Patriot Place | Foxboro

[Arenacale]

Kraft attempted to blackmail us too but ultimately he blinked and we won. I dont care what the stadium looks like or what amenities it has or doesnt have, as long as I'm not paying for it. /end rant

For some reason this reminded me of the original Hartford proposal for when they were going there. The details are different but the bones of the current Gillette Stadium are still clearly there.

April 30: The Day the New England Patriots Left Connecticut in the Cold

In 1998, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots pro football team, was seeking a new home for his franchise, which had outgrown their small and outdated stadium in Foxborough, Massa…

todayincthistory.com

Only cost CT hopes, dreams, and the Whalers.

 

[mass88]

The thing to keep in mind with Gillette Stadium is it was built with zero public funds outside of infrastructure improvements to rt 1... All MA residents and even outside the state should be extremely happy about that. The Bills stadium got massive amounts of state funding and the state subsequently cut the education budget by the exact same amount. Other stadiums they tax things like hotels, rental cars etc so if you vacation to populated places in the US, you are paying for that stadium. This is one of the biggest wealth redistribution schemes in the country-Multi billionaires in an extremely lucrative business forcing the public to pay for new stadiums that are massive income generators to the owners and nothing goes back to the public. They black mail cities and states against one another.

Kraft attempted to blackmail us too but ultimately he blinked and we won. I dont care what the stadium looks like or what amenities it has or doesnt have, as long as I'm not paying for it. /end rant

I feel that this is a key point that is either ignored, or overlooked by a lot of those that are clamoring for the Revs to have their own stadium. The cost of building a 25-30k seat soccer stadium inside of 128 that is near public transit is going to be expensive. I can't imagine it would cost any less than $550-600 million. That's a big outlay. Especially when you consider Kraft has a stadium he owns for them to play in. What real incentive does he have to shell out that kind of money when he already has Gillette which has undergone renovations and upgrades to keep pace with other newer stadiums? The Revs draw well, better than several teams that play in soccer specific stadiums. Put a competitive product on the field and people will come out.

 

[Seanflynn78]

I feel that this is a key point that is either ignored, or overlooked by a lot of those that are clamoring for the Revs to have their own stadium. The cost of building a 25-30k seat soccer stadium inside of 128 that is near public transit is going to be expensive. I can't imagine it would cost any less than $550-600 million. That's a big outlay. Especially when you consider Kraft has a stadium he owns for them to play in. What real incentive does he have to shell out that kind of money when he already has Gillette which has undergone renovations and upgrades to keep pace with other newer stadiums? The Revs draw well, better than several teams that play in soccer specific stadiums. Put a competitive product on the field and people will come out.

I know Worcester is too far west for the Krafts to consider....but I think a collaboration with Holy Cross could work. Their football team could benefit as it could be used as their home field as well. Either renovate Fitton Field or build a new conplex on the HC campus. All private money and more central to the rest of the New England general population.

 

[Equilibria]

I feel that this is a key point that is either ignored, or overlooked by a lot of those that are clamoring for the Revs to have their own stadium. The cost of building a 25-30k seat soccer stadium inside of 128 that is near public transit is going to be expensive. I can't imagine it would cost any less than $550-600 million. That's a big outlay. Especially when you consider Kraft has a stadium he owns for them to play in. What real incentive does he have to shell out that kind of money when he already has Gillette which has undergone renovations and upgrades to keep pace with other newer stadiums? The Revs draw well, better than several teams that play in soccer specific stadiums. Put a competitive product on the field and people will come out.

Especially when multiple MLS teams (Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago (which abandoned their soccer-specific stadium), Charlotte, and Toronto) have been allowed to play in stadiums not built for MLS and have indeed been some of the league's premier clubs. MLS can't make the argument at this point that they're soccer-specific or bust. Meanwhile, Kraft has centered his entire operation on Foxboro - a stadium he just renovated for soccer, practice complexes for the Patriots and the Revs, and retail outlets that pay off for him on game and match days more than any other days.

I could be proven wrong (in Everett, for example), but if I were Bob Kraft my interest in building a stadium for the Revs would be zero.

 

[jklo]

Everett is a lot closer to where the fanbase is though.

 

[shawn]

The thing to keep in mind with Gillette Stadium is it was built with zero public funds outside of infrastructure improvements to rt 1... All MA residents and even outside the state should be extremely happy about that. The Bills stadium got massive amounts of state funding and the state subsequently cut the education budget by the exact same amount. Other stadiums they tax things like hotels, rental cars etc so if you vacation to populated places in the US, you are paying for that stadium. This is one of the biggest wealth redistribution schemes in the country-Multi billionaires in an extremely lucrative business forcing the public to pay for new stadiums that are massive income generators to the owners and nothing goes back to the public. They black mail cities and states against one another.

Kraft attempted to blackmail us too but ultimately he blinked and we won. I dont care what the stadium looks like or what amenities it has or doesnt have, as long as I'm not paying for it. /end rant

And as a former Foxboro resident with parents still living there, I can tell you the town makes out quite well. Kraft pays Foxboro $2.55 per ticket for special events and a $1.47 per ticket for Pats and Revs games. It's been a minimum $2 million in revenue for the town every year since the new stadium opened. Looking like it will top $3 million this year. Kraft also pays for some of the town's sports rec items, like pads for the peewee football teams and high school teams, the skate park downtown, most of the town's YMCA budget, other stuff here and there. I don't want to sing his praises to highly (he did try to get state money after all), but as far as pro team owners go, he's not bad in terms of donations / not draining public money.

 

[HenryAlan]

Everett is a lot closer to where the fanbase is though.

Not sure how relevant that is. The Krafts make money playing games in Foxboro, attracting crowds as large as any soccer specific stadium in Everett would attract. So you are advocating that they spend money to build a stadium in Everett that brings them no additional gate revenue and eliminates the opportunity to leverage their retail holdings at Patriot Place, because there are also fans in Everett/Chelsea? They would lose money by moving there, both investment capital and operating revenue. There is no business case for doing it. Some fans prefer the aesthetics is not how they should make their investment decisions.

 

[Equilibria]

Not sure how relevant that is. The Krafts make money playing games in Foxboro, attracting crowds as large as any soccer specific stadium in Everett would attract. So you are advocating that they spend money to build a stadium in Everett that brings them no additional gate revenue and eliminates the opportunity to leverage their retail holdings at Patriot Place, because there are also fans in Everett/Chelsea? They would lose money by moving there, both investment capital and operating revenue. There is no business case for doing it. Some fans prefer the aesthetics is not how they should make their investment decisions.

Or put a different way: If those fans in Everett and Chelsea chose to withhold their support and money until the stadium was there, they'd stand a better chance of getting one. On the other hand, it would be just as likely that Kraft would sell the team and it would move away entirely to some metro willing to fork over a billion dollars.

Sports teams are not your friends.

 

[mass88]

I was at the game yesterday and snapped a few photos.

They put in some additional bathrooms over here where there used to be a food concession and also a merch area.

They moved the merch on the opposite side.

 

[stick n move]

Did you notice if the big screen held in more sound than before?

 

[mass88]

Did you notice if the big screen held in more sound than before?

Yes, I noticed. A few people around me also made some comments on how it was a bit louder than normal in this end zone.

 

[stick n move]

 

[Java King]

This is all cool and nice, but what about spending some money to have full high-level platforms and a nice station at Gillette with frequent service?

 

[jklo]

This is all cool and nice, but what about spending some money to have full high-level platforms and a nice station at Gillette with frequent service?

They are cutting the amount of Peak AM stops actually, from 3 to 2.

 

[mass88]

They are cutting the amount of Peak AM stops actually, from 3 to 2.

Apart from when there is a game or concert, what are the ridership levels here? Gillette is in a spot where there's not a whole lot of residential housing at or around it. You also have Norfolk Center, Walpole and Mansfield short distances away. Hopefully down the line they build some housing and that will lead to some better service.

 

[Java King]

I was just thinking that with the World Cup coming to Gillette (Boston Stadium) in 2026, it might be nice to have frequent and modern service between Foxboro and Boston for the thousands of fans attending.

 

[Equilibria]

I was just thinking that with the World Cup coming to Gillette (Boston Stadium) in 2026, it might be nice to have frequent and modern service between Foxboro and Boston for the thousands of fans attending.

For a couple of early matches?

 

[themissinglink]

Apart from when there is a game or concert, what are the ridership levels here? Gillette is in a spot where there's not a whole lot of residential housing at or around it. You also have Norfolk Center, Walpole and Mansfield short distances away. Hopefully down the line they build some housing and that will lead to some better service.

In 2019, there were plans for an office park named "Quarter Point" which would've replaced some of the parking lots next to Patriot Place. It would be ideal if this (assumedly dead) proposal is revived and modified for residential space instead of offices (without the huge parking garages that were previously planned).

 

[jklo]

In 2019, there were plans for an office park named "Quarter Point" which would've replaced some of the parking lots next to Patriot Place. It would be ideal if this (assumedly dead) proposal is revived and modified for residential space instead of offices (without the huge parking garages that were previously planned).

Given that it's all the way out in Foxborough, you would need the parking garages. As for housing, the biggest issue to me would be how noisy the stadium would be and how easy it would be to sell/rent out the units because of stadium noise.

 

[HenryAlan]

For a couple of early matches?

The average number of matches at each host site will be 6.5, and Boston's host committee is explicitly lobbying for more. We should be able to provide at least better scheduling for those games.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-05-18/boston-unveils-logo-for-2026-world-cuphttps://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-05-18/boston-unveils-logo-for-2026-world-cup

Given that it's all the way out in Foxborough, you would need the parking garages. As for housing, the biggest issue to me would be how noisy the stadium would be and how easy it would be to sell/rent out the units because of stadium noise.

People who live in Kenmore/Fenway probably experience quite a bit more event noise and it seems to be okay. When I lived in Kenmore Square, I loved hearing the roar of crowds from Redsox games just before seeing something good happen on the TV broadcast.