Boston City Council deadlocks on call to halt White Stadium demolition

The Boston City Council deadlocked on a resolution that called for the Wu administration to immediately “pause” demolition at White Stadium, reflecting how deeply plans to rehab the facility for a new pro soccer team have divided the community.

The measure, put forward by Councilor Julia Mejia and defeated Wednesday after a 6-6 vote, with one councilor absent, called for “the timely release and review of final transportation, parking, environmental, and alternative public plans for White Stadium prior to further demolition work,” which began last week.

“Who breaks the tie?” Mejia asked after the vote, adding her frustration with Councilor Liz Breadon’s absence from the meeting. “Where’s Breadon?”

The vote followed nearly an hour and a half of debate, and came more than eight hours into a marathon City Council meeting.

“Everybody wants White Stadium to be renovated,” Mejia said. “Everybody believes that black and brown children deserve to have quality facilities. We’re all in agreement. I think the problem that we’re having here and what I’m here to deliberate on is that there seems to be a bit of hypocrisy around finances.”

The city’s half of its public-private plan with Boston Unity Soccer Partners to tear down and rehab Franklin Park’s 75-year-old White Stadium to house a new professional women’s team has doubled in recent weeks, from an initial $50 million projected by the Wu administration to “roughly $100 million.”

The amount will be borne by taxpayers, and Wu administration officials, when questioned last week by councilors at a nine-hour Council hearing on the plan that was chaired by Mejia, wouldn’t rule out further cost overruns.

“Throughout this process, and especially at the most recent hearing, it’s become clear that the community’s vision for White Stadium is different than the proposed plans,” Councilor Brian Worrell, who voted in support of the resolution, said. “If we’re investing $100 million in this renovation, I believe we should have full access and control.”

Councilors Henry Santana and Benjamin Weber, generally seen as allies of the mayor, spoke favorably of the project prior to voting against the resolution.

“This stadium, while the price tag is high and it’s up to us to make sure the administration answers questions, it has come up with a plan,” Weber said. “I support the plan … I want our kids to have this facility.”

Voting in favor of the resolution were Councilors Tania Fernandes Anderson, Ed Flynn, Ruthzee Louijeune, Mejia, Erin Murphy, and Brian Worrell. Voting against it were Councilors Gabriela Coletta Zapata, Sharon Durkan, John FitzGerald, Enrique Pepén, Santana and Weber. Breadon was absent.

Many residents spoke in opposition to the project at last week’s Council hearing, while just a handful spoke in support. The public-private plan is the subject of a lawsuit from a group of neighbors and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy that alleges it would illegally privatize public trust land.

The Council’s vote was quickly followed, however, by Mayor Michelle Wu’s office sharing letters of support for the project from youth sports organizations, the YMCA, Franklin Park Coalition, business leaders and community members.

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The Wu administration denies the lawsuit’s privatization claim. The mayor and her deputies have argued that the city and Boston Public Schools will retain ownership of the stadium via a lease agreement that will see the new pro team paying rent and sharing use of the 11,000-seat facility with BPS student-athletes.

“The renovation of White Stadium is the largest investment in BPS athletics since the stadium first opened in 1949, one that will transform the facilities and opportunities for Boston Public School students, Franklin Park lovers, and all community members,” Mayor Wu wrote in a letter to councilors sent after the vote. “The new White Stadium complex will anchor youth sports in Boston with students making daily use of state-of-the-art facilities for multiple sports.”

Critics say, however, that as the National Women’s Soccer League schedule typically lasts from March to November, BPS football teams would be displaced from White Stadium for much of their seasons.

Boston’s new pro team is owned by an all-female group that includes Boston Globe CEO Linda Pizzuti Henry as an investor, and is set to take the pitch in March 2026.

Opponents have pushed for a scaled-down high-school only facility that they say can be built at a fraction of the more than $200 million combined cost. A protest against the ongoing demolition at White Stadium is scheduled Thursday.

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