Patriot Place | Foxboro

MrDee12345 said:
With this new construction, are they adding any new seats? It doesn't look like it.

I feel Gillette could easily hold 70,000 + and always sell out.

Maybe add some cheap seats for us plebes?
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There are no cheap seats at a Pats game. I think there won't be until they've sucked for a good long while...
 
MrDee12345 said:
With this new construction, are they adding any new seats? It doesn't look like it.

I feel Gillette could easily hold 70,000 + and always sell out.

Maybe add some cheap seats for us plebes?
Click to expand...


I don't believe that there will be any significant increase in capacity. Most all of the north end renovations are being dedicated to fan amenities. The new interior will be a 75,000-square foot glass-enclosed year-round hospitality and function space that connects the East and West Putnam Clubs, the Dell Technologies Suite Levels and the upper concourse. Most all of the field facing renovation will be dedicated to the new 22,000sf video board which will be the largest outdoor stadium high-definition video board in the country, measuring 370' x 60'.

I would expect continued upgrades, all be it not as extensive, to Gillette Stadium leading up to the 2026 World Cup as it will host several games.

There has been some recent news regarding the adjacent Patriot Place. The Boston sports bar based The Harp will take over the former prominent location of the CBS Sporting Club that overlooks the stdiums north entrance. The Hobby Lobby is also constructing a new space in the strip mall section south of the stadium. It would appear that this area will also soon see a major vacancy as long time tenant Bed, Bath & beyond has filed for bankruptcy with plans to end the business.
 
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At this point, they should just complete the lower bowl and fill in the opening for the bridge with more seats. The "charm" of the design of having the bridge with the lighthouse visible from inside the stadium is gone with this expansion. I'd be curious to know what they're going to do with the corner mentioned in the tweet as well.
 
mass88 said:
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At this point, they should just complete the lower bowl and fill in the opening for the bridge with more seats. The "charm" of the design of having the bridge with the lighthouse visible from inside the stadium is gone with this expansion. I'd be curious to know what they're going to do with the corner mentioned in the tweet as well.
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I agree. It never really made any sense to leave it open like that.
 
The bridge entrance allows large trucks and equipment to be brought into the bowl surface area. It is much needed for events like the monster trucks which require truckloads of dirt along with outsized trucks. Also useful to get concert stage equipment into and out of the venue.
 
They could at least add seats in the thin seating row directly under the video board.

One thing Im definitely interested in seeing is how the acoustics will change with this new massive solid object at one end of the bowl. Gillette has always been notorious for how badly the sound escapes from the stadium out the huge gaps, hopefully this giant refractor helps. A couple years ago I posted pics of them enlarging the screen at the other end, so both ends now have massive screens that hopefully help out with this issue.
 
New England Born & Raised said:
The bridge entrance allows large trucks and equipment to be brought into the bowl surface area. It is much needed for events like the monster trucks which require truckloads of dirt along with outsized trucks. Also useful to get concert stage equipment into and out of the venue.
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Actually the monster trucks use the tunnel at the other end of the stadium, as does the setup. Though it would be way, way cooler if they did use the bridge entrance, as they staged Max D there for the double backflip stunt a few years back. I think the main purpose of the bridge is it allows general visitors to Patriot Place and the Hall of Fame to actually see some of the field.

I'll be down on Saturday for the monsters myself so I'll see if I can get some photos - would be cool if the new screen is active for the show.
 
mass88 said:
View attachment 37170

At this point, they should just complete the lower bowl and fill in the opening for the bridge with more seats. The "charm" of the design of having the bridge with the lighthouse visible from inside the stadium is gone with this expansion. I'd be curious to know what they're going to do with the corner mentioned in the tweet as well.
Click to expand...

Looking at this pic and thinking about where they should add more seats I thought, how cool would it be to have a gillette monster and put seats above the video board like the green monster seats? That would be something completely unique in a football stadium. Its closer to the field than the nosebleeds at the same level so they would get a better view of the action.

