It is no secret that the New England Revolution are considering a new stadium at the site of the former Bayside Expo Center. What has just become public knowledge, however, is that talks between the Revolution and the University of Massachusetts, Bayside’s property owner, began last October.
Last month, we discussed the possibility of the Revolution building a stadium at this site. Revolution owner Robert Kraft has been seeking to move the team out of a Gillette Stadium and into a soccer-specific facility somewhere in the Boston area.
At the time, UMass said it was evaluating how the stadium could fit into the long-term planning of the property. Emails obtained by Boston.com, however, show that the university has been working with the Revolution for a longer period of time than expected:
Ted Fire, the vice president of construction and development for the Kraft Group, which owns the Revolution and the New England Patriots, contacted Patricia Filippone on October 15 last year by email. Filippone is executive director at the UMass Building Authority, which oversees new construction and development on university land and campuses.
Copying Revolution President Brian Bilello and Kraft Group Director of Site Development Dan Krantz on the email, Fire asked Filippone to send several studies and documents related to the UMass Boston-owned Bayside Expo Center property — including plans related to the property under Boston’s failed Olympic bid.
Krantz followed up a week later asking for more information, and a meeting between the parties was eventually scheduled for December.
Most of the emails dealt in the planning aspect of the site, so the appearance from this round of communication is that financial particulars were not discussed. Yet it will still be interesting what effect, if any, this has on the team’s pursuit of a new stadium on the site. Other locations around Boston have been discussed in the past, but the Dorchester property has emerged as the most identifiable contender over the last month.
Photo from the New England Revolution home opener, 2014, via flickr.com.
RELATED STORIES: Bayside Expo Center Emerges as Potential Site for New England Revolution Stadium; Krafts bring in Goldman Sachs on new Boston MLS stadium plan; New Boston MLS stadium talk heating up again; New Revolution stadium in motion?; South Boston site eyed for new Rev stadium; After Revolution uprising, will we see soccer-only stadium in Boston?