CoachCraft with Alf Gracombe
CoachCraft explores the art and impact of coaching youth sports through in-depth conversations with renowned coaches from grassroots to professional levels, revealing how exceptional mentors use athletics to shape character, build confidence, and positively impact young lives.
CoachCraft with Alf Gracombe
Ben Weber on Advocating for Youth Sports: A Boston City Councilor's Perspective
Boston City Councilor Ben Weber joins the show to discuss the intersection of youth sports and local politics. From coaching grassroots soccer to serving at City Hall, Ben shares insights on the resource disparities facing city athletes, the controversial White Stadium renovation and Legacy FC partnership, and why Boston's young athletes are underperforming despite the city's size and talent. We explore what it takes to advocate for youth sports infrastructure, how professional women's soccer could inspire the next generation, and practical ways coaches and parents can make their voices heard in local government. A timely conversation about community, investment, and fighting for opportunities for all kids.
For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.
Ben Weber
And for me, I hadn't been involved in politics. So a lot of times people running, had worked for, worked on campaigns or they had other office somewhere else or they're just in the in the political game so they could point to the validators you know some maybe their former boss was the US Senator and that person says that was my chief of staff. For me all my community validators were were people families I knew from coaching soccer so it was that community that you know I could people could go to and say you know I know Ben, he coached my daughter in soccer And having those years of experience with those people in the community was a way for me and I campaigned on it. People thought I was a professional youth soccer coach. They didn't realize I was an attorney by day.
That's how I connected to my community.
Alf Gracombe
Welcome to CoachCraft a podcast that delves into the craft of coaching youth athletes. Today's conversation takes us somewhere we haven't been before, into the intersection of youth sports and local politics. Our guest is Ben Weber, a first term Boston city councilor representing District 6 and a grassroots youth soccer coach that I met years ago through Jamaica Plain Youth Soccer where he served on the board before running for office.
Ben's path from sports journalism to labor law to soccer sidelines and ultimately to City Hall offers a unique perspective on what's possible and what's challenging for youth sports in Boston. In this conversation, we discuss the resource constraints facing city sports programs from field access to infrastructure and why young athletes in Boston aren't developing at the same rate as their suburban counterparts. We dig deep into the White Stadium renovation and Legacy FC partnership, a $200 million public-private project that sparked intense debate about public space, professional sports, and youth access. And we explore what comes next, how this investment could reshape opportunities for young athletes, and what it takes to advocate effectively for youth sports in local politics. Thanks for joining us, and now my conversation with Ben Weber.
Alf Gracombe
Ben Weber, welcome to the CoachCraft Podcast.
Ben Weber
Great, nice to see you Alf
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, well, thanks for making the time. so Ben, a little bit of background. You and I actually met prior to your going into city politics here in Boston. We met on the soccer field, both as coaches in Jamaica playing youth soccer. And I think you were coaching your daughter's team. Is that right?
Ben Weber
Yeah, yeah, I had the wonderful opportunity of coaching my daughter's team.
Yeah, and being involved with JP Youth Soccer with you was a great way to be in the community and get to, if I could choose what I did all day, it would involve soccer. ⁓ So was a great way to get back in touch with the sport.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. And, you know, this is a podcast, of course, about coaching. So, that's a little bit certainly of the angle here, cause you've coached the game, but you're the first guest I've had who's an elected politician. And, when I met you, you didn't, at least I wasn't aware of them at the time, didn't have political aspirations, but it was pretty soon after that, that then you moved into local politics and you're now city councilor of District 6 here in Boston.
But maybe just love to hear a little bit about your own journey into politics. And it sounds like maybe part of that is, your youth sports involvement, but even, you know, go back further than that professionally, what were you doing and kind of what, was your journey into politics like?
Ben Weber
Sure. I played three sports in high school and two in college. I played soccer, ran track. So sports has always been sort of a focus of mine and a passion. After college, I worked in the sports section at the New York Post. And then actually I worked for a magazine at Scholastic called Coach Magazine where
where they collected articles on anything coaches were doing in practice or in games and stuff. And they would publish those articles and they had a cover article every year. And I got to interview all kinds of coaches around the country. I interviewed Don Shula, he coached the Dolphins for a long time. interviewed Darrell Royal, who was a long time coach at University of Texas in football. And I interviewed John Wooden.
coached UCLA all those years.
Alf Gracombe
Wow.
Amazing. These are legends of the game. Perhaps I can borrow your Rolodex after this and then find some other coaches to get on this podcast.
Ben Weber
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, and then I wanted to do something different with my life and law school seemed to be like a good option to take. I went to law school at the University of Iowa, and I met a professor there who had represented migrant farm workers in sort of wage
cases because they're, I mean, the most abused set of workers in the country. It's the, know, unsafest conditions. They get paid, you know, often much less than they're promised. They live in terrible conditions. And it just spoke to me and ⁓ I ended up, that was my first job out of law school. I worked with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid.
providing free legal services to migrant farm workers with claims related to their jobs. I worked in the South and I really enjoyed fighting for the underdog and trying to create a space for people who have been overlooked and try to make a difference in that space.
My wife and I then moved to Boston. I worked in the Attorney General's office in the Fair Labor Division doing wage cases. And I ended up at a private law firm here in Boston called Licton Liz Riordan that does class action wage and hour cases for thousands of workers in a single case. And I enjoyed that work. At the same time, we moved to Massachusetts about 17 years ago.
I had my wife and I raised two kids here. We had both in public schools. had probably, I coached my daughter with JP Youth soccer, part of the community. Over time, I wanted to get more involved locally. A lot of my cases were all over the country and they sort of focus on this one issue, workers' rights. I was interested in doing different things.
