The contentiousness between The Kraft Group and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu over the proposed soccer-specific stadium in Everett boiled over on Monday, as both sides held separate press conferences to discuss the conversations that have taken place thus far regarding the plan and their intentions going forward.
While the Revolution hosted their reintroduatory press conference with Matt Turner at the Revolution Training Center in Foxborough, Mayor Wu was at Ryan Playground in Charlestown, which sits on the opposite side of the Mystic River from the proposed site.
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Since February, the City of Boston has met with The Kraft Group on six occasions to establish a fair mitigation agreement, required by law, to gain a better understanding of the project's impact on both the Everett and Boston communities.
According to Wu, the City of Boston has received “limited to no answers” on their proposed questions regarding technical review, transportation impact assessments, and commitments regarding jobs, climate resilience, and community benefits.
“To this day, The Kraft Group has provided the city no technical information. What we have heard has stayed at a conceptual level. That is insufficient for any negotiation.”
The Kraft Group’s initial mitigation offer to Boston was $750,000. Something Mayor Wu called “a non-starter” and an “unserious proposal”. For comparison, Wynn Casino paid $68 million to the city for the construction of the Encore, a property that sits a stone’s throw away from the site of a potential Revs stadium.
Later in the day, Revolution President Brian Bilello and Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria hosted a press conference of their own at the proposed site to discuss the mayor’s earlier press conference and the project as a whole.
In his opening statement, Bilello revealed the organization attempted to reach out to the City of Boston following the passage of legislation that allowed a path for a potential stadium.
“Once legislation was passed, we reached out in November to Boston to start the process of negotiating a community impact agreement,” Bilello said. “From that point, it took multiple correspondences to even receive a response from the City of Boston, and that response was they were unwilling to start discussions at that time. After pushing over and over, we finally got the city to meet with us to begin conversations. This did not occur until February 14th of this year. Over two months from when we initially reached out. I think it’s important to be clear, from the very beginning of this process, the Revolution have been pushing expeditiously to develop a fair community impact agreement from the very beginning of this process.”
Regarding Mayor Wu’s claim that the organization has not responded to questions, it's something Bilello denies.
“Any time we've been asked to provide information, we’ve provided it,” he said. “In cases where we didn’t have the information, we launched studies to find the information. The city is well aware of this, and we are currently working on a number of studies on traffic and mitigation.”
Bilello finished his statement by expressing his desire to get this project over the hump and to get rolling on something that will not only benefit the New England Revolution and its fans, but Everett, Boston, and the region as a whole. “
“While we still have a lot of work to do to develop these community impact agreements with Everett and Boston, I am confident they will be the fairest stadium deals this region will ever see in terms of funding and positive transformation of a site,” he said. “We look forward to re-engaging with the city’s team, and hopefully moving the process forward so we can deliver this transformative project to the City of Everett, the City of Boston, our fans, and the region as a whole.”
It’s clear there has been a lot of frustration on both sides over how everything has transpired thus far. Let’s just hope both sides can reach a mutually beneficial agreement that will bring this proposed site to reality.
Both sides will look to agree on a mitigation plan before the December deadline. If not, the proposed plan will go to a binding arbitration.
