The Boston Sports Megaplex was a sports megaplex that was proposed in the mid-1990s to replace

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Base ...

Foxboro Stadium Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England Pa ...

, and create a new

convention center A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

History

The proposed sites for this hybrid convention center-stadium were Summer Street in

South Boston South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...

or at the so-called Crosstown site along

Melnea Cass Boulevard Melnea Cass Boulevard is a street in Boston, Massachusetts, running perpendicular to the line between Dudley Square in Roxbury and the South End. It is named after local community and civil rights activist Melnea Cass. The road's right-of-way ...

in Roxbury, adjacent to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's South End. Ultimately, the administration of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

Governor

William Weld William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

pushed for construction of a full "Megaplex" at the crosstown site, with Boston Mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...

favoring construction of a new, stand-alone convention center in

. Ultimately, the residents of neither of these neighborhoods wanted a stadium, thus Menino backed out fearing it would affect his chance at re-election. The

plan was cancelled after many "Save Fenway Park!" groups popped up to save the historic ballpark. Ultimately, Fenway replacement plans were cancelled, the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

constructed a replacement stadium right next to

, and the

Boston Convention and Exhibition Center The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) is an exhibition center in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is among the largest exhibition centers in the Northeastern United States, with approximately 516,000 square feet (about 4.8 hec ...

was built near the waterfront. Many theories abound as to why the plan failed, but many factors have been deemed as being responsible.

References

{{Greater Boston sports arenas South Boston Boston Red Sox New England Patriots Roxbury, Boston Unbuilt stadiums in the United States