Revolution Stadium Groundbreaking "12-24 months" Part XVII

Groundhogging or Gaslighting?

Could they just announce that please? Just so we can close this thread [of threads]. They are welcome to change their mind at a later date.

 

Link to the Radio Boston segment: https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2024/11/15/everett-revolution-kraft-wu-demaria

The segment seems geared towards people who haven't been following the process, nothing really new if you have been paying attention to this. But the most interesting thing said is that a "final decision" hasn't been made and they still need to look at cost and feasibility. Also the team will have to come to some type of agreement with Everett and Boston

 

The community agreements have a hard deadline attached to them. The bill specifies that if there isn't agreement with either of the cities by May 1, 2025, the parties will go to mediation, and if there's no agreement by December 31, 2025 they will go to binding arbitration.

There's also a hard deadline for environmental review: July 31, 2025.

There's also a hard deadline for the transportation plan: March 1, 2025.

If the Krafts back out now, they will have backed out of the surest thing next to building a stadium in their own parking lot again.

 

Globe article on why Boston needs (or doesn't need) 2 soccer stadiums:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12...e-stadium/?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter (paywall)

If making White Stadium a pro-soccer venue becomes a lost cause, one politically palatable plan would be for the women’s team to come to Everett, while the Krafts pay to help upgrade White Stadium for BPS.

It may seem like a long shot, but it just might be the right thing to do. The Everett stadium site is an industrial wasteland now — the site of a decommissioned power plant — but its location is unbeatable on the waterfront looking across to the Boston skyline is unbeatable . For his part, Mayor Carlo DeMaria of Everett would gladly welcome two teams to his city.

 

I'm not sure that's realistic. Kraft didn't kiss Wu's ring, therefore she effectively blocked the legislation for another 5 months. There is a cold relationship there. Now, if Josh Kraft wins the Mayor's office, and that's a big if (he hasn't even confirmed he's running) then the whole thing could be tipped on its ear.

 

I do think one stadium in Everett would be a great thing for both clubs.

 

Me too, but the bottom line IMO is that neither wants to a tenant.

If they were going to partner up, it would have happened well before now. Having ‘BOS Nation’ on their side would have made the Krafts path easier. As it is both entities are/will have parallel fights over similar hurdles.

 

As I’ve discussed elsewhere in this forum, a partnership between the New England Revolution and Boston’s nascent NWSL club represents a difficult needle to thread for the all-female core ownership group of the latter organization.

Given the emotional abuse, verbal abuse, and - most pertinent when discussing Robert Kraft as a potential soccer specific stadium landlord or partner - sexual misconduct that has occurred within the NWSL, Bob’s possible involvement with said circuit likely ended on a massage table in Jupiter, Florida back in 2018.

The State of Florida legal system may have ruled videotapes of Mr. Kraft being, ahem, serviced as inadmissible in its courts, but he’s going to be held to a different standard in the court of public opinion, not only amongst the aforementioned NWSL Boston ownership group, but amongst the league’s players and fans.

Look at the pushback that greeted the “Too Many Balls” marketing video that accompanied the proposed BOS Nation FC identity rollout. Given that response, does anyone truly believe that there are no members of the NWSL player and supporter communities who would have a serious problem with the all-female core ownership of Boston’s NWSL club doing business with an organization led by a guy who was sexually serviced inside a Florida strip mall day spa? Does anyone truly believe that the leadership of Boston Unity Soccer Partners and/or members of the Kraft family would want to have the specter of that controversy being brought up again?

Might New England’s MLS and NWSL clubs sharing a single soccer-specific stadium make business sense? Sure. Could entering into such a commercial partnership trigger a backlash on the part of NWSL players and supporters that results in a public relations nightmare that undermines the economic advantages of said cooperative venture? Ditto.

Finally, based upon the New England’s Revolution’s track record in the area of public relations over the past 29 MLS seasons, as well as Boston Unity Soccer Partners’ recent handling of the BOS Nation FC identity rollout, how many folks truly believe that either organization - let alone both in tandem - possesses the ability to successfully address any concerns NWSL players or fans might have over a Robert Kraft-led organization becoming involved in a business partnership - even as a stadium landlord - with a Boston NWSL club?

