Josh Kraft claims White Stadium costs have skyrocketed; Wu refutes his numbers

Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft again blasted Mayor Michelle Wu's handling of the White Stadium renovation project on Monday, saying costs have spiraled. But he didn't provide on-the-record evidence to back up his claim.

Speaking in front of the Franklin Park stadium's crumbling facade, Kraft said the city was now on the hook for $172 million to cover its portion of the rebuild. That's far higher than the $91 million Wu's office estimated in December, or the $50 million price tag announced when the Boston Planning and Development Agency approved permits for the plan in July 2024. Boston Legacy FC, a new Professional Women's Soccer League expansion team, will pay the other half of construction in return for reserved field time and other concessions.

Kraft declined to offer details about his claim, which he told reporters  came “from folks on the inside at City Hall, but I think you should talk to the city.”

Mayor Wu addressed the issue with reporters Monday night at a separate event.

"Not sure where those numbers are coming from," she said. "I would love to see where he's getting those."

A spokesperson for the city did not confirm Kraft's figure or provide an updated project cost estimate. But the city did provide a document that appears to show the cost still stands at $90.1 million.

"The City is still in the process of completing the design plans for both the East and West Grandstands, which must be completed before going to bid, and incorporating the impacts of new federal policies," the spokesperson wrote.

City officials have previously said the cost of the project has steadily risen because of design changes to accommodate community input and construction industry inflation.

The spokesperson also said Boston Unity Soccer Partners, owners of the Legacy, is "responsible for more than half of the construction project and will pay the full cost of operating and maintaining the facility during the entire term of the lease."

Kraft, the former long-time head of the Boston Boys and Girls Clubs and son of New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft, is seen as Wu’s primary challenger in the city’s mayoral race.

“You need to stop hiding the ball and tell the taxpayers what the actual cost is going to be,” he said. “This is a catastrophic failure of city management.”

Wu has argued that, once the ambitious makeover of the 1940s-era stadium is complete, the state-of-the-art facility will benefit both Boston Public Schools students and a new professional women’s soccer team.

She’s faced heavy criticism in some quarters for the public-private partnership plan. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy is engaged in an ongoing legal battle over the project, and some neighborhood groups also have brought opposition, saying the new-and-improved stadium plan will lead to decreased access to student athletes and residents. They’ve also slammed the project over a lack of transparency, and issues around traffic, air pollution and noise.

On Monday, the NAACP Boston Branch issued a press release calling for an immediate halt to the project.

“We have serious concerns,” the group wrote in a statement about the proposal to redevelop White Stadium into an 11,000-seat venue that’s leased to, “a private, for-profit entity.”

City officials in December estimated the entire redevelopment would cost $200 million. That would be split between the city of Boston and the National Women's Soccer League's Boston Legacy team, which would use the stadium for games and practice for up to 40 days a year.

But if the city’s share of the cost burden has drastically risen, as Kraft alleged, the total cost is likely much higher now. Wu has said the city will go Dutch regardless.

"We are going to pay for our half of the stadium, no matter what it costs," she told WGBH’s Jim Braude in December.

The White Stadium redevelopment is a key project for Wu – and has emerged as one of Kraft’s top campaign issues; it’s an area where he has tried to distinguish himself as an alternative to Wu in the mayoral race.

But Wu alleges Kraft has a conflict of interest when it comes to the redevelopment plan. His name, she claimed, has appeared on paperwork related to the New England Revolution, a professional men’s soccer team, which has plans to build a new stadium of its own in the neighboring city of Everett. It would be privately funded by the Kraft Group, which is run by the candidate’s father, Robert Kraft.

In Feb. 2025, Josh Kraft told The Boston Globe he would recuse himself from “anything that my family’s business had in front of the city of Boston.”

Kraft and other Wu critics have said they want to see a smaller, more modest renovation of White Stadium that cuts out current plans for a restaurant and beer garden. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy in January released its own renovation plan that it saidwould cost just $28.9 million. Wu's team have called the alternative plan "a work of fiction."