Agreement reached with town of Foxboro to cover security costs for World Cup at Gillette Stadium

A deal has been reached to get the town of Foxboro, Massachusetts the security funding it needs to host the World Cup at Gillette Stadium in June. The town had threatened to cancel the seven matches if it didn't get $7.8 million for security.

Foxboro says it needs the money to pay for equipment, police and firefighters across the 39 days in which World Cup events will be at Gillette, called "Boston Stadium" for the tournament.

Last week, Boston Soccer 2026, the local partner for FIFA, proposed reimbursing the town up to two days after each of the seven soccer games were played. The town said that was not good enough.  

On Wednesday, Kraft Sports, Foxboro and Boston Soccer 2026 released a joint statement saying the town will not incur any costs.

"As part of this arrangement, the Town of Foxboro 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," the statement said.

This clears the way for the event license for the games to be approved at the March 17 Foxboro Select Board meeting.  

Bill Yukna, the Foxboro Select Board Chair, said he was very pleased "that all of our funding concerns have been addressed."

"I want to personally thank Kraft Sports & Entertainment and Robert Kraft for his involvement in bringing the funding concerns to a resolution," Yukna said in a statement Wednesday. "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."

The first match is at Gillette Stadium on June 13.

Over three million people are expected to visit the Boston area this summer for the tournament.