The Foxborough Select Board voted unanimously to issue a license for the seven FIFA Men’s World Cup matches to be played at Gillette Stadium this June and July.
Tuesday night’s vote comes after weeks of wrangling between the board, Kraft Sports + Entertainment and the Kraft-aligned Boston ’26 committee in charge of the matches. The town’s leaders have sought assurances that local taxpayers would not be on the hook for $7.8 million in security costs associated with hosting the matches.
“ I think, bluntly, it was that just that we weren’t going to give in,” said Bill Yukna, chair of the Select Board, commenting after the meeting on how the deal’s finances got resolved. “When they finally understood our concerns on that side of it, they agreed.”
Gary Ronan, a lawyer representing Boston ’26, during the meeting said sealing the deal was critical: “I think it’s an opportunity for us in the commonwealth to show the world who we are and how we operate.” And, he said, it was a chance to show everyone “that Foxborough is a place where people ought to want to come when they want to put on significant world-class events like the World Cup.”
Last week, the parties came to an agreement after weeks of acrimony, assuring the town that it would “not incur any cost or financial burden related to the FIFA World Cup,” according to a press release from the Kraft group that the other groups confirmed they agreed with.
Under the deal, which the Select Board approved last Thursday, the Kraft group pledged $1.5 million in security equipment, plus more than $5 million for the host organization to cover payroll for law enforcement and emergency service employees who work the matches during the tournament.
Boston ’26 and the Krafts inked a separate agreement, Ronan said, for the organizing committee to be responsible for any security expenses for the matches.
Security funding has been held up by the partial government shutdown, which has kept the Federal Emergency Management Agency from releasing $625 million in promised funds to 11 U.S. host cities, including Foxborough.
State officials predict the World Cup could bring some 2 million visitors to the region, both to attend the matches at Gillette and to join in revelry at large public watch parties.
State Sen. Paul Feeney — a former member of the Foxborough Select Board — helped broker the financial discussions after weeks of tense public meetings and conflicting press releases from the stakeholders, amid a looming threat that the town would not approve a license if members were not satisfied with the financial deal.
Foxborough Police Chief Michael Grace said Tuesday night that security planning is still on track, despite the tense negotiations: “The planning never stopped, even though there was a municipal finance dispute.” He added, ” Everything on the backside has been up and running and everybody’s connected at a local level, at a state level, at a federal level.”
“I’m happy that it came into a successful resolution,” Feeney told WBUR last week. “You know, not an ideal process, but certainly one that was necessary to get the ‘yes.’ ”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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