week found.

Since the city’s announcement last summer that a women’s professional soccer team would lease White Stadium, park advocates and activists in neighborhoods surrounding Franklin Park have struggled to keep up with the breakneck pace of project review meetings.

A growing number of Franklin Park abutters and open space advocates are calling on city officials to hit the brakes on controversial development plans for White Stadium.

In July, city officials announced a plan to lease White Stadium to a professional women’s soccer team, allowing for 20 games a year in a March 16 through Nov. 17 schedule. During that time, football will not be allowed on the field.

Residents in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury envision a revitalized White Stadium that is a hub for city student-athletes, a haven for neighbors and an axis for ample jobs for people in communities nearby.