Community leaders had to help buy baseball hats for a South Boston high school varsity team due to a budget crunch at the Boston Public Schools (BPS), which led to criticism about the city's spending priorities. Bob Ferrara, who has been coaching youth sports and high school sports for a long time, found the school district had not delivered baseball hats to the Excel High School team before their opening day game. He intervened and offered to make the hats free of charge. Ferrara called the situation "bush league" and criticized the city for spending $130 million on a $325 million public-private plan to rebuild White Stadium for a professional women’s soccer team. The school district has proposed a budget with more cuts for the next fiscal year amid Boston's larger financial difficulties.