Recently, Fenway Sports Group announced that it will be adding a 5,000-person performing arts center next to Fenway Park. The new venue will be created in partnership with Live Nation and called the Fenway Theater. As reported by the Boston Globe, the music venue would be located on a triangle of land behind the Boston Red Sox’s home (between Lansdowne and Ipswich streets) and could potentially become Boston’s largest indoor theater.
As noted in a press release,
The Fenway Theater will be owned by FSG and operated by a newly formed joint venture, Fenway Music Company, a partnership between Fenway Sports Management (FSM) and Crossroads Presents, a concert promotion and venue management company affiliated with Live Nation and managed by Don Law. Fenway Music Company will book, manage, and operate the Fenway Theater, as well as the House of Blues Boston on Lansdowne Street.
Fenway Sports Group hopes that a theater behind Fenway Park could make the neighboring area a year-round destination, effectively extending Lansdowne Street’s nightclub scene to the renowned baseball stadium. As Tom Werner, chairman of Fenway Sports Group, explained, “The success of Fenway Park as a year-round venue has paved the way for this project, which will ensure the Lansdowne Street area remains a true entertainment district in Boston. … To have an intimate, indoor performing arts space for smaller-scale events will allow for a wider array of uses throughout the year.”
However, the current plans for Fenway Theater are still tentative. As the Boston Globe noted, a Red Sox spokesman described the theater plans as “preliminary” and did not offer any information on square footage, costs, and other key details. Furthermore, no official documents have been filed, and government officials noted that there have been no in-depth conversations about moving forward with the plans.
In order for the Fenway Theater to be built, Fenway Sports Group will have to win over Fenway Park’s neighbors—a demographic that already has expressed concern about traffic and noise from concerts held at the baseball stadium. Though the new venue would be far smaller than the ballpark, it would undoubtedly bring dozens of additional events and concerts into the area. However, the neighborhood association’s president, Tim Horn, told the Boston Globe that he hoped that the Red Sox would minimize the number of outdoor concerts held at Fenway Park in exchange for the neighborhood’s endorsement and approval of the Fenway Theatre.
[H/TÂ JamBase]