I joined the JP neighborhood council and I like that work and I thought my skills might translate to this city councilor position and there was ⁓ already a contested race in our District. You you and I both live in the same District. So I decided to throw my hat in the ring and I don't know through some sheer luck, hard work and
I think my experience helped. I managed to win the election. I'm a city council.
Alf Gracombe
And you're just coming towards the end of your first term, correct? And there's an election next month.
Ben Weber
Yep,
yeah, yeah, I'll be on the ballot next month, hoping to be reelected. And I do think the job is sort of a continuation of I see it of my prior work, where now I'm just I'm trying to represent, you know, there's 80,000 people in the District, I'm trying to represent them, you know, in City Hall. And sometimes that means like I try to help them get a pothole filled on their street. Sometimes that means that they're, you know, we need more special ed.
teachers in their school, I try to work on that. There's all kinds of issues where people need the city to deliver for them and I'm sort of trying to make that happen as much as I can, I guess.
Alf Gracombe
So talk
briefly about the District that you represent. District 6, that doesn't really mean anything to most people, but geographically, what is District 6? Demographically, what is District 6?
Ben Weber
⁓ Yeah, so the city of Boston has nine districts and each District gets a city councilor. My District, which is number six, is for anyone familiar with Boston, it's basically all of Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury, a piece of Mission Hill, what we call the back of Mission Hill. So if you kind of start at Mission Hill and you look toward West Roxbury, you'll look.
down the hill over Jamaica Plain and sort of southwest to West Roxbury. It's about 80,000 people. It's got, I think, most of the park land. In Boston, we've got the Emerald Necklace, Franklin Park, the Arboretum. And it's an interesting District because it has the most progressive
neighborhood in the entire city in Jamaica Plain. And then in West Roxbury, you know, it's sort of it's seen as more conservative. It's, you know, it's single family homes in West Roxbury, whereas JP is a lot of, you know, triple deckers and, you know, more density here. And so it's interesting sort of, you know,
a split District and trying to address the needs of both sometimes requires a lot of careful thought and planning to make sure that people feel like they have somebody in City Hall who's representing them, even though what people care about can change radically between one half of the District and the other.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, yeah, interesting. I mean, I live in Jamaica Plains, so I know the District for the most part and agree with how you have characterized it. Both of these areas have a lot of families, children, pretty vibrant youth sports programs as well. Obviously, we talk about Jamaica Plain youth soccer.
There's vibrant baseball programs in Regan League and Parkway, which further south in West Roxbury, big soccer program in West Roxbury as well, other sports. kind of talking about youth sports in the context of the political landscape and the work that you do, and also touching on your prior work around equity and social justice.
You look at sports in the city and we have kind of a unique or challenging in some ways ecosystem. When you compare it to say, you know, looking further out in the suburbs, our kids play in like travel soccer programs or high school programs we play in the city here.
And then we go out and we go to these schools or these fields out in the suburbs and they seem, you know, much more open and, and well taken care of and, and they're like, so how do you kind of see, um, it's certainly a little bit of a loaded question here, the way I'm framing it, but like, how do you kind of see these resource issues in city sports compared with, um, what we, what we see out in the suburbs?
Ben Weber
Yeah, I I think I think it's a it's a It's a real concern for me, especially, know my experience I my son played in Parkway soccer in West Roxbury. My daughter Played and I coached here in JP soccer. So I kind of have a good handle on You know what it looks like throughout our District, but also, you know, just kind of seeing the sort of changes and in the approach and
sort of, you know, how kids are being trained and the resources outside the city, you know, is something that I feel like we need to do a much better job on. I sort of had a, I just, looked when I first got elected, you know, a couple months after I started in January, 2024, there was the indoor state track and field championships and I ran track in college. I know how the sport.
is and how it works. The city of Boston had one state champion at all the events. It was a young woman who went to the O'Bryant who won the state champ in the indoor weight throw. But if you think about the size of Boston and we should really dominate in track and field, which maybe in soccer there's a lot of technical
coaching that has to happen and development over the years. Track and field is just getting on the track and going to practices and having basic plans in place. You don't need to be, know, like, you know, Carlo Ancelotti to be a great track coach. You just need to kind of look up the workouts. And so that to me showed that we're just we're not developing athletes here in Boston. And since then, I don't think we've won any state titles.
in track and field. We should have a kid in the 200 meters be able to place in the state meet or in the long jump or cross country. had just a couple of years ago, was the first time there was a BPS wide team. That was first time they made the state meet in cross country. So I think it just reflects how we're, there's obviously kids here, you and I.
see them, you do the lineups for kids to participate in JP Youth soccer, Parkway soccer, South End, all over the city, Dorchester. You know, it's huge. The kids who are here and, you know, why aren't we creating those, you know, or laying the groundwork for them to sort of achieve at a high level? It's something that I've been thinking a lot about, you know, in my role now.
Alf Gracombe
So what do you see as the, what are the obstacles, right? I mean, we can look at this through the life of a track and field, high school track and field athlete, as you mentioned, like what are some of the things that are the headwinds in her athletics journey through youth and up through high school? Someone who gets involved in the sport.
is demonstrated, know, proficiency is interested, has fun, is developing athletically through it. But what are the headwinds that are, and of course, you know, there's all kinds of kids across the city, but like, what do you kind of see? Like why, why is, why are there more headwinds here? And like, what are kids really up against? What are some of the things?
