Patriots Legal Feud With Hometown Takes Another Ugly Turn

The partnership between the town of Foxborough, MA, and the New England Patriots took another ignominious turn this week after the city filed a counterclaim against the NFL franchise that is suing Foxborough for $1 million.

The Kraft Group sued the town last month over a $1 million entertainment licensing fee for Gillette Stadium that it says is part of a pattern of using its licensing authority to "extract funds" from the team.

This week, Foxborough filed a 61-page counterclaim against the team, asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit while arguing that Kraft Sports & Entertainment is "contractually bound" to pay for the public safety costs associated with stadium events, like the World Cup (Gillette Stadium is hosting its final game of the tournament Thursday, July 9).

Gillette Stadium is one of only a handful of NFL stadiums that are completely privately financed. The Kraft Group, assisted by a $150 million loan from the NFL, covered the complete $325 million cost of construction, which was completed in 2002.

Of course, stadium costs are only part of the total bill for a massive project like a sports stadium. Massachusetts taxpayers did contribute $70 million for infrastructural improvements, like road access and utilities, through a debt offering that is being repaid on a long-term schedule.

And Foxborough now says the infrastructure improvements needed to host the World Cup should not fall to its taxpayers.

"These public safety services are uniquely required because of the scale and nature of the events held at the stadium and should not be borne by Foxborough taxpayers … Under its longstanding contract with the Town, the Plaintiffs are required to bear these expenses, a fact that the Plaintiffs failed to include within their underlying appeal," the town said in a statement, according to Boston.com.

Meanwhile, the Kraft Group says the town is arbitrarily charging them $1 million for an entertainment license that should only cost $100 annually to renew.

But the town says the Kraft Group has "purposefully mischaracterized" the dispute because the increased fee ask corresponds with a once-in-a-generation large-scale event like the World Cup.

Foxboro says it is "disappointed" by the claims in the original lawsuit and accused Kraft Group of "willfully" confusing state licensing regulations with their contractual requirements during large-scale events.

"While the plaintiffs, a collection of multibillion-dollar corporations, would prefer to have Foxborough taxpayers bear these expenses, they are contractually bound to pay for the public safety services that are necessary to ensure safe and efficient events at their private venue," the counterclaim states.

Patriots accuse Foxboro of a shakedown

The Kraft Group's lawsuit against Foxborough mentioned the "immediate precipitating basis" for the legal action being the Gillette Stadium entertainment license, suggesting that the team is having other issues with its host town.

But for this instance specifically, Kraft Group says the city is overcharging the company for its licensing rights.

"Foxborough has state authorization to charge Plaintiffs a maximum fee of $100 each year to renew the Stadium's entertainment license, the lawsuit states, according to the Boston Herald. "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."

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The lawsuit says Foxborough erroneously sent a $950,000 invoice in April to renew the stadium's entertainment license. According to the lawsuit, the new fees added to "the hundreds of thousands of dollars of improper administrative fees and related levies that Foxboro was previously charging."

Hosting a World Cup is an honor for most countries. An expensive, logistical nightmare of an honor.

Infrastructure and security costs can hamper a country years after the fact. Brazil is still paying off the debt it incurred from the 2014 World Cup, which reportedly cost the country up to $15 billion. Since many of the stadiums and infrastructure projects were financed through government loans and bonds, many cities are still servicing that debt.

Foxboro did not want to be like one of those cities, so in March, Foxborough officials started "slamming the Kraft Group and other event organizers for failing to provide upfront money to cover their $7.8 million request" for security and equipment for the games, the Herald reported.

In a letter to the host committee, Kraft Sports said that it would fund no more than $1.5 million to cover security equipment for the Foxborough police and fire departments, a sum that Foxboro town manager Paige Duncan called a "microscopic fraction of the revenue that the events will generate."

Kraft Group is actually covering the entire cost, which it says will exceed $5 million in addition to the $1.5 million it initially pledged.

"Throughout this process, despite not being the license applicant or the host committee, the Kraft Group's only objective has been to move forward positively to get to a ‘yes' on an agreement with the Town," a spokesperson for the Kraft Group told the Herald in March.

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This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 2:58 PM.