March 14, 1967 – Sox, Patriots Back Stadium; Rival Planners Offer Help

They were talking about a sports stadium in Boston 50 years ago, but finances, logistics and politics got in the way. In the late 1960s, several sites were being considered for a stadium, from Dedham to Dorchester (Neponset Circle) to Readville to Stoughton to Weston. Other possibilities included East Boston; Fenway; Newton (on the Woodland Golf Club grounds); South Boston (in 1946, Mayor Curley pushed a 75,000-capacity stadium for Columbus Park in Southie); South Station (stadium to be built on “stilts”); Walpole; Westwood-Canton; Wilmington. Also proposed were a $5 million expansion of White Stadium; a facility next to a planned “third harbor tunnel,” paid for by tolls; one of the Harbor Islands.

At the time, the only domed stadium was the Houston Astrodome, which opened in 1965 at a cost of $35 million. The Boston facility would go one better, having a retractable roof, supported by helium. Other proposals based financing on acquiring a dog racing license, which would provide 100-plus dates.

The Weston site, located near the juncture of Rte. 128 and the Mass Turnpike, referred to in this Boston Globe headline, was “unanimously” opposed by 300 residents, “largest ever (crowd) to attend a Selectmen’s meeting at Town Hall” on March 14, 1967.

This facility would have been operated by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. A Stoughton stadium was to have been financed and managed by Goodwill Industries.

Boston’s soccer franchises – the Shamrock Rovers (Manning Bowl) and Boston Beacons (Fenway Park) – would have been among the candidates to become tenants.

The Globe’s Harold Kaese counted 29 stadium proposal rejections before 1971, when Foxborough’s Schaefer Stadium was completed at a cost of $6.1 million. The stadium opened with a Patriots-New York Giants exhibition game Aug. 15, 1971. In the first soccer match, a Benfica-Sporting friendly June 16, 1972, Eusebio scored two goals for Benfica in a 2-2 draw. An announced 24,396 crowd encouraged organizers to bring the teams back a week later. Schaefer/Foxboro/Sullivan Stadium became home to the New England Tea Men (1978-80) and the New England Revolution (1996-2001).

TODAY IN NEW ENGLAND SOCCER HISTORY