Debate over White Stadium's future persists as renovation plan scores more approvals

It’s a place where for decades, young Bostonians have come together to compete. But with the signs of decay obvious, White Stadium in the city's Franklin Park needs repair. And while the mayor is pushing plans for the historic stadium that would upgrade it to serve Boston Public School athletes and a woman's pro soccer team, it's proving divisive.

White Stadium first hosted games in 1949 – and in many ways, it’s showing its age.

BPS workers showed NBC10 Boston the debris under the east grandstand – which is the city would rebuild as part of a proposed private-public partnership. This debris has been there since a fire decades ago.

Avery Esdaile is the senior director of athletics at Boston Public Schools. His office is actually inside White Stadium. so its decay is front of him, daily.

“You want your amenities to be proper, you want your amenities to be sufficient for what you’re looking to do deliver...so, having this is in this current state, it kinda ties one of our arms, behind our back," Esdaile said.

A $100 million renovation is on the table so the facility can house a pro women’s soccer team.

On Monday, the city's Parks Commission unanimously approved the stadium's demolition plan. But opponents accuse the mayor of rushing her plan through.

"The whole world is going to look at a soccer game and see that it's in Roxbury, Massachusetts," Rev. Miniard Culpepper of the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church said.

"It's a park. It's not somewhere where people can make millions upon millions of dollars and forget about the community," Renee Stacy Welsh, a longtime resident and member of the Franklin Park Defenders, said.

In the spring of 2023 - Mayor Michelle Wu issued a request for proposals for a public-private partnership to re-imagine White Stadium.

One group responded to the Mayor’s call: a group led by four women investors who proposed transforming the Stadium to a state-of-the-art facility that could host an expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League.

"We're here to do something transformational for our city," Jennifer Epstein, a controlling partner of Boston Unity Soccer Partners, said,

Boston Unity will spend some $50 million to renovate the west grandstands and upgrade the facilities to meet the needs of pro athletes. The team will also pay for annual upkeep of the field itself.

The city of Boston will spend $50 million to rebuild the east grandstand with new student amenities. A new eight-lane running track will, at least in theory, turn Boston into a major host for track-and-field events.

But the city and the investors face a determined opponent: a group that calls itself Franklin Park Defenders.

"This plan isn't the renovation we want and or need," Welsh said.

Welsh grew up just steps away from the park, still lives in walking distance to it – and comes here often with her dog. She has been an outspoken member of Franklin Park Defenders. She’s not opposed to upgrading the stadium and spending city money to do it, but she’s not down with the soccer team.

"The one place that we have to go run, exercise, take a breath, get some reprieve. It's our park. And now you make it loud. You make it overcrowded," she said.

Overcrowding and traffic in the neighborhoods are chief concerns. The city believes it can minimize game-day traffic by using satellite parking lots and having shuttles carry fans from nearby MBTA stations. They say there will be new resident parking restrictions to keep spectators from driving and parking on nearby residential streets.

The renovation plan is also opposed by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the nonprofit group that serves as steward to the 1,100 acres of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted that extend from the Back Bay to Franklin Park.

This White Stadium plan led the group to file its first-ever lawsuit.

In the spring, a judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the project.

The Wu administration claims the renovation would generate 500 jobs and more than 300 new permanent jobs at all economic levels. The team says it has committed to a 50% women and minority-owned business threshold in our contracting and hiring, with preference given to local contractors, vendors, and employees.

With Monday's approval from the Parks Commission, construction could start in the next few weeks, once the city obtains all the proper permits and signs a lease with the soccer team. A final vote on the stadium's design will happen in the fall.

In the meantime, the Franklin Park Defenders lawsuit against the stadium is scheduled to go to trial next March.