Foxboro responds to Gillette Stadium lawsuit over $1M license fee

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Jul 7, 2026

Published in Football

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The town of Foxboro responded to the Kraft Group’s lawsuit filed in June on Tuesday, stating the nearly $1 million entertainment license fee at issue was a legitimate billing for safety expenses and filing a counterclaim against the group.

“Not only do the Plaintiffs willfully conflate applicable statutes and legal precepts but they also purposely omit from the factual record, the fact that, under the lease between the Town, as landlord, and the Plaintiffs, as tenants, is a provision that the Plaintiffs are absolutely required to pay the Town for all public safety expenses that are unique to the events held at Gillette stadium,” Foxboro’s filing states. “While the Plaintiffs, a collection of multibillion-dollar corporations, would prefer to have Foxborough tax-payers 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.”

In June, the Kraft Sports and Entertainment LLC principal operators of Gillette Stadium filed a lawsuit against the town of Foxboro in Norfolk Superior Court, arguing the town improperly sent an invoice of over $950,000 in April to renew the stadium’s entertainment license.

This was on top of what the group argued had been “hundreds of thousands of dollars of improper administrative fees and related levies” previously charged, and they requested to pay “at least as much” in new payments to the town’s general fund mostly by increasing their share of concert revenue from the stadium

In their response Tuesday, Foxboro goes on the state the entertainment license has been an agreed upon vehicle to pay for required safety expenses for “many years,” adding “now, for whatever reason, they have made the decision to challenge this tried and true process.”

The town’s counterclaim state’s Gillette’s owners lawsuit implies they intend to break the legal obligations of their lease.

“Under such lease, NPS and its subtenants are unequivocally required to bear all fire and police services are deemed appropriate by the Town in order to ensure the health and safety of patrons of stadium events,” Foxboro states. “Despite this plain and unambiguous obligation, and the long history of honoring such obligations through the annual entertainment licenses, the Plaintiffs’ Complaint makes clear that the Plaintiffs, including NPS, intend to breach this obligation, as well as the obligation, under the lease, to indemnify the Town.”

The June lawsuit follows a previous spat between the town and Gillette ownership in March over a $7.8 million World Cup safety bill the town claimed the group failed to pay upfront, which ended days later after all parties agreed Foxboro would not pay expenses related to the FIFA World Cup.

In a statement on their response Tuesday, Foxboro said it “believes it acted lawfully and appropriately in issuing the license and imposing conditions necessary to protect public health and safety.”

“The Town is disappointed that the Plaintiffs’ claims fail to recognize the extensive work performed by Foxborough’s public safety personnel each year,” Foxboro stated. “More than 70 events are held at Gillette Stadium annually, requiring months of coordination, training, operational planning, and interagency collaboration involving police, fire, emergency communications, public works, and other municipal staff before the first attendee arrives.”

The Kraft Group’s lawsuit originally alleged the town has “state authorization to charge Plaintiffs a maximum fee of $100 each year to renew the Stadium’s entertainment license” but 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 also laid out other charges they argued were “means to extract large payments,” citing examples like a $300,000 fee for wastewater services they said stadium doesn’t use.

In their counterclaim, Foxboro requests a ruling permanently barring the group from breaching the terms of their lease and award the town any costs related to the counterclaim, as well as “such other relief as this Court deems just and equitable.”

“The Town remains committed to protecting both public safety and the interests of its residents while ensuring that events at Gillette Stadium can continue to be conducted safely and successfully,” Foxboro said Tuesday. “The Town is also committed to ensuring that the owners of Gillette Stadium adhere to their obligations to the Town.”