Revolution Stadium Groundbreaking "12-24 months" Part V

Shhhhhhhhhhhh. Otherwise, you'll give the Krafts ideas and the Revolution will soon be playing IN an alley somewhere.

 

Is an alley really conducive to soccer moms and their kids?

 

Autograph Alley was!

 

Playing in an alley would be perfect for this team. Unless a lot of things change, they don't understand how to use the full width of a field, anyway.

 

Because Bob Kraft isn't going to buy the land, or build a stadium there.

 

How could you say that? We have been told it is the clubs first priority for years. They would NEVER lie to us.

 

http://www.greenlineextension.org/documents/PubMtgs/WashingtonUnionSquare_2-8-12.pdf

http://www.goodyclancy.com/planning?categoryId=11&view=project&layout=image&projectid=187&image=1

The above two links are about the proposed greenline station at Washington Street (Brickbottom) and the Innerbelt / Brickbottom planning study. Its fun to imagine a soccer stadium as part of the future transformations potentially coming to this area.

If you have followed the greenline extension project it looks like the Community Path would be a key link from the T station to the area discussed for the Stadium.

Two very rose colored visions of these documents:
1) Buried in the Greenline Extension PDF is an aerial photo diagram depicting the schedule for the extension. The Maintenance Facility is represented as a green rectangle. Could that be an allusion to a soccer stadium.

2) The Goody Clancy urban planning study clearly shows a soccer field as part of their large public park. They could have shown a softball field...

 

They did - there's a baseball/softball diamond right next to the soccer field.

I just refuse to get my hopes up about this site (or any site) unless/until there is an official announcement that it is actually going to happen. People will have to forgive my pessimism on this because I think we've been discussing the potential for a Somerville stadium for around six years. Nothing has happened, and even if everything was approved today we're talking about probably another six years to see it come to fruition.

 

On my commute I drive by a vacant lot off Cambridge Street/Windom/Rotterdam in Allston just off the Pike's exit 18. It's probably too small or they'd have to buy up the Amtruck Auto property (let alone likely NIMBY issues). However, it would be an interesting spot.

A major drawback is the T isn't really close by, although it's bus accessible from the Harvard Sq T station (14 minutes), accessible from multiple directions (Western Ave on one side, Cambridge St on the other, reducing potential congestion issues) and easy for drivers from any direction, right off the Pike.

If you're looking at the map, to give you context Harvard Stadium seats 30,323. The Revs' stadium would need to be 18-22k so roughly the size of Ohiri Field or + 10%. Then look at the HBS parking lot for perspective on what a reduced Rev stadium parking lot might look like. If those trailers were condensed you could probably put a stadium there. With the Pike right there maybe NIMBY issues would be reduced? Who knows.

 

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that is part of the land Harvard owns and was supposed to develop before it's genius alumni wall street morons screwed their endowment. Now it's vacant because they can't afford to finish the development projects they had planned.

 

Very possible. Probably a moot point, just one of those things I noticed driving by Allston-bound on Cambridge Street.

Then again, if they're looking to raise some capital and see a SSS as a potential development opportunity, with potential for small businesses growing around there, who knows?

 

Plus, it's like a 15 minute walk from my apartment, so they should obviously do it to make me happy

 

Yeah, it'd be nice. You could go see the Montreal Impact the 2 or 3 times they play in Boston each year

 

Yea, Harvard is really hurting for money

 

impact allez!

 

Obviously you slept through 2008, '09, '10, '11......http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/11/harvard-yale-financial-crisis

 

Woah, only $26b. 10b more than Yale

 

Yeah, when you lose almost 30% of your endowment, it's tough to finish the already ambitious development projects you had planned.

 

There are plans by Harvard to put a subway under western ave. Indeed, part of the tunnel is already there.

 

Nice. Well that would be a fun spot if the state completed that T project and the Revs played there. It's a better spot than Somerville or any of the other rumored locations in terms of proximity for both city folk and drivers from any direction, in my humble opinion.

When pigs fly, I know.

 

http://somerville.patch.com/articles/ikea-still-undecided-about-somerville-store

[/URL]

I think the Innerbelt site is most likely what the Krafts are looking at but another interesting site is right down the road still in Somerville.

The Ikea at Assembly Square may not happen after. The Ikea site is large enough for a stadium, has a T stop already under-construction, and several mixed use buildings about to start construction in a month or so. The City does not want the Ikea lot to remain vacant, and a stadium at a site that already has had money spent on infrastructure and will have restaurants, shops, a movie theater, and a hotel adjacent to it seems more appealing than Innerbelt (which dreams of all of that but has no concrete plans for it).

It probably won't happen since it makes too much sense...

If you are unfamiliar with the Assembly Square plans, all of the new road work including utilities shown on the plan above is nearly complete (using some public funding), there is a signed contract for construction of the T station, and the developer has already signed leases with AMC theaters and an apartment developer / management company for the first 3 buildings which should start foundation work this spring.

 

That plot is plenty big enough for a stadium with room to spare. That idea might actually be better than the Innerbelt site.

 

As an avid investor, I will take 2009-2011 for the rest of my life. I hope we don't have to listen to you complain about the Revs for three years after they have turned things around

 

More than 2000 posts into this topic and we still don't have a clue on the single most important piece of the puzzle and that is how much of the financing are the Kraft's willing to take on themselves to get the project done.

I still feel, as I have for years, that the Krafts are hoping some community will take on the brunt of the $ to get the project done and I don't feel that is ever going to happen.


I think the Revs will keep "trying", but in the end it makes little sense for a community to fund the majority of the stadium, and as hard as it is to admit, it makes zero financial sense for the Krafts to fund the majority of the stadium believing that they likely break even or better in Foxboro.


I never want to be more wrong about something in my life . Maybe a small miracle will happen where both sides fund 50% of the project.

 

It's not a T project, it's a Harvard project. The Western Ave Subway doesnt appear on any MBTA long-range plan (and those plans include damn near everything)

Lol, the Krafts spend money? Please. Remember when they had their greedy paws out to get the taxpayer to fund a bridge from their stadium to their parking lot?