 

I really doubt Kraft’s little transgression is a major factor. In the age of Trump, it’s about as significant as forgetting to cover your mouth when you cough.

For whatever reason, it seems like the Kraft ownership has had a pretty frosty relationship with the ownership groups in town, and I think that’s why a joint plan never went anywhere. Maybe it stems from lack of support/opposition to the Southie stadium attempt?

Bruins rent their building to the C’s, but beyond that the owners seem to regard each as competitors as much as anything else. Wonder how that is the case in other cities?

 

The pushback against harassment of players in the NWSL began in earnest “In the age of Trump”. It was during the 2021 NWSL season - played in the wake of the close of the first Trump presidency - that the fecal matter hit the rotary cooling device with regard to said harassment. It can be argued that the movement was at least partially fueled in an effort to condemn and cast aside the normalizing of behaviors and invective that had taken place during Trump’s first presidential campaign and administration.

I don’t discount that “frosty” interpersonal dynamics between the owners of the various Greater Boston pro sports teams, as well as their individual business self-interests, play a role in the machinations taking place within their sphere.

Still, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that NWSL players and supporters would be more likely to take issue with their club entering into a business relationship with an individual who was sexually serviced in exchange for cash in a strip mall “spa” than they would be to protest over their club’s ownership group being less than cooperative with the proprietors of the other regional sports franchises.

Bob Kraft getting sexually serviced in exchange for cash may strike sone as a “little transgression”. I’d be willing to wager that a significant percentage of NWSL players and supporters would be of a different mindset. I’d go so far as to question whether the owners behind Boston’s nascent NWSL bid dismiss the transactional trysts so cavalierly.

Bottom line? From both a player relations and a public relations standpoint, ownership of Boston’s NWSL club partnering with Bob Kraft represents a risk.

 

I don’t know - would players give up the chance to play in a state of the art SSS because the owner of that facility got caught visiting a prostitute?

 

With the proposed design and upgrades, White's gameday experience will be more than adequate for their needs for the foreseeable future, and they need to start playing before Kraft will get shovels in the ground in Everett, if ever.

I'm sure in ten years when the lease is up for renegotiation, assuming NWSL Boston is still a thing, they will reevaluate all options including any future Kraft stadium if it has been built.

 

I believe that some of them will do just that. For some NWSL players, taking to the pitch in a state of the art stadium owned by a billionaire who paid to get his rocks off under the guise of receiving a massage in a day spa would be repugnant, particularly if the question of whether or not the women providing said sexual servicing had been trafficked to the United States for the purposes of doing so.

I don’t know exactly how many NWSL players and supporters would have a problem with Bob Kraft’s day spa dong-diddling dalliances if they were to find out about them, but I’m confident that the number would be more than zero. Which raises the specter of the issue becoming, at the very least, an embarrassment… or worse, a full-fledged public relations nightmare.

Further, there’s the possibility that some players on Boston’s NWSL club might be troubled by the fact that the team’s landlord had solicited sexual services from prostitutes, while others couldn’t care less. There are issues in any sports locker room that can threaten to divide players and mess with team chemistry, so why knowingly add the potential for another one to the mix?

Look, if I’m part of NWSL Boston’s ownership group, I’m trying to avoid controversies and the PR gaffes that can arise from having to deal with them. Which means that, with regard to securing a home venue for the club, I’d be focused on seeing the White Stadium renovation through to completion. That is a pursuit that’s not without its own challenges… but they’re of the local political variety, rather than being issues that can upset players and divide locker rooms.

 

They're not off to a great start in that regard after the atrocious branding and balls campaign. Not to say I completely disagree with the larger point. The NWSL certainly had more than its fair share of sexual misconduct controversies. There would undoubtedly be questions faced about getting involved with Kraft given his past troubles. At the same time, it all comes down to money. If all of the business and political interests lined up, they'd work together and spin up a PR campaign to deal with the blowback.

 

As you point out, the business interests behind the Boston NWSL club have already rolled out an “atrocious branding and balls campaign” that didn’t exactly show much in the way of an ability to effectively “spin up a PR campaign”.

