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Town meeting is a crucial checkpoint in stadium plan By Will McDonough, Globe Columnist, 10/05/99 How can it get any better for local sports fans? The Red Sox starting the playoffs. The Patriots 4-0 and heading toward the playoffs. The greatest Ryder Cup in history in our backyard last month. The Patriots staying in Foxborough after an unsavory romance with Hartford. Oops. It never fails around here, does it? Just when you think things can't get much better, there's always a hitch. Notice the silence from Foxborough lately? Remember how the town fathers were embracing the Patriots when they walked away from the obscenely rich proposal in Hartford to come ''home''? Back to the town that adopted them nearly three decades ago? Well, folks, there is trouble in paradise, and the National Football League doesn't like it. In fact, this new stadium deal in beloved Foxborough may never go down after all. Take my word for it. Remember when the local politicians said they would move with the greatest speed and have all of the planning done for the new stadium in May? That was last May. This is October, and the entire project is ready to blow up. Here's the deal. The team and the league are supposed to bankroll a $300 million stadium venture, but the deal has some problems that could lead to a defeat of the project by a vote of the citizens of Foxborough. Whatever is to happen will be determined by a vote of the town, probably early in November. At that time, the citizens will be asked to vote for a zoning change that would allow an access road into the parking lot to be built. This has become the biggest issue, but not the only one. The North Street neighborhood where the access road would be located is vigorously opposed to it, and has placed signs around town reading: ''Stadium, yes. Access Road, no.'' The NFL, which is expected to loan the Patriots upwards of $125 million to build the stadium, has looked at the overall plan and feels the access road is critical to the project. ''We are very concerned about what is happening in Foxborough,'' said Roger Goodell, the NFL's executive vice president for league and football development. ''We will continue to monitor the situation. What was supposed to happen there was negotiated very closely and we hope the results are what we thought they were going to be.'' Team surveys past and present have shown that the biggest objection fans have about going to Foxborough for games is the traffic, the congestion around the stadium two hours before and after games. The Patriots have purchased property on North Street and own the 200 yards of land where the proposed road would run into the parking lot. They say this would do wonders for the traffic flow. The North Street folks say it would only bring more traffic into their neighborhood. The team guarantees that the number of cars using North Street would not increase. The Patriots need a big vote to get this road: two-thirds of those in attendance at the town meeting. The average town meeting in Foxborough draws about 500 people, but this one is expected to draw double that. The North Street group is working hard to defeat the access road part of the project. They have some allies in the people who live in the trailer park at the back of the stadium property. Also, we understand from some old Foxborough friends that some people don't think the Patriots are paying enough money back to the town for being allowed to build the new stadium. I've been going to Foxborough for Patriot games and other business for three decades. The people there are great. However, I think all of this opposition is crazy when you look at the big picture. We are talking about a $300 million project. There has been game-day traffic on North Street for nearly 30 years. An access road is not going to bring a dramatic change. There are only 10 home games a year, including exhibitions. The traffic is two hours before and two hours after the games. Ten days. Four hours a day. Forty hours out of the entire year. Is that worth blowing up this deal? Of course not. The NFL doesn't want to interfere. It went to bat to keep the Patriots in Foxborough. It held the hand of the state legislature to get the $70 million in infrastructure. It worked the business community to get promises to purchase luxury boxes and club seats. The league is also putting up the $125 million loan. The Kraft family is paying for the project. When the Hartford flirtation was in full swing, the political leaders in Foxborough were very vocal about welcoming the club back with open arms and doing anything to get the new stadium built in town. That hasn't happened. In fact, State Rep. Barbara Hyland and State Sen. Jo Ann Sprague, both representing the Foxborough district, have filed a petition at the State House asking for a hearing on the North Street access road, trying to get it taken out of the legislation. The specific reason the legislature granted the $70 million for infrastructure was that studies showed it to be an integral part of the project. So a new stadium in Foxborough is not a done deal yet. If the town does indeed reject the plan, I guarantee you will see stories again about potential suitors from Los Angeles or Houston or somewhere else looking to buy and move the Patriots. We don't need any more of that. These issues don't seem big enough to merit killing a $300 million project. |