Ben Weber
Well,
yeah, I mean, part of it are the fields, although, you know, I, I'm from New York and, you know, New York City, you know, they started, they built soccer fields on top of sanitation plants and parking garages. And, you know, that that was, that's a tough, you know, crunch there to eke out the space to have kids be able to play, have space to play here. You know, it's
there's still you know, it's a dense place and there there we struggle, you know, I think to find enough space, you know, we even when we have space at JP Youth soccer, like at Paykel Field, there's no lights. So you're talking about in the fall and the spring, it's dark by 530, you know, five o'clock. You know, we need to rent lights to do that. I feel like the city could do a better job in
making these spaces, making them more usable over a longer period of time. And because every time there is a space, there's, you know, we've got soccer, you've got peewee football, there's softball, little league baseball. Everyone wants to use it. People want to walk their dogs on the field. And, you know, there's ultimate frisbee, know, it's just an endless.
list of people want to use it. So obviously we need more spaces for these kids. And we got the World Cup coming here next year. I remember back when I was in college that we had the World Cup in Boston, in Foxborough, and FIFA put in practice fields in the area. Babson College got one of those fields. Wheaton College got a brand new field. And I've been trying to push for FIFA to build infrastructure here in Boston. It's not
is easy to come up with those spaces. so it's a problem.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, I mean, you mentioned just there is a, just the geography dimension to this, which is just like, it's not like you can just say, yeah, we want to build a new soccer field. So the question has to be like, where do we put it and is it accessible to people? so.
Ben Weber
⁓ And then
there's the who's going to maintain it. We could put in a grass field and then five years later, 10 years later, it's unusable. Then there's the turf fields and those come with all kinds of issues. And even those need to be maintained. And we see at English High School how it can be a struggle in Pagle too. The pellets get washed away or...
and you need somebody to come in there and fix that.
Alf Gracombe
But do you see this as, I mean, just again, broadly stated and fields being one of the key ingredients required or facilities to state it more broadly. But there's other things, there's, you know, the programs and the people who serve in these programs as administrators and coaches of grassroots sports programs. is there a bigger role for the city to play here? Is that your feeling, your thought?
Ben Weber
I.
Alf Gracombe
And if so,
what are the challenges in that being the case?
Ben Weber
Yeah, it would be great if the city played a bigger role. mean, I do think that when you look at participation, we could always have more resources in place for kids. There's just not enough South End soccer. They're running a great kind of
They've set it up where it's free for families and know, JP Youth soccer, I know does a lot of work to try to make it affordable. But it's, you know, I do feel like citywide, we should be supporting organizations to be able to provide, you know, more, you know, more outreach to those kids. For example, you know, I represent Mildred Haley apartments. There's 550 kids.
in there in Boston, Boston Public Housing. In the five years I coached soccer, we didn't have a kid from there in JP Youth soccer. How to make those connections, get families to see that as a resource in the community is something the city should definitely be helping with. The issue is the resources. The city is...
really has to deliver basic things here. We're talking about the Boston public school system. It's roughly 30 % of our city budget goes to pay for that. The police department, we need to have a police department and a fire department to keep the city safe and running. We need the streets to be paved and sidewalks to be fixed so people can get down the street.
Once we do all those things, there's not a lot of resources for the city in terms of doing that. So we've had to be sort of creative in trying to figure out how we can make a difference. I think looking at larger infrastructure projects, that's something the city can deliver on in our capital budget.
with that stuff in terms of like the day-to-day programming, you know, that I think right now it's all being run by people like you, Alf. And, you know, that's, I think that's how it's gonna have to be at least, you know, till we come up with something better.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. mean, my sense is that I don't know if, right, to run the programs necessarily that these grassroots organizations are necessarily looking to the city, you know, maybe to potentially like provide resources for maybe training coaches or, you know, even having more people involved in coaching and helping to run and support these, these young athletes. But I think that's secondary to.
the infrastructure question, which, you I had a meeting last night with some colleagues here in Jamaica Plain use soccer. And, know, one of the key things about this program that we have that we run for third and fourth graders is space. And ⁓ that's going to continue to be the issue. Then you're telling me, and I know this to be true as well. We've got 500 plus kids in these apartments in our community in Jamaica Plain.
None of whom are even touching our program. And we're already, you know, kind of maxed out in terms of we, we use that field space. Two and a half to three hours every weeknight and then all through the weekend. And it's maxed out here at English high school. So I'm not going to solve this one today, but I think we both recognize like, this is a major issue for youth sports in the city. And, you know, yeah.
Ben Weber
Yeah,
yeah, even just I mean, with track, I talked to some coaches and, you know, there's one indoor track, right? Everyone goes to the Reggie Lewis Center. And they were saying that if the city could invest in just high jump mats and put them in high schools, and they could store they could practice the high jump at the high school, and they wouldn't have to rely on the days and the times when they could fit into Reggie Lewis.
Alf Gracombe
I heard you Lewis.
Ben Weber
And so it's like working on stuff like that where we can maybe help, I think it's one of these things that come with living in a big city like this where we're always gonna be trying to figure out how to make this work. And it's something we'll always be working toward and maybe never get to.
Alf Gracombe
Well, I mean, just to return, you'd mentioned the Nationals, the high school Nationals event that was held here in Boston. It was two years ago. I think we ran into each other at that. And it's at the New Balance track.
which is this incredible facility and they've now they're running, know, the high school nationals each year there and like you see all these people show up and you see the energy and the this event it's massive. It's a huge, you know, it's an economic, you know, boom for that part of the city. It's people are traveling in like it's a big deal. So, you know that that interest and that appetite is there.
