Kraft Group Sues Foxborough Over $1 Million Gillette Stadium Fees
Kraft Sports and Entertainment LLC and the New England Patriots sued Foxborough on Tuesday over gillette stadium licensing fees, turning a March dispute into a court fight in Norfolk Superior Court. The case targets the town’s handling of the entertainment license tied to the stadium’s World Cup matches and the charges that came with it.
Foxborough And Gillette Stadium
The 52-page lawsuit says Foxborough was “repeatedly misusing its state-granted licensing authority unlawfully to extract funds from Plaintiffs.” It also says the conditions the town placed on renewal of Gillette Stadium’s entertainment license exceeded statutory authority because they amounted to an illegal tax.
According to the suit, Foxborough can charge no more than $100 annually to renew the stadium’s entertainment license. The plaintiffs are asking for a judicial order that voids the terms of the renewal to the extent they create a promise or obligation to pay financial consideration.
March Security Costs
The clash traces back to March, when Select Board members threatened to withhold the license needed to host seven matches at Gillette Stadium unless the Kraft Group paid $7.8 million up front for security costs. After that dispute, the Kraft Group pledged to underwrite the security costs.
Foxborough’s move set up the later filing in April, when the town renewed the stadium’s entertainment license and, according to the lawsuit, used that renewal as a pretext to charge Kraft Sports about $1 million in new administrative fees. The new filing says those fees go beyond what the town can collect under state law.
Town Statement And Next Step
Foxborough said in a statement on Tuesday that it had implemented provisions requiring Kraft Sports & Entertainment to reimburse the town for vital public safety and other municipal services needed for events at Gillette Stadium. The town said the license conditions were meant to protect public health and safety, ensure it was prepared for large-scale events, and keep residents from subsidizing the municipal costs of privately operated events.
The dispute now sits on the legal question the lawsuit puts front and center: whether Foxborough’s license conditions are a lawful reimbursement scheme or an unauthorized financial demand tied to the stadium’s operations. For the Kraft side, the answer will shape what it has to pay to keep the entertainment license in place for the World Cup matches scheduled at Gillette Stadium.
