Cue the neighborhood social media comments: could the Boston Celtics someday have a new home in South Boston? According to a The Boston Globe, leaders at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority kicked around a scenario last fall that would place a brand-new basketball arena on land behind the Menino Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston.
Before anyone completely freaks out, this is very much in the “just talking about it” phase. The idea surfaced in internal emails after the Celtics’ recent ownership change, with one concept splitting the large parcel behind the convention center into two pieces: one for a potential arena and the other for a long-awaited convention center expansion.
The Globe reports that the hypothetical site would sit around Cypher and D streets and could even connect to the old Track 61 rail line, with plans for future transit options, including a people mover to move fans in and out.
For now, though, don’t expect the Celtics to pack up their parquet. Team leadership has shown no public interest in leaving TD Garden anytime soon, and the team’s lease there runs through 2036. Still, with that date on the horizon, speculation about a long-term home for the C’s continues to swirl, apparently including a few South Boston “what ifs.”
We’ll be watching this one closely. Because if there’s even a whisper of a major arena project in the neighborhood, you know the neighborhood will have thoughts. Remember back in the 1990s when the Krafts wanted to build a football stadium roughly in the same area and the whole neighborhood went nuts?
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Image via the Boston Celtics on Instagram