Where we see it most successful is private investment in this case, the New Balance track. In East Boston, Boston Scores, which is a local nonprofit, they privately built three new turf fields at their facility in East Boston. The city didn't, that wasn't a city project. mean, maybe there was some city involvement to help with financing or taxes or whatever, but.
you know, another example of some great infrastructure getting brought in and put in place, but it wasn't happening through public investment. And then now we can look at, you know, White Stadium, which...
is its own sort of unique case, but maybe serves as an interesting case study of sorts. If you live in Boston or if you live in Jamaica Plains specifically, and you care about soccer, you probably know about this issue, White Stadium. I don't know, Ben, would you mind maybe just kind of framing up what the White Stadium project is and why it matters in local politics here?
Ben Weber
you
Yeah, it's occupied a lot of time ⁓ of mine and so White Stadium is a high school sports stadium that was built in ⁓ Franklin Park, which is a very large park, which sort of abuts our neighborhood and sort of connects three or four different neighborhoods. And it was built in the late 1940s.
It's got it's sort of ⁓ an open stadium with this art deco stands about a capacity of about ten thousand people and it's got a track and and for years it was used as a know as a ⁓ track you have track meets state meets You know, they would big football games would be there And it was you know, this sort of wonderful gathering place that over the decades has just
fallen into disrepair. There was a fire, I think, in the 1980s, which made one of the stands, the locker rooms and the bathrooms, like, unusable. And the place has really fallen apart. And I think over the years, over the decades, know, mayors, whether it was Mayor Flynn in the 80s, Mayor Menino in the 90s and early 2000s, Mayor Walsh have looked for ways to
fix up the stadium and every time they would try to do that, the bill would be too high and they would just move on to something else. Meanwhile, the stadium would just fall into further disrepair. It's not accessible for anyone with disabilities and it's just borderline unusable. The track is unusable. There's like divots in it. ⁓
Alf Gracombe
So
what was it being used for at this point?
Ben Weber
Yeah,
so I think there was, there were, there were still football games, think that high school football games that would occur, I think it was four to six games a year would, for BPM, Boston Public School games would be there. They would run, try to have, they would have track practice there. And then the public would use it, you know, it's open to the public and people would use it. ⁓ That was...
I don't know about it. I had never played soccer there. I don't know if anyone was using it for that purpose. ⁓
Alf Gracombe
think there
was an occasional high school, I think some girls teams may have played from Boston Latin Academy. ⁓
Ben Weber
Yeah, I think it was just a place where, you know,
Franklin Park, a beautiful park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. This part of the park was designed for spectator sports and sort of, you know, public could go there and use it. the reason why we're talking about it is because our mayor, Michelle Wu, unveiled a plan a couple of years ago now where they would
they would renovate the stadium, completely sort of gut renovation, build a new track, a new field, and put in lights, whereas there are none now that work. It make it usable on a much sort of greater level. But the way that renovation is happening has been
⁓ sort of contentious here in the neighborhood and that is because the way that the mayor has been able to come up with the money to do this project is to team up with a soccer, women's, professional women's soccer team that is offered to basically pay 50 % of the renovation costs and in exchange they will use the stadium for their home games.
not their practices, just their home games. you know, so in exchange for that, they will still pay to lease the stadium. They'll pay in like a dollar, a ticket and other benefits for the park. And so, you know, what we've had for the last two years is a robust, energetic, you know, discussion about the use of this space, you know,
This public private partnership, you know in the end the price tag is probably going to be close to you know 200 million dollars or talking about a hundred million dollars from the city and a hundred million dollars from this private entity So they could play, know up to 20 games a year there and there has been You know, there's there's been a lawsuit there's been
community pushback. The mayor has stood strong with it. I don't want to ruin the end of the story, in our mayoral election, we just had a preliminary and the person running against Mayor Wu made White Stadium and the construction and the way that they've gotten about this a major issue, maybe the number one issue in his campaign against the mayor.
In the preliminary, the mayor won by 50 points, nearly 50 points. And in Jamaica Plain, 88% of voters voted for Michelle Wu. I feel like that kind of tells us what the neighborhood thinks of the project. I support the project. I'm happy to talk about that.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, and well, we both support the project. Yeah, and I think this has been interesting. I've been involved in some of these discussions as well. I support it. At the same time, do recognize there are different perspectives and there are reasons to scrutinize the project. But at end of the day, I think it's been interesting to see kind of democracy in action around this. You mentioned the primary. This is, you know, Josh Kraft.
was opposing the mayor and the primary. And he definitely was making a big issue of this and had concerns about the cost, which I think are very legitimate concerns. I think, you know, the people voted and it wasn't just on this issue. There's, there's a whole range of issues, but this one was very much, you know, in the foreground and Mayor Wu won resoundingly. So in that sense, I think the people, you know, have spoken, but
In terms of doing a big project like this, right? Like it's a big capital investment. It's further complicated because it's public-private and you have to talk about how this is changing access to youth sports opportunities for, in this case, I think high school athletes, really, know, grassroots programs weren't really using that space for anything, but.
So here's a big investment that the city's making. There's also a big private investment. that gets people, you know, antennas up a little bit. And there's, it's going to have to change some things, right? In terms of access, like for high school football. But how do you look at that? Because it's, it's also, there's an investment, the facilities are going to be upgraded. There will be more access. I think there's more hours of access available to high school athletes when this is all said and done. But it's.
Ben Weber
you
Alf Gracombe
you know, changing things like football, high school football may have less access now is my understanding, but how do you kind of look at that? Cause all of these different kind of competing priorities.
