Pro soccer to Everett? Do not bet against it just yet

State Sen. DiDomenico tells City Councillors he will file solo bill 

By Steve Freker

The need for a land status change on a 43-acre undeveloped site on lower Broadway remains, despite a recent setback regarding a land status change that could potentially site a $600 million, 25,000-seat professional soccer stadium in Everett. That was the message from state Sen. Sal DiDomenico (D-Middlesex and Suffolk) delivered to the members of the City Council Monday night, telling them “something special” – soccer stadium or not – is destined for that land parcel, if the state agrees to lift the existing designation from the property.

At present, the land, one of the largest undeveloped parcels remaining in Everett, has a state-mandated Designated Port Area (DPA) attached to it, meaning any development project has to be related to the adjacent waterfront port of the Mystic River. Sen. DiDomenico also told the Council the DPA status is holding back the city of Everett from “realizing the benefits that a remediation (and redevelopment) project could generate.”

DiDomenico on Monday reiterated his previous pledge to file a solo bill at the State House that would contain language to remove the DPA status from the parcel, potentially clearing a path to initiate construction of a soccer stadium and waterfront park along the Mystic River. The new stadium, if built, would be the home of the New England Revolution, which now sits at less than half-empty, 68,000-seat Gillette Stadium for home games in Foxboro. The standalone bill that Sen. DiDomenico said he will file will include the same language that lawmakers left out of the $3.1 billion budget bill Gov. Maura Healey signed last week.

Sen. DiDomenico told the Council he intends to “open up more opportunities for the public to weigh in on the property’s future.” “As the state senator for this community who strongly believes that we can do something special on that land, I am going to file that bill,” Sen. DiDomenico said at the meeting, according to an online report. “I am going to make sure we have all of our ducks in a row to make sure and convince the people at the State House that the city of Everett doesn’t want this industrial past to continue.”

Sen. DiDomenico said the soccer stadium/waterfront park project would be “transformational, not just for the environmental aspects of it but the economic impact of this community as well.”

The Mass. Senate had backed the proposal’s inclusion in the supplemental budget, DiDomenico said, with the House ultimately removing the language from advancing as lawmakers focused on the migrant crisis and pay raises for public employees at the last minute, with some House members weighing in, citing “unanswered questions.” Some top-level House members called concerns from “several environmental groups” regarding unresolved environmental concerns about the site” as a factor in bypassing the amendment on the land status designation.

Sen. DiDomenico then made a key point, saying that it was those very same environmental groups – not Mayor Carlo DeMaria – who had gone through talks with The Kraft Group, which owns Gillette Stadium and The Revolution, due to the intensive remediation that would be needed on the heavily contaminated land parcel due to former industrial use. The Kraft Group, owner Robert Kraft’s holding company, is looking to move the New England Revolution from Gillette Stadium closer to Boston.

“I am going to continue to advocate to state leaders that a lower income, minority-majority community like Everett deserves the chance to explore such a transformational economic development opportunity,” Mayor Carlo Demaria said this week, in support of DiDomenico’s pledge.