More than 30 residents opposed to Boston’s controversial plan to renovate White Stadium to house a professional soccer team sent a letter to Mayor Michelle Wu demanding “immediate termination” of the city’s lease agreement with the team.

The group’s letter, sent Thursday, also demands that a City Council hearing be held to discuss alternatives for White Stadium’s renewal. The mayor’s public-private deal, the letter states, “doesn’t make sense to taxpayers,” who are expected to shoulder the city’s half of the roughly $200 million project.

The city’s price tag has skyrocketed from $50 million as initially estimated to today’s $91 million amount, and the mayor hasn’t ruled out further increases. In a prior radio interview, Wu stated her administration is committed to paying for Boston’s half of the project “no matter what it costs” to taxpayers.

“We were shocked to see the details of the White Stadium lease agreement with BOS Nation that you released the Monday before the holidays,” the letter states. “This timing was disrespectful to the many Boston residents impacted by this decision who had to take time away from their families to respond.

“The community was never asked what we wanted to see happen with the White Stadium property, but were instead told what had already been decided,” the letter went on to state. “This process was flawed from the beginning and should start over, giving priority input to the communities that surround Franklin Park and use this parkland as their backyard.”

The letter comes on the heels of a lease agreement announced last week by the mayor and for-profit group seeking to bring the new National Women’s Soccer League team to Franklin Park’s White Stadium, which would be shared with the community and Boston Public Schools.

Under the terms of the lease agreement, Boston Unity Soccer Partners, an all-female ownership group that includes Boston Globe CEO Linda Pizzuti Henry among its investors, would pay $200,000 in rent for the team’s first season in 2026, followed by a $400,000 payment that would increase by 3% each year.

Still the group, which includes plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit challenging the shift in the century-old Franklin Park facility to use for a for-profit organization, a privatization claim the mayor denies, insists that taxpayers are getting a raw deal.

“The deal doesn’t make sense to taxpayers,” the letter states. “The planned $400,000 annual lease payments — even if extended over 30 years with 3% annual increases — would not come close to paying back the city’s investment cost of $91 million, which you’ve admitted may continue to rise as you receive bids for construction.”

The letter also describes the city’s built-in share of the soccer team’s profits as “pennies on the dollar” and notes that no other Boston sports franchise “has taken funds or land from the city for construction.”

While, for example, the Red Sox pay $3.2 million in annual property taxes, and the Celtics and Bruins play in a shared arena owned by a company that pays $2.8 million annually, Boston Unity would, per the letter, have a voluntary PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, contribution, “of an unknown amount.”

The residents also note that the mayor did not respond to their prior suggestion that White Stadium be rehabbed at a lower cost to remain a high-school-only facility for BPS student-athletes — with the women’s pro soccer team, BOS Nation FC, sharing use of a new stadium in Everett with the New England Revolution.

Related Articles

Boston city councilor says New Orleans attack highlights ‘pressing need’ for Hub event safety updates

Boston given green light by Massachusetts Legislature to slap ‘scofflaw’ landlords with $2,000 fines, up from $300

Allison Cartwright, victor of Boston’s hottest race, sworn in as $190K Suffolk SJC clerk

Ex-Boston Police commish: ‘We can’t let the terrorists win’ with New Orleans attack

First Night schedule in Boston: Here’s what’s happening on New Year’s Eve

The Kraft Group is behind the Everett stadium, which was green-lighted last year by the state Legislature. Josh Kraft, son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and head of the family’s philanthropic arm, is considering a bid for mayor this year.

City Councilor Ed Flynn, who has called for cancellation of the White Stadium plan due to escalating costs and community opposition and is also considering a bid for mayor, is now calling for the city and new pro women’s team to “instead explore running their operations out of Nickerson Field at Boston University.”

Flynn sees the alternative as resolving community concerns around traffic and environmental impacts, citing the nearly 10,000-seat capacity at Nickerson Field, its proximity to the MBTA’s Green Line, restaurants and local establishments, along with the necessary infrastructure and potential fan base in place.

That would save the team roughly $100 million for its share of renovations at White Stadium, and the city, and thereby taxpayers, nearly $70 million to rehab the Franklin Park facility in a way that focuses solely on student-athletes and residents, Flynn said.

Wu’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the group’s letter. The mayor has made it clear, however, that she’s sticking with the public-private plan to renovate White Stadium, which she sees as essential to restoring a dilapidated facility that has become “on the verge of being unusable” for BPS student-athletes.