Boston pro soccer stadium appears kaput in Dorchester

It seemed not too long ago that the New England Revolution would easily be able to build a 20,000- to 25,000-seat soccer stadium at the old Bayside Expo Center in the Dorchester-South Boston borderlands.

UMass, the center’s owner, needed cash; bigwigs such as Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh backed the plans; and Robert Kraft, the Revolution’s principal owner, normally gets what he wants around these parts.

And, yet, the Boston Teachers Union appears to have tossed a spanner in the works. Per the Globe’s Shirley Leung, the group owns a sliver of the stadium’s planned site, and it wants a mint for it. Kraft has apparently balked at the request and there you are.

There might be life still in the whole affair, but it would appear that for the moment a pro soccer stadium in Boston is kaput (and the prophecy is therefore fulfilled).

One has to wonder, though, whether the Expo Center site was ever that good of an idea. Or whether, like the helipad for GE, Boston really needs a pro soccer stadium right this second. How about a direct connection between North and South stations first?

• Is Bob Kraft’s hoped-for soccer stadium in Dorchester dead? [Globe]
• Boston Soccer Stadium: What the Proposal Has Going for It [Curbed Boston]
• Soccer stadium in Boston: Should it go in Dorchester? [Curbed Boston]
• Boston helipad will most likely land on South Boston pier [Curbed Boston]
• The pessimist’s guide to Greater Boston real estate in 2017 [Curbed Boston]
• Five Boston Transportation Projects That Need to Hurry Up and Arrive [Curbed Boston]