As for the Krafts, they’re not exactly masterful practitioners of the PR game themselves. Then again, when have they truly ever had to be? Saving the Patriots from relocation and owning the 6-time Super Bowl champion has been Bob and Jonathan Kraft’s “PR campaign”. There isn’t a great deal of heavy lifting to be done in the PR sphere when the quality of the product you’ve been pitching does the work for you. Of course, the quality of said product has begun to fall off, so there’s no telling how much longer the Krafts will remain on the receiving end of public adulation.

Further, beyond the kid-glove treatment that local sports media and gridiron fandom has heaped upon Bob and Jonathan over the years, can it truly be said that either of them has exhibited any mastery of the PR game? I haven’t witnessed it. They certainly haven’t leveraged their purported PR savvy to benefit the New England Revolution in any meaningful way.

At his PR best, Bob seemed capable of delivering earnestly avuncular speeches at press conferences and mooning over his sweetheart, wife Myra. Put frankly, since the latter’s passing, he’s seemed completely adrift. Which is to be expected. The guy lost the love of his life. That takes a toll on you. However, from a PR perspective, Bob’s been a train-wreck since Myra’s death. He’s been a parody of a 70-plus widower for the past 13-1/2 years, up to and including the day spa “assignations” that could potentially prove polarizing with NWSL stakeholders.

Jonathan Kraft? When it comes to Jonathan, PR might as well stand for “pugnaciously resentful” since the Krafts’ plans to build a stadium for the Patriots in South Boston went sideways. Once that effort failed in the face of opposition from powerbrokers on Beacon Hill and at City Hall Plaza, Jonathan began to nurse an enmity for Massachusetts politicians that hasn’t abated over the years. In fact, it has likely grown with the Krafts’ multiple failures to get a soccer-specific home for the Revolution built. Good luck getting Jonathan Kraft to deign to “spin up a PR campaign” alongside NWSL and Bay State political interests… particularly if the need to do so is in an effort to address his father’s day spa dalliances.

Maybe a future exists in which the New England Revolution and Boston’s NWSL club are sharing a Kraft-owned soccer-specific stadium in Everett, but I’d say the odds are against it.

 

I agree, I think both groups are committed to the separate paths they are on at this stage.

 

Adding to the drama:

1881748593209389384 is not a valid tweet id

 

Seems like a longshot. And if he fails, the Everett Stadium is as good as dead.

 

How so?

 

The Mayor's office is one of the current impediments to the project. Taking over the Mayor's office is one way to get past that impediment. But if you fail, you've made an enemy that will never work with you.

 

What impediment remains? The mayor of Boston has no direct influence over Everett. Her only leverage is and has been through her Statehouse buddies.

 

Correct me if I am wrong but there hasn't been any real hold ups from Boston during this process. There's been concerns they've had but nothing i've seen that is holding up the stadium has been because of boston. It's been because of other factors

 

The bill to remove the area from "strategic port designation" to one of "entertainment" was to finally have been voted upon last July. Wu, suddenly chimed in -cutely- saying something to the affect that she had no knowledge of it, that no one contacted her. B.S.. She had to have known.

My translation: Kraft didn't come to kiss her ring (much like the early 2000's when Kraft didn't kiss Menino's ring for a Patriots stadium). So, she sent out signals of being against it -citing traffic concerns in nearby Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, specifically Sullivan Square. Statehouse leaders heard her loud and clear and stripped the bill away from the funding package for the July, 2024 vote. This effectively put it on ice and ostensibly for another year until the next vote. Fortunately, Maura Healy got the two sides talking again, so they finally passed the measure around 6 months later. So, Wu, did delay this by 6 months. My guess is that backroom deals were made to give Wu the "pork" that she wanted. Now it appears that she's onboard. That's how the sausages are made, I suppose.

PS: I think the hypocrisy is hilarious, because while Wu seemed to have transit concerns vis-a-vis Everett, over in Franklin Park, she was ramrodding the White Stadium project through which has its own share of transit challenges.

 

My understand is that the bill youre talking about was delayed for other reason than the revs stadium. It was a much larger bill than just the stadium and was delayed to do other reasons than the krafts in wu.