A lot of people have flagged talk of the New England Revolution getting a new, soccer-specifc home, but I've got a thing or two to add. The location, the “bedroom community” of Somerville, strikes me as a great one, especially given that they’re talking of placing it on the Charlestown-side of Somerville 'cause, if I'm not mistaken, that makes it more central still to Boston-proper. Not only that, but, unless it’s quite a ways north of the T's Red Line, it shouldn’t be bad for mass transit (I can’t speak to driving because, in all my years in Boston, I never once owned a car).
There’s also a kicker to consider: I can’t think of shittier stadium experiences than my several trips to Foxboro. There is no worse soccer venue, or sporting venue in general, that sucks worse, harder, or to less pleasurable effect. Depressing as driving past the last restaurant several miles before the stadium proved to be, it didn’t hold a candle to stepping out of the car in a gigantic parking lot in the middle of the fallow fields of bum-fuck New England. People bashing the proposed stadium in Hillsboro, Oregon have no friggin’ clue how much worse it could be. (For you Portland-metro people out there, I’d put Foxboro on par with building a Portland team’s stadium dead-center between Gaston and Carlton.)
Add the omnipresent stadium security - whose attentions somewhat amazingly detected a guy pouring an airport bottle of booze into his gigantic, over-priced Coke - and you have a completely oppressive atmosphere under a mid-summer sun with 90% humidity. The entire experience featured a long car ride to what amounts to a fucking awful theme park with one ride - and on the days the Revs didn’t play well, the ride fucking sucked. Nothing else to see, nothing else to do - just go there, tail-gate if you’re lucky, catch the game and go home. And the mascots for the damn park are anal-retentive security guards. Rah, rah.
All in all, barring something totally squirrelly about access - and we’re talking totally - a stadium in Somerville would not only vastly improve on Gillette, it could very well be one of the more successful facilities in Major League Soccer.
Pull the trigger, Bob.
(########)
No comments:
Post a Comment