Revolution Stadium groundbreaking "12-24 months" Part III

The garage is built but not opened, for the record.

 

Simple question. For those in the Revs' organization supposedly working fulltime on a SSS:

What the hell is taking you so long?

 

Simple answer: There is no one in the Revs organization working full time on a SSS development project.

 

Norwich and New London are the closest CT cities to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun (Norwich is directly north of Mohegan); both cities are dumps. The economic benefits of the casinos are felt by the tribes and the State of CT*, with little of it making its way to the local communities, specifically the immediate towns that bear the burden of hosting casinos in their community. The majority of the jobs are low paying service sector work, with both using migrant workers, which add additional socio-economic elements that play themselves out, in addition to the usual crime related activities that occur at casinos.

Both casinos have had steep drops in revenue, with Foxwoods in default on at least one loan.

*The State and each Tribe have an agreement where CT gets a cut of slot revenue, and in return CT does not directly compete with each casino (legalizing slots, keno games, etc.).

 

The simple answer has nothing to do with how many people the Krafts have working to move this project forward. The simple answer has everything to do with the immense difficulty in getting the varies elements through various boards and regulatory hoops. Those elements are the limiting factors and will only move so fast no matter how many bodies you throw at the project. DCU is in the same boat. Getting the elements in place for an urban stadium is amazingly difficult.

 

Not sure about the other locations proposed, but East Boston would be a different situation. The area already has gambling, and lost the nearby Wonderland track. Additionally, this part of the north shore already has strongly ethnic neighborhoods with lots of central and South American people, and lots of teenagers and young adults looking for non-skilled jobs.

Ultimately most of the money for any business goes to the business and it's owners. The infrastructure in this area in terms of transit and proximity to the airport would also basically make it a completely non-comparable scenario.

CT should have directed more of that money to the nearby towns.

Here we don't expect the casino to revitalize a neighborhood, we would just like some construction money, maybe some financial assistance from the developer to upgrade/correct the rotary problems in Revere, and some jobs. MA already has incremental taxes for local towns on hotels/restaurants, and you can bet that Boston will take it's piece of that action without complaining.

 

No one said it wasn't difficult - anyone who has followed the attempts to get projects like Gillette/TD Garden/Fenway (when building a new one was the plan) knows that. But I find it hard to believe that the Krafts have put as much work into the project as they theoretically could have. Even if they had, there's no guarantee that shovels would have ever hit the ground by now. Understandably, what became Gillette was a much more important project for them back in the early days of the Revs. Since then, they've clearly put a higher priority on the Patriot Place concept and making the whole property a destination for more than just sporting events and concerts.

My view is that getting an urban stadium for the Revolution franchise to grow and prosper should have been as big an organizational priority as Patriot Place. They have to see that Gillette isn't "good" for the Revolution brand. But, from a PR point of view, they have put very little emphasis on the importance of a SSS. Publicly, it is just another thing they'd like to someday. To me, it is every bit as important as any signing they make (save bringing in CRonaldo) or decision regarding front office personnel (other than getting Sir Alex) because it would be a massive story the club could use to rebuild its brand and, in essence, relaunch the franchise. But walk up to any random casual sports fan (not a soccer hater) and ask them what they think of the idea of a soccer specific stadium for the Revolution. A large percentage of them will reply "Who are the Revolution?" The rest will go "Soccer specific stadium? I've never heard of that project."

Then find me someone who didn't know that there was going to be a new Foxboro Stadium 15 years ago. They have, IMO, never put the proper emphasis into getting this project done.

 

One big difference between an urban SSS and the other two projects you mentioned.
The Krafts own a big hunk of land in Foxboro and are an established part of the landscape there. So building a new stadium or a mall isn't all that complicated.
Trying to find a sufficient parcel of land for a soccer stadium, then navigating Boston politics, is complicated.

Why is there less publicity for whatever they're doing? Can you imagine if word got out the Krafts wanted 40 acres of land in the Boston area? The price would triple.
I know one should never support anything the Krafts do, but if you were looking for a very particular piece of property (and the criteria that I recall suggests there aren't that many places that work), you'd keep things quiet as well.

 

Interesting..not from a Stadium standpoint, but, because it's close to where a stadium was proposed...

Nothing too earth shattering.

Just Somerville getting ancy about T line extention

 

lol look at you still holding out a glimmer of hope.

 

Well..until Kraft began his man mall project...you couldn't really walk to any bar from Gillette, could you? So anything will be better than the swamp..! no?

 

Agreed. I was doing a job in Philly and I stayed at a hotel near the airport. I went down the road towards Chester looking for a store to pick up some stuff. After about 5 miles, I got to PPL Park, then after 3 more miles, I turned around and went in a different direction. It's really an empty, run-down area (although there is a casino not too far away). Not exactly the best neighborhood if you're looking to get together beforehand.

Still a nice stadium.

 

Yep... the whole idea was that the space between the stadium and the old powerplant would be developed... and the powerplant building, itself, might be turned into something more "gentrified"... in other words, the idea was to develop the neighborhood around the stadium... (in fact, one of the things that was promised by the developers during the permitting process was a grocery store... which is a apparently a big deal in Chester)...

The economy really put a hole in the plan (just as it did with the plans for development around Red Bull Arena)... I think that some of these plans will be reactivated as money frees up (just as the plans for the area around RBA are being reactivated)... I think that both of these stadia will, within the next decade, exist in a mixed development that may give them a better, less isolated feel...

 

Well Toyota Park in Chicago is the same way. Isolated amongst manufacturing facilities in an industrial park IIRC, on the outskirts of the city, 10 minutes by transit bus from the nearest L station. Even though it was close (ish) to the city's subway system and "accessible" by bus, it was still a driver's stadium (yet had dirt parking lots). Not really a gameday experience I'd want here.

Add it to the list of SSS's where more could have / still be done to improve it.

 

The first trip I made to RBA shocked me how out of place it was.

 

You really think RBA is that far out of place? Newark and Harrison are a short walk away (like 5 minutes). I've been several times and there's always a lot going on in the area prior to the game. The area directly next to the stadium needs to be developed as it's just grass/gravel, but I think it's similar to what a stadium in Somerville or Wonderland would like when first built.

 

If there's nothing around the stadium (ie Wonderland), it sounds like the Revs would have a pretty awful game day experience (at least compared to other urban venues in Boston). Somerville and Wonderland are not urban apart from the T stop.

 

No, but a nice location is valuable.

It makes sense to build a Revs stadium in an area that's NOT valuable (because it's cheap) in the hopes that the stadium will increase the areas desirability and spur growth/development.

 

Wonderland is about a 2 minute walk from Revere Beach and the downtown area of Revere. There are bars and restaurants within an easy walking distance.

You may not like Revere, but you don't have to go out of your way to make up slanderous things about it.

 

Kelly's is not too far from Wonderland...enough said! LOL =)

 

Bill Ash's Bar and others on the beach. Right now bikey type bars but readily transformable into Soccer Pubs!

 

You're not doing much to support my argument.

Thanks for trying though.

Gawd, Kelly's. Is there a worse roast beef place on the north shore?

 

Not now, but that is the reason why it would be attractive to the city to have a venue there. If you build it, business will come (as long as the customers come, too).

 

lol yeah, you just need to simply say "It's Revere" and enough is implied to make your whole case