Revs News 7/18 - Stadium in Innerbelt Area?

No offense Kaza but Alan is way better at PhotoShop than you!

 

1. I know.
2. It was intentionally god awful and was hoping the choice of words with the post made it clear

 

It's approximately in the location of the former Braves Field (Nickerson).

And, yes I hate BU, and so should you. But, I hate BC more.

 

Judging by the perspective, this stadium is built on top of the BU dorms. Brilliant!

 

thank you! i also moved the top half of the Pru to the roof of our new SSS, it will be renovated as corporate suites

 

I honestly wouldn expect anything that looks much different from Pizza Hut park or Chicago, or any other garden-variety MLS stadium. As long as it gets built, period, is all I care about at this point.

I do remember having a conversation with Jonathan Kraft when they were inthe planning stages of Gillette. I asked if they were looking at doing something different from the basic NFL stadium, and mentioned some of the soccer stadiums in Europe. I suggested doing something like Sampdoria's stadium in Genoa, but larger, for the pats. The brick facade would give it a unique look and the four corners and overhanging roofs (sorry, I don't have a pic handy) would make Pats crowds really really loud, almost like a domed stadium. He mumbled something about having seen pictures of Amsterdam ArenA, but then they built Gillette like every other large stadium inthe US, with a gradual sloping and the upper tiers very far away, which doesn't help with the noise. The other wierd thing is the open area to the left of the fort, which would be some pretty good seats....

 

But if they'd built it like Amsterdam ArenA, they would have had terrible difficulty in growing grass. Thank heavens that didn't happen here!

It certainly is interesting that they chose to keep capacity low by not having upper-deck seats at either end of the stadium (and by leaving that giant space in the "bridge" area open, as you'd mentioned). Granted, they planned and built the stadium before the Super Bowl victories, so maybe they didn't think they'd be guaranteed to sell out all the time in a 75,000-seat stadium. But imagine how much revenue they've passed up by not having those seats, given the events of the last decade.

Oh, and you're right -- this would have been cool:

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/europe/italy/liguria/genova_ferraris.shtml

 

I know, I know... it's MLS Rumors, but:

http://www.mls-rumors.net/10185/2010/08/stadium-new-england-revolution-searching-for-soccer-stadium-location/

 

Just like no one admits to watching 2 and a half men... No one admits they read it but everyone does...

 

Oh boy I'm going to get bludgeoned for saying this but...

The waterfront warehouse locations mentioned in that MLS Rumors article actually do make some sense. The Bank of America Pavilion is down in that underdeveloped area and there's a shuttle that links it with South Station. While it may not have worked for a 75k stadium like the Patriots wanted, for a 20-30k SSS it is probably really feasible. For transport, just take the T to South Station then a Silverline bus operated by the MBTA goes to 306 Northern Ave, 1 minute from the BofA Pavillion. For the drivers among us, it's right off the Pike and close to 93 which should suit the suburban/city fans and will provide the stadium with good links from the airport and area hotels for visiting fans. It's located RIGHT downtown on the waterfront, close to the Convention Center and Financial District so people who work in town should be able to get to 7pm games . The downside re: access is it's a 25 minute walk to South Station so people would have to depend on the bus / vehicle transportation to get there. Not the end of the world given the BofA Pavillion seems to do fine.

If Krafty Bob wants to buy up the warehouses in that area, there is plenty of room to add parking lots and then redevelop it into a Patriot Place Downtown with bars (hopefully) and (outlet?) retail stores. It's not zoned residential over there so no threat of NIMBY and the city would probably be welcome to a redevelopment effort that would keep business dollars right downtown, raising the property value of the area and thus increasing tax revenue. It's close to the cruise terminal so maybe with a redeveloped area it would increase the cruise ship traffic who would then provide foot traffic to Krafty's Downtown Patriot Place. This is his chance to grab a huge share of the Outlet marketplace for a diverse target market: tourists, 20 somethings, students, and cruise ship people along with locals. Boston is 1/3 students during the academic year and has plenty of tourists and 20 somethings who like to bargain shop so that's a prime spot. Believe it or not the Wrentham Outlets is actually a tourist attraction to Europeans I know who have been to Boston. Imagine a Wrentham Outlets in downtown Boston, close to the 20something crowd in Southie, right on the waterfront to compete with Fanueil Hall? Wow, that could be a decent business idea.

Who knows, maybe Krafty buys the BofA Pavillion, making revenue from concerts hosted there and using the Revs SSS next door for MLS / USMNT games and special events. Now all of a sudden he's got a downtown Boston retail/development complex anchored by a dedicated small music venue (BofA Pavillion) and a 20k seat soccer stadium, with its own area of sports bars yet a short hop to downtown Boston nightlife and hotels. Then there's a suburban big concert venue / football stadium at Gillette where he can attract big name concerts all summer to generate foot traffic for Patriot Place.

Hell with Somerville, build it right in Boston. That is savvy business sense if they pull it off successfully. The best part is a downtown location wouldn't really require marketing given the influx of tourists and BofA Pavillion people so they wouldn't have to spend much on getting their name out there. Krafty Bob is taking over the world one revenue stream at a time!

Ok ok, I'll shut up now .

 

i am glad to see i am not the first to point out the MLSR article. but is this feasible? good idea? bad idea? what is that location even like?

i am thinking THIS is the spot they were talking about as most likely for the SSS. is there good transpo to that spot?

you guys definitely deserve a great SSS in a great location with all you have been thru. a stadium there would have gorgeous views.

 

I did an article for Revsnet a few years back on the feasibility of putting a SSS in South Boston. Let me see if I can find it.

 

Would be curious to read it. That area specifically could work even if it's not steps away from a T stop (stop whining urban people, it's a 7 minute bus ride from South Station to the BofA pavilion and this is walking distance from there).

I cleaned up that post a bit. Let me know if you think some of those points are realistic.

 

The Silver Line passes right through the entire Seaport district. It's T'ed up.

Perhaps the real estate crash has made property owners down there more realistic, because there's no doubt there's space to build a stadium.

 

It'd be a cold day in hell the day you get me to watch anything with Charlie Sheen in it. I'd readily admit my browsing of MLS Rumors any day of the week, I just take what I read with a grain of salt.

 

Well it probably would be with most people of average intellegence but it's me we are talking about here!

 

Thanks for adding the silverline goes through there, even better.

I can see how a NFL or even MLB sized stadium may not work but something like a SSS seems entirely feasible. I suggested the outlet retail surrounding the stadium because it would be a value add to the area instead of plopping a soccer stadium in the (relative) middle of nowhere and give the Krafts a revenue generator that offers a location based comparative advantage if they were still beholden to the whole retail/sports marriage. Somerville had some talk of a redevelopment effort to go with the stadium rather than a Chicago-style Stadium-among-warehouses plan so there's potentially something behind that theory.

Anyway it's probably all a big pipe dream but fun to speculate.

 

You could build it right next to the Convention Center.

 

Weren't they the same website that claimed the Town of Foxboro was days away from issuing permits for a SSS next to Gillette?

 

that was a question i had. i looked at the mbta map and it looked to me like the T (subway) went right thru that whole district and across to Logan?

but then others said that only the bus went there?

so can you get there by subway train or do you have to switch to a bus? is the silver line a train line or a bus only line?

sorry, not from boston. only have visited newberry st a couple of times.

 

so it is a "subway" line where the "train" is a diesel powered, goes on pavement instead of tracks and looks suspiciously like a bus?

 

I defer to these guys

I am from the area but haven't taken the silver line and am not really clear on the transport links other than there ARE transport links to that area.