Some R.I. officials are game for a soccer franchise

Professional soccer, the "beautiful game" and world's most popular sport, had been kicked around as a natural fit in Rhode Island's recreational landscape long before it emerged as a potential salve for the loss of a prized minor league baseball team.

Former Providence Economic Development Director James Bennett remembers sitting in his city office with New England Revolution President Brian Bilello about six years ago and asking whether the team, which has long sought its own stadium, would seriously consider moving to Providence. (Spoiler: not really.)

A few years later, a Boston Olympics bid and more "Revs" stadium plans had fallen apart when Central Falls Mayor James Diossa, a passionate soccer fan and supporter of Spanish giant Real Madrid, reached out to the team. The response was similar.

Conversations between Gov. Gina Raimondo and Revolution operator Jonathan Kraft, a friend from her days as a Boston venture capitalist, rekindled interest in Rhode Island's chances of poaching the team from Massachusetts in 2017.

That summer, the state's Commerce Corporation assigned Boston design firm Utile (you may know their work on Cranston Street Armory reuse options or alternative 6-10 Connector designs) to scope out potential soccer stadium sites.

After studying Major League Soccer stadiums in Chicago, Dallas and Salt Lake City, the design firm in July of 2017 identified four sites around Providence large enough to fit a similar stadium, according to Commerce Corporation emails provided in response to a Journal records request.

Whether the Revolution preferred one or not, all of the locations were on the waterfront:

— The "Tockwotton" waterfront in East Providence, near Bold Point Park

— The Port of Providence waterfront off Allens Avenue

— The "Tidewater" property on the Seekonk River in Pawtucket (one of two finalist locations for a PawSox stadium)

— The Apex building site near Slater Mill (the other, ultimately chosen PawSox ballpark site).

By August 2017, another potential spot had popped up, the former Victory Plating property in Providence, also well-known to the PawSox and not far from their ill-fated Providence Jewelry District ballpark pitch.

Was the state thinking about trying to sell the PawSox and Revolution on using the same stadium?

"As is the case in the current Pawtucket process the various potential sports and entertainment uses being explored were not mutually exclusive," Commerce Spokesman Matt Sheaff said in an email.

Further details about how far the soccer stadium project went are sparse.

Both of the Pawtucket sites were considered a bit small due to the need to fit parking.

"Tight, but may be possible with additional parcels for parking and accessory space," Utile principal Tim Love wrote on July 28. "It seems like a difficult challenge urbanistically to fit so much parking against the river and a residential neighborhood."

Which sites were believed to be the most promising or what the Revolution, which now plays in front of thousands of empty seats at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, thought of any of them is a mystery.

The majority of emails between Utile and state officials were redacted and the Commerce Corporation declined to discuss them. Maps of the sites and graphic designs mentioned in the emails were not released.

"Gov. Raimondo and [Commerce] Secretary [Stefan] Pryor have had conversations with sports and entertainment industry leaders including Jonathan Kraft," Sheaff said. "As a result of those conversations and with the help of a consultant, Commerce examined various sites in the state that have the potential to accommodate large sports facilities."

Utile was charged with "conducting site planning analysis and development fit tests," he added. "This involved evaluating the capacity at selected sites and estimating the space needs for a venue including associated parking based on precedents in other cities."

The contract was $15,000.

Bennett, who now works in the hospital sector, was assigned by then Mayor Angel Taveras to explore professional soccer under the condition that the city not be used as negotiating leverage against Boston, as it and other places were used by the New England Patriots decades ago. The city had identified 12 acres of land near the old Providence Fruit and Produce warehouse as its top candidate for a stadium.

"I said, Brian, we will go to bat for you and get the governor involved, but I don't want to waste anyone's time unless we have a shot," Bennett said, recalling the meeting with the Revs president Bilello.

"'We want to go to Boston,'" was his response, Bennett recalled. "I said if it doesn't work out in Boston, we'll be here."

After thinking about it for a moment, Bennett added, "We might be at a point where it makes sense to ask again."

Political Scene did.

"The Kraft family has great admiration for Governor Raimondo and has long had business interests in Rhode Island," team spokeswoman Kaitlin Gangl Alden said in an email. "While there have been some preliminary discussions about future development possibilities, we are not currently engaged in any serious or substantive conversations relating to a soccer stadium in Rhode Island."

Even if bringing the Revolution here is a pipe dream, Rhode Island's interest in soccer remains.

The state is looking for ways to replace the PawSox, and two of the six proposals it received from an RFP involved building a soccer stadium in Pawtucket, although both contemplated a level of competition below the MLS.

Last week the Commerce Corporation hired consultant Convention Sports and Leisure LLC to help "analyze, review and evaluate" the six bids, including the soccer-related ones, that came in.

Aside from the fact that it has an opening for a summer sports team, Rhode Island's credentials for becoming a home to professional soccer involves the sizable immigrant communities around Providence and an apparent appetite for the sport on television.

Ratings released by NBC this spring show the Providence market ranked 10th nationally in viewership of the English Premier League.

Diossa said in his dream world, a soccer stadium would become part of the redevelopment of the new "Conant Thread" area around the planned Pawtucket-Central Falls commuter rail station. But he also supports Pawtucket's efforts to build something on the Apex site spurned by the PawSox. 

"We learned Rhode Island had one of the highest soccer [television] viewerships in New England and we are right in the middle of Massachusetts and Connecticut.  We felt that it would be a great place for the stadium to be built," Diossa said of Central Falls' pursuit of the Revolution and continuing interest in some form of professional soccer. "We have tried every avenue possible to get to the Krafts to acknowledge our interest, so even though nothing has come out of it. It shows the interest level."

Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist, who worked for the General Assembly analyzing the PawSox stadium plans, said he hasn't seen evidence that soccer below the MLS level in this country is worth public investment.

"There is only one soccer league in the U.S. that could stimulate any sizable amount of visitors to come from outside of the city and that's MLS," Zimbalist said. "When you are talking about people coming in to restaurants and hotels and Airbnb, that's the only way you could get any economic benefit from it."

Of course, whether any professional sports plan makes sense depends on the level of public subsidies needed. If a team were willing to play in a lightly modified McCoy Stadium, then potentially even a minor league soccer outfit would be worth the effort.

"If it is going to break even, then it makes sense. It creates sense of identity and creates a shared experience in the city," he said.

Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester and soccer referee, said he was skeptical about putting a soccer team into McCoy.

"It looks like McCoy is not a particularly attractive stadium for anything but baseball," Matheson said. "It is a piece of land that is useful, but the stadium is not useful for anything but baseball. Any sort of major tenant would have to be baseball or full demo and reconstruction to make it work."

The principal of consultant Utile who worked on evaluating potential soccer stadium sites is Tim Love, an earlier version misspelled his name.