BOSTON — Mayor Michelle Wu knew the true cost of White Stadium a full month before she told taxpayers. She just had an election to win first.
Public records obtained by the Boston Herald reveal that a building permit filed on January 8 listed a declared value of $134.14 million for the Franklin Park renovation. The general contractor, BOND Building Construction, submitted the formal contract on January 21. A revised version followed on February 4.
Wu announced the final number — $135,035,515 — on February 6. Twenty-nine days after the permit was filed. Three months after she won re-election.
Convenient timing.
Construction crews at White Stadium in Franklin Park, February 2026. The project's taxpayer tab has ballooned from $30 million to $135 million. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
The price tag that kept growing
This was supposed to cost Boston nothing.
When investors behind a women's professional soccer franchise pitched the White Stadium renovation in July 2023, the deal was simple: $30 million, entirely private money, zero taxpayer dollars. That was the promise.
By early 2024, the city's share was $50 million. By late 2024, $91 million. Mayoral challenger Josh Kraft revealed an internal city document in June 2025 showing a worst-case scenario of $172 million in public costs, according to the Herald.
Wu promised the final numbers would come in 2025. First after "all construction bids are finalized," then "later this calendar year." They didn't come. November came instead. Wu won. Then the number came.
$135 million. From zero.
The total project now exceeds $325 million. Boston Legacy FC, the soccer team, is covering about $190 million. Taxpayers are covering more than double what the franchise itself cost — the ownership group paid just $53 million for the expansion fee, as Field of Schemes noted.
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For a team that will play 20 home games a year.
Where $135 million goes
The Herald's records review breaks it down:
- Building costs: $79.1 million
- Site work: $24.3 million
- Contingency and allowances: $31.58 million
- Structural steel: $8.65 million
- Overtime allowance: $3.62 million
Wu blamed steel prices (up 40%), labor costs, federal tariffs, and design changes driven by community feedback. When asked if she'd do it all again at this price, she said yes.
"Our Boston kids deserve nothing less than the best," she said.
The $30 million private renovation that was going to cost taxpayers nothing is now costing them $135 million, and the mayor says she wouldn't change a thing.
The people who tried to stop it
City councilors spent months demanding answers before the February announcement. Councilor Julia Mejia introduced a resolution in December calling for updated cost estimates. "We cannot ask residents to trust a project with a price tag that is still unclear," she said, per the Herald. Councilor Ben Weber, who chairs Ways and Means, filed a hearing order.
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Public records requests from Mejia's office seeking internal cost analyses were denied or delayed.
The Franklin Park Defenders, a coalition of over 400 residents and 27 neighborhood organizations, have fought the project since day one. They designed an alternative: a high-school-only stadium for an estimated $64.6 million, less than half the current taxpayer tab.
"This project is no longer anything close to the $30 million 'renovation' that was first proposed to Boston residents," said Louis Elisa, president of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association.
No independent oversight body has been established. Minority business participation remains under 14%.
'Not oversight — diffusion of accountability'
Columnist Ed Gaskin wrote in the Herald that the pattern of escalating costs and centralized control should concern anyone who remembers the Big Dig, which ballooned from $2.8 billion to more than $14.6 billion.
"Oversight has effectively been centralized in the mayor's office — an office already responsible for the entire city, every agency, and every crisis," Gaskin wrote. "That is not oversight; it is diffusion of accountability."
A lawsuit challenging the project reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in December 2025, arguing the development violates state protections for public land. Construction continues anyway. The stadium is expected to open in 2027.
The $135 million is described as a "guaranteed maximum price," meaning BOND, not the city, absorbs any overruns beyond that figure.
Given the trajectory so far, Boston taxpayers can be forgiven for not taking much comfort in guarantees.
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