BOSTON — Mayor Michelle Wu's top tourism official is leaving his post to take a senior role with the soccer team at the center of the most controversial public-private deal in the city's recent history.

His new employer, of course, is not just any soccer team. Boston Legacy FC is the franchise backed by Boston Unity Soccer Partners — the group that landed the closely watched, $325 million redevelopment of White Stadium in Franklin Park. The city is covering $135 million of that tab. Taxpayers may recall that number started at $10.5 million.

Here's how the arrangement works: the team is spending $190 million on the West Grandstand, locker rooms, scoreboards, and tech. In return, they get to play soccer there. They'll also pay the city more than $62 million over the coming years for maintenance, Franklin Park improvements, and what the city calls "community benefits." The city, for its part, is covering the other $135 million — the field, the track, the East Grandstand, and the BPS athletic spaces.

If you're keeping score at home, that city share has had quite a journey. When Boston Unity Soccer Partners first floated the renovation in 2023, the city budgeted $10.5 million. By March 2024: $50 million. By December 2024: $91 million. In February 2026, Wu announced the real number: $135 million. Nearly thirteen times the original estimate, give or take.

Wu says it's tariffs. Steel prices. Evolving design plans. General inflation. Residents and city councilors have heard this explanation. They have not found it entirely satisfying.

And then there's how the deal came together in the first place. Boston Unity Soccer Partners was the only group to submit a proposal when the city issued its request for proposals in April 2023. One bidder. One winner. Funny how that works.

Here's how cozy it got. On April 17, 2023, Wu's chief of staff Tiffany Chu emailed Epstein: "Really appreciate the long calls at all hours, creative solutions, and perseverance to get us over this first finish line together." Epstein wrote back the next day thanking everyone for the "collective hard work which got us to this point" and adding, helpfully: "now we need to get that RFP out!"

The RFP was issued eight days later.

Wu's 2025 mayoral opponent Josh Kraft called the process "secretive and rigged" and demanded an investigation into whether the administration violated procurement laws. Wu refuted the claim. She won the preliminary 72-23. The stadium kept going up.

Borders' departure lands at what might be the worst possible moment to walk out the door. Boston is hosting the FIFA World Cup FanFest on City Hall Plaza this summer, with thousands of fans flooding in for seven World Cup matches in Foxborough between June and July. A fleet of tall ships returns to Boston Harbor in mid-July for Sail250, a six-day event expected to draw millions. The city is also staging one of the country's largest July 4th celebrations.

Someone else will be running all of that now.

Instead of leading Boston through its biggest tourism summer in recent memory, Borders will be settling into his new VP title at the team that is bearing the bulk of the cost — and reaping the bulk of the benefit — of the White Stadium project.

A Dorchester native, Borders previously worked as a community engagement manager for the Boston Celtics before Wu brought him in to run the city's tourism operation in 2023 — the same year the White Stadium RFP was issued. He was making roughly $135,000 a year, according to city payroll data.

Wu was ecstatic about the move. "He has been a tremendous leader for our city and a driving force in showcasing Boston's vibrant neighborhoods and community spirit to the nation and the world," she told the Globe. "I can't imagine a better choice for this exciting opportunity."

Wu's office did not say who would replace him.