SINCE I FIRST wrote about the City of Boston’s troubled plans for White Stadium in CommonWealth Beacon this past June, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Everything I wrote in that piece about the proposal to demolish most of the existing high school stadium in Franklin Park and build a new professional soccer complex for use by the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)’s BOS Nation Football Club still holds, and sometimes in spades.

For instance, I suggested that the White Stadium project would suffer substantial cost overruns on its initial budget of $80 million, just as happens in virtually all stadium facility construction projects. I alluded to the new stadium that was built for the NWSL team in Kansas City. The initial cost was to be $70 million, but it ended up at a reported $120 million – a hefty 71 percent cost overrun. 

But the White Stadium proponents have already outdone Kansas City and construction hasn’t even started. Earlier this month, it was revealed that the new estimated cost had more than doubled to $200 million, a whopping 150 percent increase. The projected taxpayer share of the cost rose from $50 million to $91 million.

If the project goes forward, please don’t be surprised if the final price tag rises well above $200 million. And that number, of course, will not include the annual costs for transportation, congestion, security, landscaping, and sanitation – most of which will likely fall upon the city. Or the environmental and psychic costs from cutting down 145 mature trees and converting acres of public park land into a private commercial venture.

Stunningly, Mayor Wu, a major cheerleader for the project, has dug in her heels (perhaps in quicksand). She told Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on WGBH last week that the city was committed to paying for half the project, “no matter what it costs.” Really? A blank check, in the context of profound city financial problems? 

Most of what will be the ongoing costs for the city are still obscured from the public eye, because the city has not made public its proposed lease deal with the team. Will the team pay rent or property taxes, or negotiate a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement? Will the city get any of the ticket, concessions, or catering revenue generated at the stadium during concerts and other events? What about revenue from signage and corporate sponsorships?  Will the city and/or team have to contribute to a capital expenditure fund to pay for future repairs, maintenance, and upgrades?

Interestingly, the team’s chief of staff and chief legal officer, Kim Miner, called me last summer to talk about my June op-ed. She tried to convince me to turn from critic to supporter, and even collaborator. 

Miner said that she was anxious for me to read the impressive economic impact report that was done on the proposed stadium. I said, great, I’d be happy to review it. She said she’d send it forthwith. Not having received it, a week later I emailed Miner and wrote that it hadn’t arrived. Miner explained that the report was in the final stages of being updated and that she’d send it the next week. Guess what? It didn’t come that week, or the next, and, despite sending several reminder emails, I still haven’t seen it. 

This is symptomatic of a project that appears to be plunging forward to meet the NWSL’s spring 2026 deadline for BOS Nation to begin holding games, despite a continued lack of publicly available details: no lease, no shared use agreement, no construction cost breakdown, no transportation plan, no real alternatives assessment, etc.

Yet there is a larger issue. For those, like myself, who are passionate about women’s soccer and women’s sports in general, it is puzzling to ponder the limitations of BOS Nation’s plan. According to the latest version of the proposal, the new stadium will have 11,000 seats, including temporary game-day seating. That would make it the second-smallest facility among the NWSL’s 14 teams.

The NWSL has only two other stadiums with fewer than 20,000 seats. The median seating capacity of today’s NWSL stadiums is 21,100 and the mean capacity is 24,170. NWSL teams share their stadiums with MLS teams in all cases but one in cities having teams in both leagues. Put bluntly, an 11,000-seat capacity is too small and does not project aspirations, nor does it accommodate the goal of growing popularity.

Serendipitously, the New England Revolution is preparing to build a new soccer stadium in Everett with 24,000 seats. It will be a modern stadium with all the amenities and revenue-generating capacity that befits a competitive sports team. The Kraft family has made clear its interest in discussing a shared stadium solution with BOS Nation. Why does Boston need two professional soccer stadiums, especially when the women would play in an inferior one?

And, if the city comes to its senses and backs away from the current White Stadium project, what can be done to promote high school sports? The answer is simple: follow the example of the recent renovation of Cawley Memorial Stadium in Lowell, where the local high school plays football, soccer, and lacrosse. It cost $8 million, including $4.3 million spent on a state-of-the-art student athletic training center. 

The current White Stadium plan will not even allow for regular season high school football to be played, as the NWSL won’t allow football cleats on its fields during the overlapping soccer and football seasons. A new high school field will allow for that and much more, at a fraction of the price.

Boston deserves better.

Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor Emeritus of Economics at Smith College. He has published 28 books and dozens of articles, and consulted widely in the sports industry.