For months, opponents of the White Stadium renovation plan have succeeded in making their voices heard at marathon City Council hearings and press gatherings outside the decrepit Franklin Park venue, never mind preparing a lawsuit that still has the potential to stall or halt the project.
On Monday, however, community supporters of the public/private project began playing some offense.
Striking a populist tone, participants in a virtual press conference took care to not only laud how the project, which is expected to cost at least $200 million, will benefit the under-resourced Boston Public Schools, but also took aim at the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, which is behind much of the resistance.
“I’ve been very frustrated,” said Dot Fennell, a park neighbor and BPS parent, “at the way that this small group, led by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and its offshoot, the Franklin Park Defenders, has used well-funded lawsuits and PR tactics to create this false impression that there’s widespread opposition to this project.
“I’m concerned that I’m seeing opponents use exaggerated and misinformation to paint this project as being too bold or too expensive. We really need to be thinking bold and thinking big and we need to be investing in a facility that’s going to be serving our city for generations to come.”
The press conference was held to announce a letter to Mayor Michelle Wu signed by more than 40 leaders of Boston after-school and youth sports programs who believe “that delaying or halting this project would jeopardize critical resources for young people and the programs that support them.”
The city is budgeting $91 million for its share of the project, with the new Boston women’s professional soccer team that hopes to begin playing at the stadium in March 2026 ponying up the balance.
The NWSL team is also responsible for rent, and maintenance and operations at the stadium.
The letter was spearheaded by Boston After School & Beyond, which helps serve approximately 21,000 children in after-school and summer programs.
“In particular, our network of programs was moved by the fact that the stadium will double the access that it has now and be open in the after-school hours and on weekends and during the summer,” said Chris Smith, president and executive director of the organization. “Those are times that can be of great risk to young people.”
Tony LaRocha, founder of Boston United Track and Field, said his group is “always struggling to find places to practice” but will no longer have to after the new eight-lane track is built.
LaRocha found the ENC’s $28.9 million alternate design proposal lacking.
“The problem is, where is the weight-training facility? Where is the sports medicine facility? Our students don’t have that,” said LaRocha. “Currently, schools in the suburbs have that. Why should we not have the same?”
David Shapiro, president of YMCA Greater Boston, said he was not speaking for the approximately 75,000 members of the organization but “as someone who tries to program equitable sports and after-school opportunities and summer opportunities for kids in Boston at scale and also just as a guy who believes, as Tony said, that BPS student-athletes, as much as any student-athletes in this country, deserve world-class facilities.”
Shapiro added he is not “openly trusting that [the project] will be a panacea” until he sees and understands “ironclad” operating agreements around BPS sports usage.
Landscape architect and Roslindale resident Ricardo Austrich took issue with the assertion by opponents that the new stadium will have a negative impact on the park.
“This is simply not true,” said Austrich. “This renovation is a chance to make White Stadium a true asset within the park, rather than the aging, underutilized, sad structure that it is.”
The ENC is a private nonprofit organization founded in 1997 to, according to its mission statement, “restore and improve” the Emerald Necklace, the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed chain of urban parks that is flanked by Boston Common and Franklin Park.
The ENC’s tax filing last July showed $5.36 million in total revenues in the fiscal year ending in September 2023.
In an email, Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy said, in part, “The Emerald Necklace Conservancy is proud to work with community members in advocating for our public parkland, and public investments for the people and determined by the people. We continue to believe that a better plan is possible — a fully public renovation of White Stadium that prioritizes BPS students and the community over private, for-profit entities.”
Thirteen organizations and 350-plus individuals have signed a statement of principles on the ENC website in support of reconsidering the project.
The ENC’s lawsuit is expected to be heard on March 18.
Linda Henry, CEO of Boston Globe Media Partners, announced last week that she is withdrawing from the investor group behind the NWSLteam and that she expects her exit to become official soon.
Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.