The Kraft Group sued the town of Foxborough on Tuesday over what it described as the town’s misuse of the licensing process for Gillette Stadium to force the Krafts to spend more than $900,000 annually as a condition of renewing its entertainment license.
The 52-page complaint filed in Norfolk County Superior Court lists the town as the lone defendant. The lawsuit contests the renewal of the 2026 entertainment license for the stadium and is separate from the dispute surrounding the cost of security at World Cup matches that jeopardized the license for Gillette to host matches.
“This case is about Foxborough repeatedly misusing its state-granted licensing authority unlawfully to extract funds from Plaintiffs,” the complaint reads.
The Kraft Group claims that Foxborough is authorized to charge a maximum fee of $100 each year to renew the stadium’s entertainment license, which allows it to operate. For the 2026 license, though, Foxborough sent the Krafts an invoice to pay more than $900,000 as conditions of renewal.
That invoice outlined payments going toward:
- 15% of the fire chief’s salary and benefits
- 40% of the deputy police chief’s salary and benefits
- A drone and 75% of the salary and benefits of an employee designed for drone mitigation
- 100% of the salary and benefits of a police lieutenant to run the department’s “special operations division,” according to the lawsuit
The lawsuit notes that the Kraft Group already pays the town about $4 million each year for payments in lieu of taxes, as well as about $4 million each year for special detail services from the town’s fire and police departments.
The license form Foxborough sent to the Kraft Group this year was “substantially different than the forms used in previous years,” the filing reads.
Foxborough response
In a statement provided to MassLive by the Foxborough Select Board and Town Manager Paige Duncan, they said the town has remained consistent — that Foxborough residents “should not be asked to subsidize the municipal costs associated with privately operated events.”
“This position is also reflected in the Town’s long-term lease of the stadium land, under which the Kraft Group, as lessee, has agreed to bear such costs,” officials said, adding it was “disappointed that Kraft Sports + Entertainment has chosen to appeal the annual Entertainment License issued by the Select Board.”
Officials said it was simply asking the Kraft Group to reimburse it for “vital public safety and other municipal services necessary to support events held at Gillette Stadium.” Those services are “intended to protect public health and safety and ensure that the Town is adequately prepared to manage large-scale events.”
During a select board meeting where the license renewal was discussed, town officials said the new license form was not a change but an “evolution,” precipitated in part by the process surrounding the World Cup license.
Foxborough Town Counsel Jay Talerman said April 14 that “90% of this license is really the same” and was simply formalizing the existing agreement about security costs.
“We’re just breaking out the services with more description so that … everyone knows what they’re getting for the money they’re paying and what we expect of them in terms of public safety,” he said.
The Kraft Group owns and operates Gillette, the home of the New England Patriots and Revolution, and hosts several concerts each year when the teams are not playing there. Gillette is one of three NFL stadiums built and maintained exclusively with private funds — the other two are SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which both host two NFL teams.
“The result of Foxborough’s abuse of the state licensing system has been to build a fund for miscellaneous administrative funding,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit goes on to say that the Kraft Group proposed that it pay “at least as much” as it would in fees in additional payments to the town’s general fund instead of taxes. Those funds would come from increasing Foxborough’s share of the revenue from concerts at the stadium, according to the complaint.
In exchange for those payments, Foxborough would be responsible for paying costs to provide its own services to the stadium.
The town “would no longer have an incentive to inflate those expenses. That would be a substantial opportunity for the Town to allocate more resources to public works, education, and other local needs,” the complaint reads.
But Foxborough has not accepted the “win-win proposal,” forcing the Kraft Group to file the lawsuit on Tuesday because of a deadline to contest the conditions of the license renewal.
A lawyer representing the group said he could not comment on the filing when reached by phone Tuesday morning.
A stadium spokesperson said the Kraft Group has met with Foxborough Select Board Chair Bill Yukna and other town leaders since the license was renewed to “learn the reasons for the modifications and to work towards an amendment to the stadium lease that would build upon our decades-long partnership.”
Those negotiations are ongoing, according to the spokesperson, who said the Kraft Group was forced to act by a deadline that required them to pursue legal action on the license by a specific date.
“While this appeal makes its way through the legal system, we intend to continue to work together with Town leaders to address these issues fairly for all,” the spokesperson said.
The Kraft Group is asking a judge to declare the conditions Foxborough included in the license renewal void “to the extent they constitute a promise or obligation” to pay the town more than the $100 maximum to renew the license.
In the event a judge won’t take that action, the group asks for an order requiring the town to renew the license without financial conditions.
Story by Charlie McKenna, masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.