FOXBOROUGH, MASS. — On the morning of Boston Legacy FC’s first match in franchise history, a small number of workers gathered at the site of the team’s future home, White Stadium.
It was 9 a.m. on a Saturday, yet an excavator rotated on the large expanse of dirt in Boston’s Franklin Park, ice melting into puddles in the mud.
The site is far from the joint stadium for professional women’s soccer and Boston Public Schools that it is expected to become next year. The Legacy is splitting its home matches during its inaugural season between Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., (on a FIFA-ordered grass pitch, no less), and Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I. Saturday’s 1–0 loss to Gotham FC in Foxborough marked the return of women’s professional soccer to New England, filling a void that was left when the Boston Breakers, a founding club of the NWSL, folded in 2018.
White Stadium has been a point of contention locally. Some have criticized Boston Mayor Michelle Wu for her support of the public-private project amid rising costs for the city. Last year’s mayoral challenger, Josh Kraft, called the city’s process for choosing the NWSL team’s proposal for the renovations “secretive and rigged.”
A local group called the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, as well as a group of about 20 other residents, sued the team and the city in 2024, citing concerns about parking and noise in Franklin Park, as well as access for the community and BPS. A judge ruled in favor of the team and city last April, but a successful appeal from the community group is now sending the case to the state’s highest court. A hearing is scheduled for April 8.
A handful of residents who live near White Stadium told Front Office Sports on Saturday that they support the project. They have various reasons: the old stadium was run down, the plan means BPS gets high-quality facilities, it could be nice for the community, and it could be good for women’s sports.
“I’m definitely pro-the project,” Lauren from the Jamaica Plain neighborhood told FOS at the match. “I think it’s going to be good for the community in general. And for the people in the community already, I think we need something like that.”
Gillette Stadium was not an easy alternative for many New Englanders. One fan told FOS they had a “brutal” time getting to the suburban venue, and fans were still filing into the stadium half an hour after kickoff.
Still, the team announced that 30,207 fans made the trip to Foxborough, nearly three times the league’s average regular-season attendance last year. The figure set a new NWSL record for inaugural home attendance for an expansion team. The Legacy will hold the mark for two weeks before fellow expansion team Denver Summit FC has its home opener, which has already sold more than 50,000 tickets.
Even though the franchise didn’t debut at its permanent stadium, it was still a big deal for some fans to see professional women’s soccer make its return to New England at the home of the Patriots. Missy from Somerville, Mass., told FOS she used to support and volunteer for the Breakers, who averaged about 3,000 fans per match at Harvard’s soccer stadium, Jordan Field.
“When I was driving in, I was like, ‘This is surreal, a little bit,’” Missy said. “It’s incredible to see the growth of women’s soccer across the nation, but then also for people to be excited to be in Boston, too, and to have a professional women’s soccer team.
“It’s iconic. The jump scare from Jordan Field to Gillette Stadium is kind of crazy.”