Ben Weber
Yeah, I mean, I think it's been interesting being in this role, having been like a soccer dad, essentially, in the neighborhood. And this being the kind of project that I think I would have read about in the JP Gazette and thought, that would be something that would be good for the neighborhood to have this stadium be renovated, to have a professional women's soccer team.
using that as their home stadium. could go there with my daughter to watch games and with other families. That just seems positive. But it wouldn't have been the kind of thing that I'd be so in support of that I would show up at a public meeting and get into arguments with people to talk about. But people who are against that project, they are motivated. They file a lawsuit. They show up at meetings. They're, you know...
very passionate about in their opposition. And I feel like, you know, in a in an alternative universe, right in I wasn't in this position, I just read about it. And it wouldn't happen because of opposition. would say, it's too bad. That seemed like something that would have been positive for the neighborhood. But be in my role now I have to be in, you know, in part of these conversations. And just as a
you know, talking to you and other people in the neighborhood, knew there and just my own thoughts, I knew that there was support in the neighborhood, but you didn't see that in the media and in the meetings because the people were against it. They're, highly motivated. They're out there. So it was sort of like, how do we use common sense in the face of, and I feel like we're dealing with this in a lot of different areas.
you know, in the country right now where it's, like, there's an argument, yes, you know, that maybe the stadium is costing too much. People are saying that the soccer team is going to control all the aspects of the stadium and nobody from Boston will be able to use it, which just wasn't true. You know, that, that, that it was somehow, you know, it's an inside deal. Some somebody was going to be profiting.
in a way that I never quite understood. And just to be in those, but as a politician, it's like, okay, well, I don't really wanna anger my own constituents, because a lot of the opponents live in our neighborhood. But at the same time, I feel like I would have been committing malpractice if I didn't stand up for something that I thought was gonna be good for the neighborhood, was gonna get the city to invest in an area where they've neglected for
you know, decades at this point. So to me, it was a learning experience, just, you know, thinking like, okay, like I know I'm hearing one thing, but primarily, but I really believe in the community, there's support for this. And I think we've seen that in terms of, you know, how this, I think it's sort of
Alf Gracombe
All right.
Ben Weber
setting our priorities. mean, honestly, for me, if there's four or five more kids at Boston Public Schools who run track every year, additionally now, after this is renovated, because they have access to that facility, there's going be more practices, more time to gather, than would have run before. And one of those kids makes it and runs on a Division III college level.
I feel like this is a great investment, you know, like for our city. I really feel like the benefits are going to be much greater. You know, and so I don't know. It's me, it's been going to school. I went to political school on this white stadium issue because it's, you know, it's been fascinating to be in all these conversations and see how.
some of my colleagues on the council came out very strongly against this project. And to me, like, yes, the price tag is hard to grapple with. But in the end, that was the reason why they didn't do anything in the 1980s or in the 90s or in the 70s, because it's always going to seem like a lot. And the mayor did find a way to make this work, which is partnering with the team, which I...
I look, I hopefully be sitting with you cheering them on, you know, at some point in next couple of years.
Alf Gracombe
I hope so as well. you you it's funny, you you talk about it through your perspective as a politician, and this being a learning experience, I think also for a lot of people in the community. These types of big, you know, it's a big investment, it's a big political issue. It's been an education for for folks in the community as well. And it's tough, because there are always a lot of reasons not to do something like this. And like the higher the price tag,
the more those things become, you know, cautionary tales or it's easy for people to feel like, yeah, it's risky, right? Like, and so you're talking about future investment to your point. Like if this got like, you know, just like new kids engaged in sports because of this facility and it led to college opportunity or whatever it might be.
But those things are all intangible right now. They're all future benefits that you can't point to specific data. can't, know, none of us can sit here and say, yeah, that's going to happen. but I, you know, I meant, sorry, go ahead.
Ben Weber
Yeah, no,
and it's sort of because that this is the same sort of fact pattern occurs in different areas like so every time there's a housing development that's proposed, we have a housing crisis here in Boston, we want to build more housing. People come out and they're against it and they don't want change. They, you know, they be
And the people who would live in that housing, they're not here. So it's hard to project the benefits in the future. Whereas the people who are here now, they're like, I don't want this building at the end of my block. it's like, honestly, the neighborhood is going to be better for having more mixed income housing and more access to affordable places to live. And just sort of.
There's even like, think there's even, think Patrick Wilson had a ⁓ whole doctrine about how opposition to these projects, the more community outreach you have, the more opposition you get and the less representative of the community that opposition is. And I sort of feel like I saw that in White Stadium and I see that in other aspects. it's interesting to me.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. And then the other piece of this, I mean, yes, there's a professional soccer team that is a big part of this investment and it's going to be there. Home games will be played there. So, you know, immediately people are like, okay, here comes the money, right? Here comes the big corporate interest. And okay, sure. That is true. But, ⁓ you know, this is also a women's soccer team. It's a growing league. Women's soccer is on the rise. Being able to show professional
female athletes playing right here in Boston, in the center of the city, I think is phenomenal. It sends an incredibly strong signal, particularly to young female athletes, that the city is invested in this and that there's activity and enthusiasm and excitement around female athletes competing at the highest level right here.
