After comments from a backer of Miami’s MLS expansion club, questions arose about whether a new New England Revolution stadium near Boston’s TD Garden is in the works.
The Revolution currently play home matches at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, which they share with the NFL’s Patriots. Robert Kraft, who controls the Revolution and the Patriots, has previously made efforts to move the MLS club out of Gillette Stadium and into a smaller, soccer-specific venue somewhere in the Boston area. That has included a pursuit of a stadium at the Bayside Exhibition Center in Dorchester, an effort that fell through last year when negotiations ended.
Now, speculation has swirled about whether the club is pursuing a site near TD Garden, an arena that is home to both the NBA’s Celtics and NHL’s Bruins. That discussion was prompted by recent comments from Miami MLS investor Jorge Mas, who referenced the Revolution’s pursuit of a soccer-specific stadium during an interview with the Miami Herald editorial board. Boston officials, however, say that they have not been presented a proposal on a new stadium. More from the Boston Business Journal:
In the conversation with the Miami Herald, Mas suggested that the Kraft Group’s New England Revolution are planning a soccer stadium in Boston, according to a video clip posted to Twitter late Monday evening.
“One of the only franchises left to build a soccer-specific stadium is the New England Revolution, which is owned by Bob Kraft of the New England Patriots. They’re building a facility, I think, right near or next to, Boston Garden,” Mas, the chairman of Coral Gables, Florida-based infrastructure construction giant MasTec Inc. (NYSE: MTZ), said in the meeting.
Land is scarce near TD Garden, a sports and concert arena adjacent to Boston’s North Station, formerly known as the Boston Garden, that’s home to the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics. And city leadership is denying that there’s any formal proposal to develop a soccer stadium within Boston city limits.
“Mayor Walsh has always said that he’s interested in building a soccer stadium in Boston, however there is currently no proposal before the city,” said Samantha Ormsby, press secretary for Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh.
The Revolution has played at Gillette Stadium its opening in 2002.
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