The Kraft Group filed a lawsuit against the town of Foxboro Tuesday over an entertainment license fee of $1 million for Gillette Stadium they say is part of a pattern of the town improperly using licensing authority to “extract funds” from the organization.
“The immediate precipitating basis for this lawsuit is a recent renewal of Gillette Stadium’s entertainment license,” the lawsuit states. “Foxborough has state authorization to charge Plaintiffs a maximum fee of $100 each year to renew the Stadium’s entertainment license. 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, filed by the principal operators of Gillette Stadium through the Kraft Sports and Entertainment LLC in Norfolk Superior Court, argues that the town improperly sent an invoice of over $950,000 in April to renew the stadium’s entertainment license.
The new fees added to “the hundreds of thousands of dollars of improper administrative fees and related levies that Foxborough was previously charging Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit states.
The new lawsuit follows a spat between Foxboro and the Kraft Group over a $7.8 million World Cup safety bill in March that the town claimed the group failed to pay upfront. The dispute ended days later, with all parties issuing a statement agreeing that Foxboro would “not incur any cost or financial burden related to the FIFA World Cup.”
The Foxborough Select Board responded in a statement Tuesday, saying they are “disappointed” in the group’s decision to appeal the license. The board noted they hadn’t yet reviewed the appeal and couldn’t comment on specific claims, but argued the fee was related to legitimate costs.
“The Town, 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 Foxboro officials stated.
The 2026 entertainment license included provisions requiring the private stadium operators “to reimburse the Town for vital public safety and other municipal services necessary to support events held at Gillette Stadium,” Foxboro’s Select Board stated.
The Kraft Group’s lawsuit states the new charges were imposed without “seeking comment from Foxborough’s residents and without presenting any witnesses or evidence,” in spite of legal requirements.
The lawsuit goes on to allege the town has previously “used licensing powers and other administrative means to extract large payments,” citing examples like a $300,000 fee for wastewater even though they claim the stadium does not send anything to Foxboro’s sewer system.
The funds, they allege, go to “miscellaneous administrative funding” and other specific programs.
The Kraft Group claims they have proposed paying “at least as much” in new payments to the town’s general fund mostly by increasing their share of concert revenue from the stadium, instead of the “inflated service fees and unlawful administrative charges that are treated as special revenue.”
Under the proposal, the group says, the town would be required to pay for the services to the stadium and would “no longer have an incentive to inflate those expenses.”
Having reached a stalemate, the lawsuit states, the group reached the deadline to contest the fee in court and is seeking relief from the fee in excess of the $100 statutory maximum.
The Select Board argued the stadium’s security needs are “increasingly complex” and “conditions of the license issued by the Select Board were carefully crafted to ensure the health and safety of fans, concert-goers, employees, and area residents.”
“Throughout discussions with Kraft Sports + Entertainment’s representatives, the Town’s position has remained consistent: Foxborough residents should not be asked to subsidize the municipal costs associated with privately operated events,” the board stated. “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.”
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