This pic shows it pretty good
 
I didn't bring the nice camera into the show with me (too much of a hassle), but you get the idea. That's a biiiiiiiig TV they've put in, a bit of a shame most of it will be advertising as the aspect ratios will have to match the other screens in the stadium.

Over 46,000 in attendance!
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The stadium still annoy me.

It has too much empty space between section where it could have been connected. I hate how the luxury boxes split the lower from the upper decks.

Even though it gets a lot of criticism, I really like MetLife stadium in Jersey - it's a circle. Everything is connected and it's able to trap the sound.

I used to dislike the TD Garden until the renovation (it's MUCH better now, at least from what I can see on TV), but now Gillette is my least favorite stadium/arena in the Boston area.
 
greenbeans said:
It's not done.
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Another thing that annoys me: The fact that I wrote "annoy" instead of "annoys" in my previous comment.

Also, I don't believe they're adding more seating. I understand they're adding some more amenities, but will it really complete the bowl?
 
MrDee12345 said:
The stadium still annoy me.

It has too much empty space between section where it could have been connected. I hate how the luxury boxes split the lower from the upper decks.

Even though it gets a lot of criticism, I really like MetLife stadium in Jersey - it's a circle. Everything is connected and it's able to trap the sound.

I used to dislike the TD Garden until the renovation (it's MUCH better now, at least from what I can see on TV), but now Gillette is my least favorite stadium/arena in the Boston area.
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Agree about Gillette. I think the location is horrendous as well. So many other spots. Whether it’s quasi-suburban location like adjacent to 128 in Waltham - or full blown urban like near the Seaport. But Foxboro
is horrific.

During groundbreaking of the renovations Jonathan said “Our goal is to not have to build another stadium” - which is not what I wanted to hear. Hopefully that’s just PR posturing. I’d like to see a new one around 2030-2035 that isn’t built in such a shortsighted way as GS was.

As for the renovations. I like them - the lighthouse could’ve been higher so it REALLY would stand out. But the screen and other improvements are welcomed.

(Not sure what you like about MetLife - aside from Levis in the Bay Area - it’s the worst of the most recent era of new stadiums (2005- onward). Such a generic cookie cutter design. Nothing special or unique about it. Less of a HFA compared to Giants Stadium. It might have not been the most cost effective plan but the NY area missed a huge chance by balking at the West Side stadium.
 
NoShJFK said:
Agree about Gillette. I think the location is horrendous as well. So many other spots. Whether it’s quasi-suburban location like adjacent to 128 in Waltham - or full blown urban like near the Seaport. But Foxboro
is horrific.

During groundbreaking of the renovations Jonathan said “Our goal is to not have to build another stadium” - which is not what I wanted to hear. Hopefully that’s just PR posturing. I’d like to see a new one around 2030-2035 that isn’t built in such a shortsighted way as GS was.

As for the renovations. I like them - the lighthouse could’ve been higher so it REALLY would stand out. But the screen and other improvements are welcomed.

(Not sure what you like about MetLife - aside from Levis in the Bay Area - it’s the worst of the most recent era of new stadiums (2005- onward). Such a generic cookie cutter design. Nothing special or unique about it. Less of a HFA compared to Giants Stadium. It might have not been the most cost effective plan but the NY area missed a huge chance by balking at the West Side stadium.
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Sure, I'd like to see a brand new stadium built a lot closer to the city that had a retractable roof so Boston could host the Super Bowl, Men's NCAA Final Four and WrestleMania. Adjusted for inflation, the cost to build Gillette is something like $525m. To build a modern 65-70k stadium, and one that is closer to Boston, would surly cost north of $1.5 billion. What incentive does Kraft have to finance a new stadium at that price tag? The Patriots have sold out every home game since 1994. They have a waiting list for season tickets that is in the thousands. They draw a number of non-football events like concerts (Taylor Swift just sold over 180k tickets this past weekend), NCAA lacrosse, and monster trucks. The Revs draw pretty well and consistently outdraw several teams that have soccer specific stadiums that are located closer, or in urban areas.

