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Rhode Island’s new professional soccer team kicks off for the first time ever – The Boston Globe
The new team is playing in the USL Championship league, the second tier of American menâs soccer, a notch below Major League Soccer.
On Saturday, hundreds of fans crowded the parking lot grilling burgers and chicken wings and sipping beers as they waited for Rhode Island soccer history. Then, thousands more filed in as the 4 p.m. game time approached. The roughly 5,000-seat stadium was packed by the time people had a chance to navigate the challenging parking situation at the university campus.
Fans who came from around Rhode Island said they were there to watch a game they enjoy, to support a state that took a big hit with the loss of the Pawtucket Red Sox, or just to have a good time on a mild spring-like day.
As the competition against New Mexico United neared, the anticipation built: fireworks shot off in the distance, kids squirmed on metal bleachers, and the merch line inched forward under partly cloudy skies. The fan section drummed and chanted âRI! FC!â Then the whistle blew for kickoff.
It took 67 minutes, then New Mexico United netted the gameâs first goal.
The Rhode Island soccer project has seen its fair share of setbacks over the years. Construction on the soccer stadium in Pawtucket was delayed, so the team is now playing in a temporary home this season in Smithfield. The permanent stadium has also gotten much more expensive for Rhode Island taxpayers, leading one economist, Victor Matheson of Holy Cross, to describe the deal as âpure insanity.â
Governor Dan McKee, a supporter of the project, came out on Saturday in a Rhode Island FC jersey. âI guess Iâm going to learn soccer,â McKee joked. âI guess weâre all going to learn soccer.â
Despite the difficulties getting the stadium built, as well as other problems hampering the state, McKee said heâs looking forward, not backward, putting the stateâs issues â from 38 Studios to âCooler and Warmer,â a disastrous tourism campaign â âin the rearview mirror.â
The controversy, the cynicism, the âpure insanityâ over the soccer stadium â they were all in the rearview, too, at least at Beirne Stadium on Saturday.
Standing nearby was team owner Brett Johnson. With his characteristic sunny southern California demeanor, Johnson said the stadium, when itâs done, will transform Pawtucket. Until then, theyâd try to win in Smithfield.
As for the housing thatâs supposed to come along with the stadium, Johnson said he expected some âtractionâ on that subject in 90 days. Saturday, though, was about Saturday â not 90 days, but 90 minutes of soccer. He pointed to the lines of fans that were growing outside.
âPulling up and seeing a packed parking lot, seeing a sold-out crowd â whatever my expectations were, they were exceeded,â Johnson said.
Even after the local team went down a goal, they kept pressing, with big chance after big chance. Headers went into New Mexicoâs keeperâs arms. Shots blasted into the crowd. One wayward ball nearly hit peopleâs beers and flew past a man carrying a baby strapped to his chest.
âNevermind the baby,â the man said, presumably joking. âNot the Modelos!â
As the game entered the 90th of 90 minutes, then into stoppage time, Mark Doyle scored the first ever Rhode Island FC goal in the 92nd.
The crowd exploded as Rhode Island FC drew level, earning what would ultimately end in a 1-1 draw. Rhode Islandâs soccer team ran over and celebrated with each other, and also with the Rhode Island fans, including 13-year-old Michael Denham, from Lincoln, who was nearby.
Michael was out of breath as he described the scene: âThat was insane!â
Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com. Follow him @bamaral44.
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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