Joining Opponents At Presser, Kraft Says He's Open To Stadium Upgrades

Tensions ratcheted up Wednesday over plans to renovate White Stadium and use it as the home for a professional women's soccer team, spilling over into the budding race for Boston mayor.

Project opponents ventured into a frigid Franklin Park to call for a pause to demolition work, including removal of trees, at least until the start of a trial challenging the plans.

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Backers of the stadium overhaul hosted their own counterprogramming, arguing that concerns about the public process are misleading and that the current plan is the best option for the city's students and residents.

The fracas has taken on an electoral element, too: mayoral challenger Josh Kraft joined opponents at their event, where attendees lobbed criticism at Mayor Michelle Wu for the deal with Boston Unity Soccer Partners.

Under the public-private partnership, the city and the for-profit organization hoping to bring a National Women's Soccer Team back to Boston will work together on renovations to the aging stadium in Franklin Park. Once complete, facility use will be split between the pro team, Boston Public Schools and the community.

Opponents said they worry that the private professional team will limit public access to the stadium, especially in a section of the city home to large populations of color. Several speakers invoked Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous urban park architect who played a key role in designing Franklin Park, to suggest the updated stadium would not be openly available to all residents.

"Do you think that if a project like this was proposed in the Public Garden, replete with beer halls and merchandising stations, that it would fly? No, of course not," said Peter Keating, one of the founders of the Epiphany School in Dorchester. "The reason is because the people who live around the Public Garden have power, influence and resources, and they are predominantly white. The people who live here, in neighborhoods that abut Franklin Park and White Stadium, are hard-working people, and they are predominantly brown and Black."

Keating and a few dozen other opponents gathered outside the fenced-off stadium, where workers were dismantling the damaged east grandstand. Rally attendees said crews began cutting down trees near the facility late last week.

Above, opponents of a White Stadium renovation project rally outside the Franklin Park facility on Feb. 19, 2025. SHNS photo

The Wu administration executed a lease agreement with Boston Unity Soccer Partners in December, which called for the parties to split costs and for the group behind the team to pay to lease the field. Wu said at the time that demolition could begin in late January and that the project has a "pretty accelerated timeline for a public project" with a goal of having the field ready for play in the 2026 season.

Officials estimate the city's portion of the cost will be about $91 million, an increase over earlier projections, and that the stadium will remain city property.

The NWSL team will be limited to hosting at most 20 games and 20 practices per year, and more than 90 percent of the programmable hours at the stadium will be reserved for school and community use, according to a lengthy document City Hall prepared rebutting what it dubbed "false claims" about the project.

At their own event Wednesday, supporters — who included Boston School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson and Boston Rep. Sam Montaño — said the agreement will bring much-needed improvements to the stadium.

"We're looking forward to this project moving on and being a real asset to the community, something that everybody can use, especially Boston student athletes," said Rickie Thompson, president of the Franklin Park Coalition.

With the stadium debate an issue in the mayoral campaign, Kraft accepted an invitation from opponents to attend their press conference outside the stadium Wednesday.

"I think the project needs a pause for two reasons ... the community has been unequivocally unheard, felt unheard by the city and the [Wu] administration," Kraft told reporters afterward. "Secondly, you spend 100-plus million dollars on a public entity, I think you've got to really take your time and make sure you can get as many ducks lined up as you can."

Kraft said he is "agnostic" about where the NWSL team will play.

His family is in the midst of its own stadium-development saga. The Krafts, who own the New England Patriots as well as the New England Revolution men's soccer team, are working about eight miles away from Franklin Park to develop a new soccer stadium at a former industrial site in Everett.

As part of that process, the Kraft Group is negotiating with the Wu administration over a community mitigation agreement. The Boston Globe reported last month that the talks started on a frosty note.

Kraft said at his campaign launch that he would recuse himself from Everett stadium discussions if elected.

Asked how he would handle the White Stadium project if he wins in November, Kraft said he would "probably take some of the $100 million and combine it with private money and upgrade the stadium."

He said he was "impressed" by an alternate plan produced by opponents, but would need to review the details more carefully. (City Hall contends that suggestion "isn't realistic or accessible.")

Several residents and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy filed a lawsuit against the deal last year, alleging the stadium plan runs afoul of state law because it lacked sufficient legislative review for transfer of public land to private use.

A trial is set to begin March 18, and opponents on Wednesday urged the city to pause any additional work until then, as did Kraft.

"We need to save this. We need to save the trees that are here. We need to save the stadium that we could still renovate. If this comes down, we are left with a hole in the ground and tree stumps. Why do we need that?" said Melissa Hamel, a member of the Franklin Park Defenders group fighting the project. "We're only, like I said, 26 days away from the court case. At the very least, we need to pause this action until we have a chance to have this fully litigated."

Colin A. Young and Sam Doran contributed reporting.