The New England Revolution as Public Partner at Crompton Park

View of Current Crompton Park Boundary (Dark Blue Outline) and Proposed Expanded Boundary (Light Blue Outline)

In an earlier post we talked about bringing the New England Revolution to a new stadium to be constructed at the Wyman-Gordon parcels in Worcester. Meanwhile, Wyman-Gordon's neighbor, Crompton Park, has been in the news lately. While reading about what seems to be yet another senseless murder of one of Worcester's youth, I learned that the city is developing a new master plan for the park. From what I read the plans sound pretty good and there seems to be ample opportunity for public input. The question of public restrooms came up, and while there is always a need, the maintenance and upkeep is a challenge for any municipality.

In thinking further about bring the Revolution to Worcester, I realized that they were likely to require a dedicated practice facility, perhaps two full sized fields with some parking and a building with locker rooms, film and meeting rooms, etc. While it does not seem to be a requirement (e.g., Celtics practice in Waltham I believe?), I thought the closer to the stadium the better. Hearing that Crompton Park was going through a master planning process, I decided to see what we had for land near the park.

Sure enough, as you can see in the above image, there is a large parcel of undeveloped land that lies between the Quinsigamond Ave. side of Crompton Park and the P&W rail yard. I grabbed an image of an existing soccer practice field at Foxboro and it will indeed fit as shown above (if someone could independently verify I'm scaling these images at least somewhat accurately that would be great) - in fact it looks like we could get two fields with a parking lot and probably a building located between the two fields. I like the concept because it gives the Revolution the space they need in a separate, yet connected (expanded) part of Crompton Park. The community would not have to give up any of their existing precious parkland. It's also just 1/2 mile from their home field.

The opportunity I like most about this idea, however, is the concept of the Revolution as public partners of Crompton Park. Its great that the park is going through a master plan, and I'm sure over time the infrastructure will be improved per the plan. The challenge will lie in the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the park on a daily basis. This is where the Revolution can step in. The MLS soccer season runs Spring to Fall, so we could expect the team and its staff to be at the park on a daily basis when the park is used most often. They will have staff knowledgeable and skilled in park maintenance to work their fields and they could workout an agreement with Worc. DPW&P to supplement what the city is able to do at the park. More importantly, the Revolution staff could provide the necessary day-to-day "on the ground eyes and ears" at the Park that just might make halfway descent public restrooms a reality at Crompton Park.

More importantly, is the potential for the Revolution players to provide Worcester youth with positive roll models. Soccer is and is expected to continue to grow in popularity with children and would be a great way for Worcester to connect with its large and diverse immigrant population, to whom soccer is like a religion! Kids would come down to the park just to watch the players practice and the players could easily get involved with clinics and in the city's schools.

The Revolution players are not going to save all of Worcester's youth from gangs and street violence, but if they can divert even a few from going down the wrong path I'm all for it....