Ben Weber
Yeah,
I I think that's a great point and it's sort of like, you know, Why do we care about sports? you know, and it's because they enrich a lot of aspects of our lives, not, you know, playing them, obviously, but, you know, watching them, the community you build around them, supporting women's sports. I mean, these are all things that
I think we can be proud of or we will be. And even if we're just supporting youth sports, it's like, where are our values? What are we doing? It's sort of, all of this comes together. And because I was in rooms where people were like, we don't want a women's team here. like, are you, I just totally disagree. If we're gonna choose a sport, to have a women's soccer team, I think is such a great fit for.
you know, our community, especially here in Jamaica Plain. And, you know, I went to a fundraiser for the mayor in West Roxbury and a parent out there who's involved with Parkway Soccer was just talking about how he can't wait to take his, increasing the number of girls that played soccer, Parkway Soccer was just one of his finest accomplishments. And this was a former city councilor.
John Connolly, ran for mayor in 2013 and almost won. And it was inspiring to me to just to see parents who are like, not only do I want this to happen, I'm excited about it and just what this means in our communities. That's why just talking about kids who obviously could run track and do well, who I think are not getting access to that, it's symbolic of how we.
you know, really want all these kids to succeed and, you know, and have these opportunities that we're providing them to loop this back to where you started with JP Youth Soccer and going out to the suburbs and sometimes, you know, losing badly. You know, I do think, you know, we have an emphasis here on development in our community and
⁓ It's not about the same sort of like win or else mentality here and that may impact how we perform in sometimes in BAYS or you know in the suburbs in these games But you know, think it's like our community values, you know what we're out here and what sort of differentiates us
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. mean, it's, it's a granted, maybe it's an expensive signal to send, but with this project, it is sending a signal that we are valuing women's sports and that we're valuing sports. mean, to your point, like sports do matter. Like everybody, not everybody, but most people are connected to sports in some way, whether it's through a team that they follow or participation themselves. sure. Like that's just a fact of our culture, but.
We don't have a lot of opportunities in the city where, I mean, here's an example. I was talking with some folks from Massachusetts youth soccer about this project a couple of weeks ago. And, you know, they're like, are people really going to come into the city to go to games? I like, I guarantee you this stadium is going to be packed every game. Like people will come and their, you know, their, their perspective was outside the city. So they're like, okay, well, how are people going to get there? I was like, well, first of all,
There's a whole, we don't ask this question about Red Sox games. We don't ask this question about, know, Celtics games or Bruins games.
Ben Weber
or Tottenham Hotspur games or you know if you go to England and all the stadiums have no parking and
Alf Gracombe
Right.
I went to a game, we were in London over over New Year's. We went to Crystal Palace in South London. The stadium is just plunk in the middle of a neighborhood, right? Right along the perimeter of the stadium are row houses. You know, we took the train, we walked, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes from there. Like everybody's doing that in the stadiums packed.
Ben Weber
I went
to Selhurst Park, I took my daughter there. We saw them crush a horrendous Burnley team. They're townhouses right next to the stadium. it's like, clearly, this can work. I don't know. I covered the early days of the MLS at the New York Post. the attendance was not very high for Metro Stars games back in those days.
Alf Gracombe
Hahaha
Ben Weber
you know, it can grow. And, you know, yeah, it's, it's sort of interesting, like, you know, if you ask people what they kind of spend their it's not, it's more, it's more important than music or reading. I mean, sports really is like a woven into everyone's lives. And, and, you know, sort of, I mean, that's so we're talking about programming for the city, I do feel like that's this is where we can make the differences by
these kinds of investments. And just in defense of the mayor's plan, we do sort of are concerned about the bill, know, the how much this costs, even the opponents of the city that came up with their own plan, and theirs was it's like $64 million. So in our plan, the city pays let's say it's 100 million, it's still that's above
what's estimated, let's say it's 100 million, the soccer team kicks in 100 million, the soccer team is paying roughly $1 million in leases and public benefits and $1 a ticket back to the park. mean, after 20 years, know, this is we're we're we're we're better off than we were just building a smaller, less accessible stadium and just it's sort of projecting this out into the future. you know, hopefully
the cost is better for the city.
Alf Gracombe
Well, so let's, if we can just to, you know, kind of wrap up the conversation a little bit. do want to talk about this because it's illustrative, not necessarily specifically White Stadium and, and, but I do think it's more important than we started talking about what's next and how do we leverage this investment once the stadium's built, once the team is there. cause this is where there's been a lot of energy and time spent on just making it happen.
and it is happening. I'd like to think most of that is kind of behind us now. But for me, I think the most important piece is, okay, what happens next with this? How do we responsibly, as a community, as a city...
shepherd this forward and look for the opportunities to capitalize on this initial investment that's being made and have it really play out in the community in a way that's beneficial in the coming years. So if you're city councilor Ben Weber here, and you are, ⁓ what do you say to your constituents? What do you say to the community now about this project going forward?
Ben Weber
But.
There's some specific things that I'm working on, for example, getting the street infrastructure in place so people can walk and bike to the stadium specifically. there's Eggleston Square is nearby. And, you know, we've been working to try to get there's a street redesign plan that's been worked out, but it hasn't been implemented. Bike lanes have been
another controversial subject throughout the city, but we really need to put in bike lanes. And so I've been pushing for that. I've been working with the small businesses in Egleston Square which is, this is a primarily Dominican, you know, neighborhood. There's 8,000, you know, folks from the Dominican Republic in my District in Jamaica Plane And there's a lot of businesses at Egleston Square that are, you know,
⁓ Dominican owned and working, making sure those businesses are able to stay there and maintain that character. It's the Latin Quarter character of that neighborhood. With the stadium, I feel like that is something that's important to me, working with the small businesses and the city to both, and the soccer team to try to have people, great, you're gonna come from...
