New England Patriots' Foxboro lawsuit exposes cracks in relationship

Public-private partnerships like the ones between NFL owners and the cities they represent and play in are fraught with landmines, and even seemingly good relationships, like the one New England has with Foxborough, MA, are prone to public spats over money.

Fresh off a return to the Super Bowl, Kraft Sports and Entertainment, the multi-billion-dollar organization that operates Gillette Stadium, is now embroiled in its second major spat in just a few months with the town that has hosted the Patriots for the last 56 years.

This week, the Kraft Group sued the town of Foxboro over a $1 million entertainment licensing fee for Gillette Stadium that it says is part of a pattern of using its licensing authority to "extract funds" from the team.

Gillette Stadium is one of only a handful of NFL stadiums that are completely privately financed. The Kraft Group, assisted by a $150 million loan from the NFL, covered the complete $325 million cost of construction, which was completed in 2002.

Of course, stadium costs are only part of the total bill for a massive project like a sports stadium. Massachusetts taxpayers did contribute $70 million for infrastructural improvements, like road access and utilities, through a debt offering that is being repaid on a long-term schedule.

But the Patriots covering all of the building costs was such an anomaly at the time that even critics of public subsidies for billionaires have lauded what Robert Kraft and the Patriots have done with Gillette Stadium.

"The Gillette Stadium model might not be for every owner, but it stands as a monumental achievement," Smith College professor Andrew Zimbalist, who is described as a "frequent critic of public subsidies for sports venues," wrote in a 2003 edition of Sports Business Journal.

"Robert was a major contributor in the private financing that became a model for the entire league, and was a model that was applicable to all 32 teams - that was significant," said Paul Tagliabue, former NFL commissioner.

Kraft has also been credited with establishing the mixed-use model for the land around the stadium that some teams like the Chicago(land) Bears and Kansas City (Kansas) Chiefs are willing to trade in their entire history and legacies for.

But with Kraft seemingly being a good steward and Foxborough, MA, being put on the map thanks to the presence of the Patriots, one has to wonder, what is going wrong?

Foxboro, New England Patriots, have been at each other's throats for months

The lawsuit this week from the Kraft Group is just the latest legal spat between the New England Patriots and Foxborough, the town that hosts them.

You don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but hosting a World Cup is an honor for most countries. An expensive, logistical nightmare of an honor.

Infrastructure and security costs can hamper a country years after the fact. Brazil is still paying off the debt it incurred from the 2014 World Cup, which reportedly cost the country up to $15 billion. Since many of the stadiums and infrastructure projects were financed through government loans and bonds, many cities are still servicing that debt.

Foxboro did not want to be like one of those cities, so in March, Foxborough officials started "slamming the Kraft Group and other event organizers for failing to provide upfront money to cover their $7.8 million request" for security and equipment for the games, according to the Boston Herald.

In a letter to the host committee, Kraft Sports said that it would fund no more than $1.5 million to cover security equipment for the Foxbororough police and fire departments, a sum that Foxboro town manager Paige Duncan called a "microscopic fraction of the revenue that the events will generate."

Kraft Group is actually covering the entire cost, which it says will exceed $5 million in addition to the $1.5 million it initially pledged.

"Throughout this process, despite not being the license applicant or the host committee, the Kraft Group's only objective has been to move forward positively to get to a ‘yes' on an agreement with the Town," a spokesperson for the Kraft Group told the Herald in March.

But that would only be the opening salvo in the war between the two sides.

Patriots accuse Foxboro of a shakedown

The Kraft Group's lawsuit against Foxbororough mentioned the "immediate precipitating basis" for the legal action being the Gillette Stadium entertainment license, suggesting that the team is having other issues with its host town.

But for this instance specifically, Kraft Group says the city is overcharging the company for its licensing rights.

"Foxborough has state authorization to charge Plaintiffs a maximum fee of $100 each year to renew the Stadium's entertainment license, the lawsuit states, according to the Herald. "This April, Foxborough used what should have been a routine entertainment license renewal as a pretext to charge Plaintiffs approximately $1 million annually in new administrative fees."

The lawsuit says Foxborough erroneously sent a $950,000 invoice in April to renew the stadium's entertainment license. According to the lawsuit, the new fees added to "the hundreds of thousands of dollars of improper administrative fees and related levies that Foxboro was previously charging."

The Foxborough Select Board said it is "disappointed" by the lawsuit and that the city "through its licensing authority, has an obligation to ensure that the costs associated with private events are borne by the entities that conduct and benefit from those events, rather than by Foxborough taxpayers."

The Board says that the entertainment license allows them to charge Kraft Group for reimbursements "for vital public safety and other municipal services necessary to support events held at Gillette Stadium."

The last public spat between the two sides lasted only days before Kraft Group acquiesced to the final multimillion-dollar payment. With this lawsuit, it seems like they're fed up with these periodic "fund extraction."

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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 9:33 AM.