Patriot season ticket holders never had to deal with PSLs the way other fanbases have had to deal with, such as the Falcons. That's another benefit to the way Kraft has set things up.

Is Gillette perfect? No. But it is a nice stadium that has great sightlines. Unless the state gave Kraft a very sweet deal to build a new stadium, Gillette is not going anywhere for a very long time.
 
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NoShJFK said:
Agree about Gillette. I think the location is horrendous as well. So many other spots. Whether it’s quasi-suburban location like adjacent to 128 in Waltham - or full blown urban like near the Seaport. But Foxboro
is horrific.

During groundbreaking of the renovations Jonathan said “Our goal is to not have to build another stadium” - which is not what I wanted to hear. Hopefully that’s just PR posturing. I’d like to see a new one around 2030-2035 that isn’t built in such a shortsighted way as GS was.

As for the renovations. I like them - the lighthouse could’ve been higher so it REALLY would stand out. But the screen and other improvements are welcomed.

(Not sure what you like about MetLife - aside from Levis in the Bay Area - it’s the worst of the most recent era of new stadiums (2005- onward). Such a generic cookie cutter design. Nothing special or unique about it. Less of a HFA compared to Giants Stadium. It might have not been the most cost effective plan but the NY area missed a huge chance by balking at the West Side stadium.
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I think the color scheme in Met Life is kind of ugly, but I like the idea of having a completely round bowl of seats surrounding the field. It traps the sound and makes the players feel like they're surrounded on all ends.

I disagree with you about having a West Side stadium for football. I don't think there are enough weekends in the year to justify putting a giant 80,000 seat stadium in Manhattan. Now, if they wanted to put a baseball stadium there, I think that would be a better use of that space.

Also, what does HFA mean? I googled it and it said "highly functioning autism", but I'm guessing that's not what you meant.
 
mass88 said:
Sure, I'd like to see a brand new stadium built a lot closer to the city that had a retractable roof so Boston could host the Super Bowl, Men's NCAA Final Four and WrestleMania. Adjusted for inflation, the cost to build Gillette is something like $525m. To build a modern 65-70k stadium, and one that is closer to Boston, would surly cost north of $1.5 billion. What incentive does Kraft have to finance a new stadium at that price tag? The Patriots have sold out every home game since 1994. They have a waiting list for season tickets that is in the thousands. They draw a number of non-football events like concerts (Taylor Swift just sold over 180k tickets this past weekend), NCAA lacrosse, and monster trucks. The Revs draw pretty well and consistently outdraw several teams that have soccer specific stadiums that are located closer, or in urban areas.

Patriot season ticket holders never had to deal with PSLs the way other fanbases have had to deal with, such as the Falcons. That's another benefit to the way Kraft has set things up.

Is Gillette perfect? No. But it is a nice stadium that has great sightlines. Unless the state gave Kraft a very sweet deal to build a new stadium, Gillette is not going anywhere for a very long time.
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When other NFL owners have $2-5B (that's what it would cost) to build a new stadium, it's because they intend to increase the value of their team by at least that amount by building the stadium. That's why SoFi was built in Inglewood, for example: the Rams owner saw the chance to increase his team's value toward $10B by spending $5B on the stadium. That worked because (a) it's LA, and (b) the stadium was the cost-of-entry for a guy with a team in St. Louis to move it to LA, at a stroke increasing the value of his investment up to tenfold. The far likelier way NFL teams get billions is to be gifted them by the public (as was the case in Las Vegas and as will shortly be the case in Nashville). A nonstarter in Massachusetts as it should be everywhere.

Assuming Kraft would get Dan Snyder money ($6B) were he to sell the team, it doesn't make any sense for him to dilute that value by spending billions of his own dollars to keep the team in the same market (the same applies to Josh Harris once he buys the Washington Football Team - it makes no sense for him to build a new stadium unless a State, DC, or Congress throws money at him). That assumes Kraft even has access to those billions to make them liquid, and he probably doesn't.

Overall, the point here is the same as with the Revs: what Kraft is doing is making lots of money, so why would he do anything else?
 
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