Wellesley to cheer on the, you know, Legacy FC, which, you know, like go in and have some, you know, know, Mifongo, you know, in, Egleston Square. And so we're working to try to set up those kinds of partnerships where I think setting up the transportation is going to be part of that. that just feels the impact of the stadium and the increased use, not just for games, but
people coming in for state track meets, or cross country meets, or there are gonna be high school football games still just after the soccer season. Making sure we activate those kinds of things. And I think in terms of how the soccer team is, I don't have any illusions. It's a professional team. I feel like the National
Alf Gracombe
Yeah. Yeah.
Ben Weber
Women's Soccer League is still in its infancy and I need the team to succeed for it to be like contributing to the neighborhood. So, you know, to ask them to put resources into, you know, doing youth soccer clinics, we're not there yet, but I feel like in the long run, you they could, you could just imagine, you hey, you saw
that you saw them beat whatever team from Los Angeles or something and then you're gonna see that midfielder who made a great play is gonna teach a clinic to the eight year olds at JP Youth Soccer right down the street, that kind of thing. I feel like it would be amazing.
Alf Gracombe
Yeah, and I,
you know, being involved here in the grassroots game in the neighborhood, I don't want to give them more credit than they deserve at this point, because really nothing has been done yet. still early days, but we have been in touch with their community engagement folks. You know, there has been connection and outreach and at least an expressed interest desire to engage with the youth sports community around the stadium. I hope that.
you know, becomes the case. I have a call later this week with their director of community engagement. So, you know, I, you know, I think they will make good on that. I hope they do. You know, we're going to, of course, want to hold them to account there and really try to pull them in and give them those opportunities to do so. But early signs are encouraging. But I think that's a really important part of it, you know, especially with a women's team. And, you know, you mentioned Parkway and girls participation.
It's the same thing in Jamaica Plain. It's like a two to one ratio, boys to girls, give or take, over time. And we want to see more. And I think more girls are playing outside the city, proportionally, than they are inside.
Ben Weber
Yeah, I I spend way too much time thinking about, you know, the quality of our soccer programs in the country and our national team and just how to develop the game, you know, here. And I go back to a couple things. And one is I saw Jurgen Klinsman speak before he was the U.S. national team coach at a convention. He was talking about how the problem with
Soccer in the United States was it's too structured and that he learned everything He needed to know on the basically on the playground, you know, but playing pickup with his his friends and You know just thinking about how we can Even if it's just inspiring kids to want to go out and play You know every day by themselves, you know in an unstructured way, which I think we try to sort of
foster at JP Youth Soccer you know, you just don't see kids playing pickup soccer in that in that way you see basketball or even baseball. And I played when I played in college, we had a guy who's very good friend of mine, Josh Krancheck, who was not a good athlete. But he was he was in the national pool as a high schooler. And the his skills were incredible. And the thing he had, which I didn't have was
his dad put out goals on their street. would every day after school, he and his brother and the neighborhood kids would play every day in that way. And I just, you know, I feel like we still don't have that. So to the extent this, you know, a team playing in that stadium, girls in the neighborhood see that and they're like, I wanna, you know, I need to play soccer, you know, all the time, I think is, is how we get players.
There are very few national team players that come out of Massachusetts, at least on the men's side. There might be some women's players. When I was in college, Mike Burns was the first player from Massachusetts ever on the US men's national team. it's like, how do we make this into a place that any people play at? So anyway, that's sort of hopefully a knock-on effect of the.
Alf Gracombe
Couple on the women's side, but yeah.
Yeah, a hundred percent. mean, I think it's, it's a mix of inspiration and then creating those spaces where kids can safely participate. I'm with you a hundred percent, you know, unstructured, even not adult supervised sports are incredible. And, you know, but we need the spaces to do it, right? They have to be available. They have to be safe. They, but, know, so that's, I think part of a longer discussion, but one, I hope, you know, that the club will, will be.
will show interest and deliver on some of that in partnership with the city and the grassroots programs around it. Great. Well, Ben, this has been really, really great. I appreciate you coming on the show. Good luck in the upcoming election. think you're running, not unopposed, but I think you're feeling, how are you feeling about it? I'll ask you that question.
Ben Weber
Well,
I have an opponent and I feel good because I feel like I'm doing the job. Feedback is generally positive and I think I can point to a list of things at this point after two years that I feel good having accomplished in the job.
If people don't like what I've been doing, I feel like I was able to get some things done that I think are going to help, since you asked. Just access the council program to provide anyone with a kid in school in Boston who gets an eviction notice, will provide an attorney for in a housing court to try to keep them from being evicted and ending up in shelters. I got that program started.
last year and we expanded it this year. So stuff like that, I feel like I can point to a track record that I'm proud of, so I'll let the chips fall where they may in November. But I think because of that, I'm in decent shape.
Alf Gracombe
Well, good luck. And I do appreciate also just in our conversation today, how you're talking about politics and your own journey through it. It is as much a process as it is specific results and things that get delivered.
you know, in the political sphere. And I'm glad we had some time to talk about White Stadium because I think that was a great lesson and education for folks who were engaged around the issue, whether, you know, elected officials or those in the community. And, you know, I think as we think about
youth sports in the city. Like it is very much a process. think anyone who has worked in this city and not just Boston, I think these are issues that you're, probably see in a lot of other cities as well and challenges and headwinds and the like, that it is useful to understand how politics plays into this. and you know,
I just, I, one of my teachers in high school, I don't know why I remember this, but it was a civics class that I took. And she said, what is politics? Politics is who gets what. So at the end of the day, I mean, that sort of sounds like a very kind of zero sum, orientation to politics, but there's a certain truth to that, right? Like you have to.
ask for things, you have to push for things, you have to understand what it is that you're asking for and why, and then how to, who do you work with, who do you talk to, how do you try to affect that change or get that thing for your community or your constituents? And so, you know, kind of with that in mind, I think youth sports is kind of underrepresented. I'm just, I'll just go ahead and say it. and in part because it's the kids are the constituents. mean, yes, it's families and every parent wants what's good for their kid, but
Kids don't necessarily have the strongest voice in local politics. you know, how can people, I'll just ask this final question to you, like how can people continue to affect positive change around youth sports, advocating for kids who do not vote Just some tips or suggestions from you on how folks can continue to operate within this ecosystem.
