‘Secretive and Rigged’: A $200 Million NWSL Stadium Is Rocking Boston Politics

The upcoming Boston mayoral race in November could be swayed by an unlikely factor—the NWSL.

Mayor Michelle Wu is in full support of a controversial stadium plan that one wealthy challenger has seized on. Josh Kraft, the son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, released a scathing statement Tuesday saying that newly reported emails revealed a “secretive and rigged” process between the team owners and mayor that left “Boston taxpayers holding the bag.”

Boston Unity Soccer Partners won a bid for the next NWSL team, now named Bos Nation FC, in September 2023. The group plans to renovate the city’s 75-year-old White Stadium as a new public-private venue to be shared with Boston Public Schools, which had been using the stadium before the women’s soccer push. The project has been highly controversial, with Mayor Michelle Wu still supporting it even after costs nearly doubled to more than $200 million, including about $100 million from the city. A group of locals concerned about the stadium launched a legal attack last February that heads to trial March 18.

Kraft has raised more than $70,000 since announcing his campaign in early February, which has seen him loudly criticize the incumbent’s White Stadium plan. He attended a protest against the project and has called for all demolition on the stadium—which began last month—to halt until the lawsuit is resolved.

“The communities around Franklin Park and the people of Boston are not on board with Mayor Wu’s plan to pour more than $100 million in public money into a project that primarily benefits a private commercial interest,” Kraft said of the project. “To race ahead in this moment when there are so many legitimate community concerns would be a total failure of leadership.”

The Kraft family owns MLS’s New England Revolution, which plays at the Patriots’ stadium 20 miles south of the city and has long wanted to move closer to Boston. The Krafts are looking to build a stadium in Everett, Mass., a Boston suburb that would require negotiations with the city due to traffic and other impacts. Mayor Wu has been a loud critic of the Everett plans long before Kraft’s mayoral campaign. Kraft said he would recuse himself from negotiations on the Everett project as mayor, and it’s unclear how much of a personal financial stake he might have in his family’s effort. (The Kraft campaign did not immediately answer questions about his ties to the Everett project.)

Kraft and other opponents of the White Stadium plan got extra ammunition Tuesday through a new report showing just how long Boston Unity Soccer Partners and the city have been collaborating on the plan. According to emails uncovered by the Boston Herald, the soccer group first made contact with the city in the fall of 2022 and expressed interest in the White Stadium plan then, with owner Jennifer Epstein writing to a city official that it was “our first choice to partner with the city to use existing infrastructure,” with White Stadium a “perfect example.”

The soccer group also got Mayor Wu to write a letter in support to the NWSL in October 2022. “I have empowered every department in my cabinet to work closely with the applicants to identify the best location for a state-of-the-art facility,” the mayor wrote.

So why does that matter? In Massachusetts, construction on a public project is required to be opened to a bidding process with hopes of keeping costs down for taxpayers. That bidding announcement is called an RFP, which stands for request for proposal.

But following those initial emails, city officials and Boston Unity Soccer Partners went back and forth for seven months before the RFP was sent out, the Herald reported.

“Really appreciate the long calls at all hours, creative solutions, and perseverance to get us over this first finish line together,” Tiffany Chu, Wu’s chief of staff, said in an email on April 17, 2023. “Looking forward to achieving big things together.”

“I just want to let the group know we closed with the league yesterday morning so now the real work begins,” Epstein responded the next day. “We are very excited to be partnering with the City of Boston. … Thank you again for the collective hard work which got us to this point (now we need to get that RFP out!).”

The RFP didn’t open until April 26, 2023. No other bidders came forward, and the city chose the soccer group in June 2023.

“The details reported today regarding the secretive and rigged RFP process between Mayor Wu’s office and Boston Unity Partners is extremely concerning, and demonstrates misdirected energy and the wrong priorities, with [Boston Public Schools] kids left behind, a community feeling ignored, and Boston taxpayers holding the bag,” Kraft said in a statement Tuesday. 

The team said in a statement that the negotiations were appropriate.

“In pursuit of the NWSL Boston franchise, and a suitable venue for the team’s home games, Boston Unity engaged in preliminary and exploratory discussion with the city,” the spokesperson tells Front Office Sports. “Such exploratory discussions are typical of many municipal processes, and a completely fair and open Request for Proposals process followed.”

The spokesperson also said the city followed the rules with a 60-day RFP and that the opposing community group Emerald Necklace Conservancy (which is part of the lawsuit) didn’t submit a rival bid during that period. “The city evaluated Boston Unity’s proposal on its own terms, and made its determination to designate BUSP for the White Stadium Rehabilitation based solely on the merits of its formal proposal,” the statement says.

A representative for Wu did not respond to a request for comment. The Massachusetts attorney general, which enforces the state’s bidding laws, did not comment.

Boston Unity Soccer Partners is currently considering a name change for the team, which was originally announced as the city anagram Bos Nation FC. The group had a disastrous “Too Many Balls” brand rollout and issued an apology because “the content of the campaign did not reflect the safe and welcoming environment we strive to create for all.”

The new team is set to join the league in 2026. Renovations on the stadium are scheduled to end in the winter of 2026. The NWSL season typically begins in March.