Boston taxpayer tab for controversial White Stadium rehab grows again to $100M

Boston taxpayers are now expected to fork over $100 million as part of the city’s public-private plan to rehab White Stadium to house a pro soccer team, the latest cost increase to be revealed in a project that continues to draw strong opposition.

The city’s half of the project, which swelled from $50 million to $91 million late last year, has grown again, to “roughly $100 million,” Dion Irish, Boston’s chief of operations, testified at a Wednesday City Council hearing that was held days after demolition work began at the 75-year-old stadium in Franklin Park.

While Irish said the city’s goal was to keep its taxpayer-funded portion of the project to that latest estimate, he wouldn’t rule out further cost overruns. He pointed to a public bidding process for construction that may change the final cost. Final bids for a new fire station in the Seaport, for example, tacked on a few million dollars to that project, he said.

“I would not venture to say a lot more money,” Irish said, when City Councilor Erin Murphy posited that the Wu administration “may choose to spend a lot more money” to fulfill its commitment to the tear-down and rebuild project.

Murphy, prior to making that statement, asked whether the city administration had determined a limit for what it was willing to spend on the project, and if there was an amount that would cause it to walk away from the public-private partnership with Boston Unity Soccer Partners, which owns the new pro women’s team.

“We have now said we can come up with $100 million,” Murphy said. “Just like any responsible person, anyone who runs their home budget, at some point you have to say, that’s great but I can’t afford it, so I’m going to have to say no.”

Murphy last week called for the city to halt demolition, and Councilor Ed Flynn has called for the project’s cancellation.

Mayor Michelle Wu drew criticism last month for saying that the city was committed to paying for its half of the project, “no matter what it costs” to taxpayers, after the city’s tab ballooned to $91 million.

Boston Unity, an all-female ownership group that includes Boston Globe CEO Linda Pizzuti Henry as an investor, will now pay more than $100 million, pushing the cost of the project, initially estimated at $100 million, to more than $200 million, Wu administration officials said at the day’s hearing.

The city’s new cost for White Stadium’s rehab appeared to catch councilors and community members off-guard. The revelation drew immediate criticism from opponents, including the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that seeks to stop the project over claims that the city and Boston Unity are illegally privatizing public trust land.

Irish denied privatization, saying that the new stadium would be owned by the city and Boston Public Schools, which would share use with the new soccer team, a tenant subject to a 10-year lease agreement. Critics say, however, that BPS football teams would be displaced for much of their season.

“Boston taxpayers are being asked to pay through the nose to build an oversized professional sports complex for the benefit of a few millionaire sports investors,” Jean McGuire, a 93-year-old community activist and former School Committee member, said. “The fact is, we were never asked if we wanted a professional sports and entertainment complex in our park.

“Community members’ concerns about public access, transportation impacts and countless other issues are being ignored, all in a mad rush to demolish White Stadium in order to meet the soccer stadium’s desired opening date,” she added.

The new National Women’s Soccer League team is expected to take the pitch in spring 2026 — leading to questions at the day’s hearing about whether the tight deadline may lead to further cost overruns.

An updated project timeline presented by Wu officials at the hearing shows demolition work, which began this week, is set to continue for the next two months. Construction would take place for the rest of this year and continue into 2026. The NWSL schedule typically begins in March.

Further complicating matters for the team, as mentioned in a November court filing by Boston Unity following the plaintiffs’ push to move back the March 18 trial date — which was denied by a Suffolk Superior Court judge — are the delays to construction brought on by the pending lawsuit.

“Clearly this is a transparent ploy by the plaintiffs to ‘delay, delay, delay,’ — a tactic, which if sanctioned by this court, they know would be fatal to the singular element required for Defendant BUSP to bring a professional women’s soccer team to Boston — a constructed and operational White Stadium at the start of 2026,” the investors said.

The tight turnaround led to questions from Councilor Brian Worrell around whether the city had a contingency plan in place should the team back out, to finish construction.

Should the deal fall apart after work has already started, Diana Fernandez Bibeau, Boston’s deputy chief of urban design, said the city would be able to pull from an escrow account and put those funds toward construction activity.

Boston, per legal agreements, has a corporate guarantee of $45 million to cover stadium expenses, if the team chooses to “walk away,” Fernandez Bibeau said.

Worrell also asked whether the city was equipped to cover annual maintenance expenses, should the new women’s pro team fold within 10 years. The team contributes $2 million annually for maintenance, per the terms of the lease.