Mayor Michelle Wu has heard the boos from the grandstand.
The complaints that rebuilding White Stadium is too costly, that this issue is a political loser, that forging ahead is reckless.
Her response? That for the communities surrounding the park — Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan — and for the city as a whole, this is a project that needs to happen now.
“All three of these communities are ones who have been long ignored and underserved,’’ Wu told me recently. “I felt a lot of pressure to make sure to get this right, because these communities have faced disappointment so many times already.’’
The White Stadium project is a partnership between the city and a professional women’s soccer team, BOS Nation, slated to begin play in 2026.
From the outset, the project has drawn controversy, including a lawsuit from the nonprofit Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and ongoing complaints from a related advocacy group, the Franklin Park Defenders, which includes neighborhood stalwarts Jean McGuire and Louis Elisa.
Just this week, opponents of the project spearheaded a nine-hour City Council hearing to give full voice to their dissent.
That the city’s share of the project has ballooned in cost — from an early estimate of $50 million to roughly double that — has not helped quiet the criticism.
But I think the critics are wrong. Building a new White Stadium is one of Wu’s boldest ideas, and one that could eventually help shape her legacy.
Unlike some people who have just recently found their passion for Franklin Park — like the Emerald Necklace people — I have been a public advocate of renovating White Stadium for well over a decade. As many people will tell you, the facility — which opened in the 1940s — has been a dump for a whole lot longer than that.
Everyone agrees, or claims to agree, that White Stadium absolutely should be renovated. They just don’t like the price tag. Or the plan. Or the traffic professional soccer will bring. Or the idea that this whole project hinges on the support of a well-heeled group of soccer investors who will have dibs on the facility for 40 days a year. (Globe CEO Linda Henry is a minority investor in the soccer team.)
Forgive me, but I’ve spent years listening to people talk about how much they care about Franklin Park, while never getting behind any proposal to actually improve it. Obviously, renovating White Stadium is just one piece of bringing Franklin Park to its full potential. But it is an important piece, and letting this moment slip away is a terrible idea.
Wu told me she has become a bit obsessed with Franklin Park and its legendary designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, over the two years this project has been germinating. It’s led her to think a lot about what the park can and should be.
“He was basically the first person to say that parks should be for real people, not just, you know, manicured fancy bushes in shapes that you’re not supposed to touch,’’ she said. “The idea that you could feel a sense of connection to people whose name you might not know, but who you felt were part of your same community because you were in these same spaces.’’
One frequent complaint has been that the soccer team will displace the high school football teams who use the stadium for much of their season. But that’s a trade-off for having a facility that can be used for things it cannot accommodate now — soccer, track and field, after-school programs. I love high school football, but why is it the only activity that counts?
Fixing White Stadium is an idea that comes around roughly once a decade. But the naysayers have always won, as Wu points out.
“As you’ve seen over the years, there are many reasons not to do something, and each time this has been promised in the past has fallen apart, either for funding or crumbling political will or voices from outside the city who don’t use the park or stadium, who were listened to,’’ she said.
The project is a great opportunity to reject the politics of “no’’. Which, in this case, is exactly what should happen.
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at adrian.walker@globe.com. Follow him @Adrian_Walker.
