Boston, MA
Pols & Politics: Boston’s $325M White Stadium deal could be killed with booze ban
Plans to serve booze at White Stadium’s professional soccer matches in Boston have encountered pushback by critics of the city’s public-private rehab plan, but a ban on alcohol would effectively kill the $325 million project.
Buried in the city’s 321-page lease agreement with Boston Legacy FC, the National Women’s Soccer League team set to play home games at the rebuilt stadium, is a provision that allows the team to walk away from the deal should the city’s Licensing Board choose not to grant its application for a liquor license.
“If … both the Boston Licensing Board and the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission issue a final non-appealable decision in which the applicable entity refuses to grant such a liquor license (for White Stadium) … then the tenant may terminate both this lease and the stadium usage agreement,” the lease states.
“Upon delivery of such termination notice, the parties’ rights, responsibilities, and the obligations under this lease and the stadium usage agreement shall be null and void, and without recourse to either party,” the lease states.
Boston Legacy FC has signed a 10-year lease agreement with the city to share use of Franklin Park’s White Stadium with Boston Public Schools student-athletes.
The team is paying more than $190 million for its half of the stadium renovations, with the city’s $135 million half of the costs paid for by taxpayers.
The Boston City Council defeated a resolution last month, by a 9-3 vote, that sponsors Ed Flynn and Julia Mejia said sought to uphold state law restricting alcohol at public school facilities.
Mejia and Flynn argued that booze should not be sold during professional soccer matches and other private events held at Franklin Park’s White Stadium, given that it is a city-owned public school facility.
“The Boston Public School policy is clear and the state law is clear,” Mejia said last month. “Alcohol is not permitted on public school premises, except under very limited circumstances, which this situation does not meet.”
Most councilors disagreed, including Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who called the rule “antiquated” and said it was not applicable in this instance.
“I think generally this is an antiquated viewpoint of how we regulate alcohol,” Coletta Zapata said last month. “It ignores how Boston responsibly balances public use, economic opportunity and community activation. We can’t pretend that a blanket prohibition is the only pathway forward, especially in a shared-use facility like White Stadium.”
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy and a group of park neighbors suing the city to try to block the project have also argued that alcohol should be banned at the facility. The lawsuit, which alleges the professional soccer stadium use would illegally privatize public parkland, is under consideration by the state Supreme Judicial Court.
— Gayla Cawley
No boos this time
Not sure what to make of Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll tossing out the ceremonial first pitch the other night at Fenway Park while the governor was away in California. The stands were still filling up, but nobody seemed to be voicing their political feelings. Is that good? As the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity.
Two offensive picks bookend a linebacker and a safety on Day 3 as the Texans selected WR Lewis Bond out of Boston College with pick No. 204 in the 6th round of the draft.
At just over 5-10 and 190 pounds, Bond hauled in 213 receptions during his time at BC.
In 2025 he was fourth in the nation with 7.3 receptions per game and finished with 993 yards.
Former BC QB Thomas Castellanos called Bond an unbelievable receiver who can do it all. Castellanos described Bond as a very physical receiver who can make plays in space and break tackles, adding that he was open a lot and could have been targeted even more.
Buffalo Sabres (50-23-9, in the Atlantic Division) vs. Boston Bruins (45-27-10, in the Atlantic Division)
Boston; Sunday, 2 p.m. EDT
LINE: Bruins -115, Sabres -105; over/under is 6
NHL PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND: Sabres lead series 2-1
BOTTOM LINE: The Buffalo Sabres visit the Boston Bruins in the first round of the NHL Playoffs with a 2-1 lead in the series. The teams meet Thursday for the eighth time this season. The Sabres won 3-1 in the last meeting.
Boston has a 45-27-10 record overall and a 12-14-3 record in Atlantic Division games. The Bruins rank second in league play serving 11.9 penalty minutes per game.
Buffalo has a 50-23-9 record overall and an 18-7-4 record in Atlantic Division play. The Sabres have a 46-4-8 record when scoring three or more goals.
TOP PERFORMERS: Morgan Geekie has 39 goals and 29 assists for the Bruins. Mark Kastelic has three goals and one assist over the last 10 games.
Rasmus Dahlin has 19 goals and 55 assists for the Sabres. Alex Tuch has scored six goals and added four assists over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Bruins: 3-5-2, averaging 2.4 goals, 4.5 assists, 4.4 penalties and 10.7 penalty minutes while giving up 2.3 goals per game.
Sabres: 6-3-1, averaging 3.4 goals, 5.7 assists, 5.3 penalties and 14.4 penalty minutes while giving up 2.5 goals per game.
INJURIES: Bruins: None listed.
Sabres: Jiri Kulich: out for season (ear), Sam Carrick: out (arm), Josh Norris: day to day (undisclosed), Justin Danforth: out for season (kneecap).
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Boston, MA
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joins Boston Mayor Wu, Ayanna Pressley to slam Trump’s childcare funding cuts
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu joined progressive allies and squad members U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to call for more federal funding for childcare amid cutbacks by the Trump administration.
Ocasio-Cortez, a New York congresswoman who traveled to Massachusetts this week, appeared Friday alongside Pressley and Wu at Horizons for Homeless Children in Roxbury for a story time classroom visit, roundtable discussion, and media availability, where they questioned the Trump administration’s priorities.
“We know that families are experiencing greater financial hardship and economic anxiety and vulnerabilities each and every day because of the hostilities of this administration that are not focused on the things that matter most, and that is affordability,” Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, said at the daycare center. “Increasingly, everything is through the roof and that includes the cost of childcare.
“We have an occupant in the Oval Office that says we have to fund a war that we don’t even know why we’re there, but we cannot afford to pay for childcare when that is our most important infrastructure,” Pressley added. “All the data bears out that investment is the greatest return on investment.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in January froze access to certain federal childcare and family assistance funds for California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York “following serious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in state-administered programs,” the federal agency said in a press release at the time.
Locally, the Massachusetts Head Start Association’s executive director, Michelle Haimowitz, issued a statement earlier this month in response to Trump’s federal budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 that she said was “making it more difficult for our Head Start programs in Massachusetts by flat-funding Head Start nationally.”
“The federal government’s failure to provide our programs with much-needed funding has led to workforce shortages and difficulties in providing education and services to our students,” Haimowitz said at the time.
Ocasio-Cortez said Friday, “Over the last year, between the president’s efforts on DOGE, cutting services across health care, childcare, education, we see the Department of Education itself under threat by this administration.
“I don’t think that the president’s administration right now is friendly to Head Start, which is why it is incumbent upon us, and why we are stepping up in this moment to make sure that we are defending the state of Massachusetts, and frankly, the United States of America, the state of New York in those investments because investing in our children now is also an investment in those families.
“There are some things that should just not be on the table and Head Start is one of them,’ Ocasio-Cortez added.
Wu, who gave birth to her third child in January, spoke of her administration’s efforts to expand pre-school education in Boston and how that availability can help relieve the challenges of being a parent.
“We know the uptake in terms of when our families have access to universal pre-K through our Boston pre-K program, the uptake then into kindergarten and into the Boston Public Schools is higher than ever before,” Wu said. “We see this not as a separate issue from public education or from housing or from workforce development. It’s really one and the same.”
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