Ben Weber
What you were saying brought to mind something slightly different, I can get to that and answer, but like, sort of in politics and working out, who is getting what, it's sort of, you need popular support or, you know, that was the, I think the formula before the current president, which seems to, they want to just...
of ulterior motives, but in terms of like being in the community, you know, and having that support, like you kind of, I don't know, I feel like you validators or people in the community who are going to say, this person will be pushing for us or, you know, we have something in common with that person. And for me, I hadn't been involved in politics. So a lot of times people running, had worked for
worked on campaigns or they had other office somewhere else or they're just in the in the political game so they could point to the validators you know some maybe their former boss was the US Senator and that person says that was my chief of staff. For me all my community validators were were people families I knew from coaching soccer so it was that community that you know I could people could go to and say ⁓ you know I know Ben, he
coached my daughter in soccer and my daughter doesn't hate him so he must be okay. And having those years of experience with those people in the community was a way for me and I campaigned on it. People thought I was a professional youth soccer coach. They didn't realize I was an attorney by day.
That's how I connected to my community. in terms of how to, I mean, it is being involved, you know, being involved in these programs, showing up where you see something like a White Stadium or if they're talking about, you know, the Murphy Field right? They're they're over here. They're they're they're to renovate that they've or they're renovating Murphy Field Daisy Field which is on the
Alf Gracombe
Just showing up, showing up, yeah.
Ben Weber
on the list, you know, when you see that in your community happening to get involved, reach out to your city councilor find out who your city councilor is mostly, I feel like most people still don't even know doing this for two years. I still meet people who are like, what do you do? Is that a full time job? But you'll reach out to your city councilor, because you don't want to be that person who I was before I ran for office, which I pick up the JP Gazette and say,
that's too bad. That dog park would have been good. Like that project seemed like, you know, that housing project seems like it would have been positive. I'm sad that didn't come about because there's going be people against it they're going to show up and they're going to be loud and motivated. you know, I feel like, you know, the more you get involved, the more you're to see things in the community that you want because you, you know, it's sort of a, I don't know, self-fulfilling machine.
Alf Gracombe
Well, and I'll just say, you this is where you, why youth sports is so important. And, or one of the reasons is that it actually, it's a place where people convene. It's a place for community. It's, know, many, if not just about all of my strongest relationships here in Jamaica Plain and in Boston more broadly began or are centered around youth sports and just.
physically being on that field with people coaching kids, my own son playing, know, like these are incredibly strong community connections that happen through youth sports and through youth sports is where I've done my most, you know, political advocacy,
So it's been a great entryway into politics for me as well, not as an elected official like you, but someone who is engaged in doing some local advocacy. you know, another reason why youth sports is so important.
Ben Weber
Yeah, Gary,
you're a community leader, Alf, in your role in JP Youth Soccer And we're better for it.
Alf Gracombe
Well, that's, it's nice of you to say, and, I appreciate that all you're doing Ben as well. I love that we got to know each other through, through soccer and, and here we are having this discussion now about politics. again, a new thing here for the CoachCraft podcast, but I think thematically this, this was great and, glad we had a chance to explore some of these, these issues together.
Ben Weber
Yeah, that was my pleasure. I don't know what's your, do you have a sign off or?
Alf Gracombe
I'll just wish you good luck in the election next month. And thank you for being on the show. All right. Thanks, Ben.
Ben Weber
Okay, I hope to have your support, Alf Thanks.
Alf Gracombe
to Councilor Weber for sharing insights from his unique vantage point, both as a grassroots soccer coach and a Boston city councilor We explored the significant resource disparities between city and suburban youth sports programs, from field access and maintenance to training infrastructure. And Ben highlighted how Boston's young athletes are underperforming at the state level despite the city's size and talent pool.
a symptom of systemic underinvestment in youth sports facilities and programs. The White Stadium renovation emerged as a case study in the complexities of urban sports infrastructure. This $200 million public-private partnership with Legacy FC, Boston's new professional women's soccer team, has sparked debate about costs, access, and priorities.
And Ben explained how the project will provide upgraded facilities for high school athletes while bringing professional women's soccer to Franklin Park, creating new role models and inspiration for young female athletes across the city. Ben definitely supports this project and for good reason. Key takeaways. So youth sports advocacy requires showing up at community meetings and connecting with local representatives. The families and communities built through youth sports become powerful validators and networks for broader civic And ultimately, investments in youth sports aren't just about athletics. They're about creating gathering spaces, building community connections, and ensuring all kids have opportunities to develop and thrive. For those interested in advocating for youth sports in their communities, Ben's advice was clear. Get involved. Reach out to your city councilor and show up when decisions are being made.
The motivated voices of opposition often drown out broader community support, unless supporters make themselves heard. That's just a reality of local politics. Thanks for listening to the CoachCraft Podcast. See you next time.
