Image courtesy of Stantec

Boston taxpayers’ share of the White Stadium redevelopment in Roxbury for a professional soccer team is now estimated at $135 million, Mayor Michelle Wu confirmed today.

The city’s estimated contribution to the project was previously estimated at $50 million.

Boston Unity Soccer Partners, led by Jennifer Epstein, and The Able Co. responded to a request for proposals to redevelop the site of the now-demolished 75-year-old stadium in Franklin Park. The Boston Legacy Football Club has agreed to pay at least $190 million toward the $325 million project, including a loan from Bank of America, Wu said at a press conference today.

The city’s share will be allocated from the capital budget, Wu told WBUR on Thursday, subject to City Council approval. The publicly-paid project cost will be capped by guaranteed maximum pricing in contracts, the mayor’s office announced. The general contractor is BOND Building Construction.

Opponents denounced the stadium project’s cost and said public dollars would be better spent on teacher salaries and school renovations.

“Boston Public Schools doesn’t need an 11,000-seat stadium built to professional broadcast-level standards — especially when students are still learning in classrooms built before any of their teachers were born,” Franklin Park Defenders member Melissa Hamel said in a statement. “A more modest, fully-public stadium replacement would cost one fifth the price of this overbuilt arena, and let Boston put that money into building and renovating schools across the city instead.”

Cost Spike Reflects Redesign

The cost escalation reflects both increases in materials such as steel and a redesign that added new features such as a grass field, and additional facilities including a community room and team storage and equipment areas, Wu said.

The project will include at least $43 million in contracts to minority and women-owned businesses. It will create a 10,000 seat stadium for the new National Women’s Soccer League team, which had originally hoped to begin playing its home games in Roxbury this year. In the meantime, the soccer team will kick off its schedule March 14 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

“It was not a 50-50 split, in terms of: set a total budget and split the cost down the middle,” Wu said at a press conference Friday.

Neighborhood activists and fiscal watchdogs have criticized the project.  Some Roxbury residents have objected to the use of the municipal stadium, used for public schools’ sporting events, for private uses.

Wu has defended the project as an opportunity to upgrade the aging stadium facilities with private investment.

At a press conference held at Franklin Park this morning, Wu said the stadium will be available to the community and public schools 365 days a year. The lease agreement enables the team to use the property for 20 games and 20 practices per year.

The final design includes an eight-lane regulation track enabling Boston Public Schools to host state tournament meets, strength and condition facilities, sports medicine center and indoor study and community space.

Site Prep Ongoing

Demolition work began in January 2025 and site work has been continuing to prepare for vertical construction, which is scheduled to begin next month.

Beyond the $190 million team contribution toward construction, the project will include over $62 million in community benefits, Wu said:

• $34 million to operate and maintain White Stadium;
• $15.4 million in rent and city revenue sharing, to be reinvested into Franklin Park and other neighborhood properties under the terms of the George Robert White Trust, and dedicated to a new citywide BPS athletics fund. 
• $9.3 million in community benefits payments from Boston Legacy FC for a new Community Annual Fund to support economic, athletic, and community activity in the neighborhoods of Franklin Park.
• $3.75 million to invest in Franklin Park capital projects and tree canopy, funded by a $1-per-ticket surcharge.

The project still faces a lingering legal challenge.

In 2024, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court is seeking to block the project. The case centers on whether the city’s land deal with developers violated the terms of a charitable trust the funded the stadium’s construction in the 1940s.

A judge ruled against the Conservancy in an April decision, but the conservation group appealed. In December, the case was referred to the Supreme Judicial Court.