‘Pass Go and buy the Stump’ - the Boston edition of Monopoly has arrived

‘Mr Monopoly’ himself turned out for the event which took place on Saturday at the Stump.

Boston Big Local and Boston Borough Council teamed up with Hasbro to produce this local edition of the popular board game.

It features new Boston-themed players’ pieces including the Mayflower ship, the Stump church, a tractor, a pilgrim fathers’ hat, a swan, and a marathon runner.

Mark Baker, Boston Big Local’s communications lead, said: “The launch event went really well - there was quite a queue from the Stump shop.

“We have sold nearly half of the games already - with 85 sold through the Stump on the launch day alone.”

Asked how they decided to get around the issue of which Boston locations would make it on the high-value ‘Mayfair’ square and which would be relegated to the cheapest ‘Old Kent Road’, Mark explained: “We decided to group the buildings by theme, so we have entertainment buildings such as the Gliderdrome in the brown colour squares, older buildings in light blue, and educational buildings like Boston Grammar School in green, for example.”

The first person to purchase the Monopoly game on the day was Philip Wicksted - one of the country’s biggest Monopoly fans who has more than 50 different Monopoly sets in his collection.

Speaking at the launch event, he said: “ I was so excited when I heard Boston Monopoly was being released. This has really made my day.
I am Boston born and bred and every square on this board represents a part of my life.”

When asked ‘what about going to jail?’ he replied: “I work at HMP North Sea Camp open prison!”

The board games are for sale now at the following good causes in the Boston area: St Botolph’s Church (the Stump), Fydell House, the Guildhall Museum, Blackfriars Theatre, Centenery Methodist Church, The Butterfly Hospice shop, Centrepoint Outreach shop, Age UK shop and We’ll Meet Again Museum.

Boston Big Local was set up to consult with residents and manage how £1million of National Lottery money could be spent in Boston over 10 years.

It decided to take a chance on investing £40,000 in the project, with 20 per cent provided by the council’s Empowering Healthy Communities Programme - in the hope that sales of the game will produce a greater total for the good causes chosen.

Mark explained: “At Boston Big Local - we thought instead of just handing money to these good causes in Boston that we would produce this game and the sales from each copy would go directly to the good cause it is purchased from.

“We produced the Boston Trump Cards before this and they worked really well - so we thought we’d go for Monopoly this time as it is also a great way to promote the town.

“Our Mayor is now sending a copy to his counterparts in Boston US, Boston in Jamaica and the Boston in Ireland.”

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