What’s really behind the Legislature’s failure to pass a measure that could have paved the way for a soccer stadium in Everett?
The easiest explanation is the classic one, coined some 30 years ago by Larry Moulter, who was then trying to shepherd a proposal to rebuild the old Boston Garden through the Legislature: “This is a town where there are three pastimes: politics, sports, and revenge,” Moulter said, after the plan he was pushing as a Garden executive was derailed yet again by a complex tangle of political feuds and power plays.
Today, the application of Moulter’s theory goes like this: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu stopped Robert Kraft’s plans to build a soccer stadium in Everett because his son Josh Kraft is said to be mulling a run for mayor — and besides, Wu has her own plan to build a soccer stadium in Franklin Park, and who needs two professional soccer venues in such close proximity? Wu got help from allies like state Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the powerful head of the House Ways and Means Committee whose district includes TD Garden, whose owners don’t want competition from possible concerts in nearby Everett.
What’s the truth? It’s hard to know. Michlewitz declined to comment. So did Josh Kraft, through Keyser Public Strategies, the political consulting firm he is working with.
Josh Kraft runs the family’s philanthropic operation and is not involved in the Kraft Group’s soccer business, the New England Revolution. However, in a statement after the Legislature failed to take up the measure it needs to move forward, the Kraft Group complained about a political landscape “dictated by the needs and bargaining of political leaders with outside influences” — an apparent dig at Wu.
Asked about Wu’s motives, a spokesperson for the mayor said, “This administration treats all development projects with the same level of analysis and due diligence. We’ve yet to see a real proposal on this one.”
The mayor has also let it be known that she reached out to Robert Kraft about the project but never heard back from him and still lacks critical information about traffic and other community impacts. According to the Kraft Group, there’s nothing to say until the Legislature does what the group wants: change the status of a 43-acre site along the Mystic River from what’s known as a designated port area, which only allows marine industrial uses. “Right now, there is no project and nothing to talk about,” a person connected to the project told me.
Suggestion to Robert Kraft: Why not meet with Wu? Maybe there could be something to talk about.
Wu, of course, is pushing her own soccer stadium proposal, which entails putting $50 million of public money toward the renovation of White Stadium in Franklin Park in partnership with Boston Unity Soccer Partners, a new professional women’s soccer team. It faces opposition from community activists who have filed a lawsuit against the venture. (Globe CEO Linda Henry is an investor in Boston Unity Soccer Partners.)
All the revenge talk diverts attention from the real issue: Strictly on the merits, should either or both of these stadium proposals go forward?
Wu is proposing to use public money to help a private venture that opponents say will take away from the public use of White Stadium. The mayor, who sees this as a key driver of economic development for that area, argues that the public will have more access to an updated, state-of-the-art facility. With Wu’s plan, there has been robust debate, although full transparency when it comes to the actual terms of the agreement with Boston Unity Soccer Partners is still lacking.
There was one public hearing about the Everett stadium plan, but the machinations behind the effort to lift the current zoning restriction happened behind closed doors. The statement from the Kraft Group says the language in the measure they sought “had no financial commitments from state or local government.” Whether that remains true is an open question.
The lack of trust in what is happening behind closed doors is the real problem here. Are political leaders being straight? Is some deal being cooked up that benefits private interests at the expense of the public? No one who is not behind those closed doors knows for sure.
In a 1993 Globe article that deconstructed the old Boston Garden feuds, Moulter was also quoted as saying this about Beacon Hill: “It’s an infinite game up there. There is no conclusion and you can’t walk away. If the game stops, you lose power. For them, you play the game forever.”
This week, there’s talk of the Legislature going back to take up the economic development bill, which contains the measure sought by the Kraft Group. It’s still an infinite game up there.
Moulter’s quote about “politics, sports, and revenge” lives on because it still feels like it explains Boston. The old tribes are breaking up. New ones are taking over.
But if cynicism about the process still thrives, has anything really changed?
Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi.