The town of Foxboro, Mass., appears to have won its battle to avoid being lumbered with $7.8 million security costs at the FIFA World Cup after an “understanding” was reached with Kraft Sports & Entertainment (KSE) and the local Boston host committee for the tournament.
On Wednesday night, a joint statement was distributed from KSE, Boston Soccer 2026 and the Town of Foxboro.
It said the three parties “have reached an understanding collectively that will allow Boston Soccer 2026 and the Town of Foxborough to finalize the details needed to approve an event license at the March 17 public hearing and ensure a safe and successful FIFA World Cup 2026™ tournament at Gillette Stadium this summer.”
This means a license is yet to be issued, but that broad terms appear to have been agreed.
The statement continues: “As part of this arrangement, the Town of Foxborough will not incur any cost or financial burden related to the FIFA World Cup, with Boston Soccer 2026 providing advance funding for security-related capital expenditures and the full extent of deployment that public safety officials have determined is needed to execute the event with Kraft Sports + Entertainment’s backing.”
A dispute has been brewing for months after it emerged that funding was not in place to cover the deployment of police and fire officials in Foxboro during the World Cup, as well as the necessary funding to purchase equipment materials in advance.
The 65,000-seater Gillette Stadium, home to the NFL’s New England Patriots and MLS team New England Revolution, is owned by the Kraft Group, headed up by multi-billionaire Robert Kraft. The venue is scheduled to hold seven matches during the World Cup, including a round-of-32 game and a quarter-final, and the tournament is now less than 100 days away.
The statement also paid tribute the work of local elected officials, including Massachusetts governor Maura Healey.
Foxboro town chair Bill Yukna credited a personal intervention by Robert Kraft with helping resolve the dispute.
“On behalf of the Town of Foxborough, I’m very pleased to say that all of our funding concerns have been addressed,” said Yukna. “I want to personally thank KSE and Robert Kraft for his involvement in bringing the funding concerns to a resolution. We expect that any open issues in the license will be resolved before the 17th public hearing and we look forward to a very successful and safe World Cup event. I also want to thank our Police Chief Michael Grace, our Fire Chief Michael Kelleher and Town Manager Paige Duncan for their many hours and dedication to getting us to the finish line in this issue.”
Gillette Stadium will be a key World Cup venue in 2026. (Kirby Lee / Getty Images)
As the venue’s owners, KSE have, effectively, sub-licensed the venue to FIFA during the tournament, meaning it is FIFA who require an entertainment license. However, the terms of FIFA’s hosting agreement with the Boston host committee, a non-profit group established to assist FIFA in the planning of the tournament, transfers the public security costs away from FIFA and to the committee.
The Foxboro select board, made up of non-salaried local residents, have so far refused to grant the license as they were being asked to pony up the $7.8m funding to be reimbursed later down the line. However, in multiple recent meetings, the board made clear this would represent 10 percent of their annual budget and they were concerned as to how they would recover the funding as the local committee will cease to operate after the tournament.
As such, they have been requesting the money up front and for the town’s local taxpayers not to be troubled by a deal they did not sign up to.
The select board last week rejected an offer from the host committee, known as Boston Soccer 2026, and KSE, which pledged to reimburse all invoices within two business days, amid a claim that the committee would soon have access to $30 million from a mix of federal and state money, as well as commercial partners.
The offer also included a proposal that KSE, headed by Kraft, would backstop the funding of equipment for local police — but only up to $1.5 million.
Yet Foxboro select board chair Yukna immediately pushed back on the proposal last week. In a statement sent by Yukna to The Athletic, he insisted no agreement has been reached and accused the Boston host committee and KSE of presenting “essentially an agreement with themselves.”
In a previous meeting, select board member Dr. Mark Elfman had accused the committee of attempting to “nickel and dime” Foxboro’s security services when the committee’s attorneys suggested the committee should assist the police in acquiring equipment – Elfman and Yukna rebutted to say only the experts should be responsible for purchasing what was necessary to keep people safe.
However, the statement on Wednesday night, issued six days before the next select board meeting next Tuesday, offers the clearest indication yet that a deal can be struck and that Foxboro’s hardline stance has paid off. For the first time, there appears to be a commitment that Foxboro will incur no cost and will not have to worry about reimbursement processes.
It remains to be seen however where, exactly, the $7.8m funding will come from.
A published letter from Boston Soccer 2026 last week said the committee currently has $2 million of funds in its bank accounts, as of the morning of March 5, but that it will “receive at least an additional $30 million from state and federal funding and commercial activities,” meaning it will be “well-capitalized to pay all amounts.” The letter did not provide a breakdown of the $30 million it claims it will receive, or clear evidence that the money will be received. Boston’s host committee has previously received only $10 million of the $20 million it has said it is seeking in state funding, but half of that amount has been allocated to funding the official FIFA Fan Fest in Boston during the tournament.
The problem is further compounded because, while the 11 U.S. World Cup host cities last summer secured a combined $625 million in federal funding to assist security operations, this money is yet to be administered via the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency tasked with processing the grant program.
It may not come imminently, either, due to a partial federal government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which has in turn reduced operations at FEMA, although there have been claims that this money was supposed to be transferred in advance of the shutdown.
While Boston is entitled to a $46 million slice of this funding, the select board has previously warned Foxboro’s share will not cover the entire cost of the $7.8 million security operations in its town, because the money will go via the state of Massachusetts and be shared across different agencies, leaving a possible unspecified funding gap.
In a the joint statement between KSE, Boston Soccer 2026 on Wednesday, the parties jointly said: “We look forward to moving forward together positively in our shared goals of providing the highest level of public safety for this historic event and delivering a global experience for our region, which will infuse the Commonwealth and Foxborough with an influx of new visitors and associated economic impact.”