Bilello: “We are committed to [an urban soccer stadium] in New England

Revolution COO responded to fan questions at revolutionsoccer.net yesterday. He had a lot of interesting things to say, covering topics like public transportation, media coverage, and potential branding opportunities, but of the utmost:

There were a number of questions about the stadium, and I’m happy to say there has been some progress since the last round of public questions on the topic.

Getting the team into a soccer stadium of its own remains a top priority for our organization. With the decision regarding the MBTA’s Green Line maintenance facility in Somerville in place, we have re-launched the process of examining that area as a stadium site. We were in a holding pattern for a bit while the city and MBTA worked out the details of the facility. During the next few months our architects and engineers will be studying the area to determine if it is possible to build a soccer stadium on that site given the footprint of the maintenance facility and other existing structures.

In the last few months, we have also begun studying three additional sites around Boston’s metro core. These sites may not have been available to us in the past, but have recently shown potential interest in having our stadium.

To date, we have invested more than $1 million dollars in exploring new soccer stadium options, in addition to the efforts of multiple people in our organization, so we’re pressing the issue. We’ve seen the impact that an urban soccer stadium has made and we are committed to creating that environment here in New England.

While folks are sure to be skeptical of anything coming right from the top, Bilello’s directly mentioning Somerville as the primary site of interest may give fans a bit more hope than in the past. That’s the spot everyone’s had their eyes on and it seems to be the spot they want.