Kraft keeps striking out.
It appears that the owner of Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution franchise, Robert Kraft, is going to have to find money or double his lobbying effort of Massachusetts legislators to build a stadium in Everett. The Massachusetts State Senate considered a plan to build a stadium alongside the Mystic River across from Boston. There was no mention of money in the proposal but that is a moot point now as the Massachusetts legislators left the proposal out of a state spending plan.
Kraft has been looking for a soccer-only stadium in the Boston area for more than 15 years. In 2022, the Massachusetts House of Representatives was looking to waive rules that could have made the Everett land attractive. There was memorandum of agreement between Everett and Kraft, which called for the demolition of all existing structures on the property and the construction of “a world-class stadium with approximately 25,000 seats”. Nothing has happened in the past 15 months and it seems Kraft might have to begin a new quest for a stadium for his soccer team. The Revolution franchise plays its games at Kraft’s NFL New England Patriots venue in Foxboro. In 2007, Kraft’s MLS business wanted to get a stadium built in Somerville but nothing came of that. Two years later Kraft looked at Somerville again but nothing happened. In 2014, Kraft wanted a stadium in South Boston. Nothing happened. Kraft eyed Dorchester in 2017 but negotiations to build a stadium fell through. In November 2017, Kraft’s son Jonathan, who is the president of the Kraft Group said, “we’re as optimistic as we’ve ever been that in 2018 we will have a piece of land that is in downtown Boston and we will be able to build a home for the Revolution on it.” That never happened.
