By Greg Ryan, Bloomberg
A small Massachusetts town is threatening to block seven Boston-area World Cup games this summer unless someone else steps up to pay for the millions of dollars of security costs that local officials say they can’t afford.
Though billed as taking place in Boston, the games will actually be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, about 20 miles southwest of the city’s downtown and home to the National Football League’s New England Patriots. And Foxborough’s budget can’t handle the expected $7.8 million in police and related public-safety expenses, local officials say.
Without an agreement to cover those costs, Foxborough is threatening to deny FIFA the entertainment license it needs to hold the games, which include opening round matches for England and France and a quarterfinal knock-out game.
“It’s not the town’s responsibility,” Foxborough Select Board Chair Bill Yukna said in an interview.
Foxborough has just 18,000 residents. The projected multimillion dollar security bill equates to about 7% of the town’s annual budget and is more than half of what it spends in total on public safety in a normal year. Neither FIFA, Boston’s World Cup host committee nor billionaire Robert Kraft’s Kraft Group, the owner of Gillette Stadium, has committed to handle the costs for the games.
The town has set a deadline of March 17 to sort out the funding. After that, it’s not feasible to purchase and put in place all of the security infrastructure that would be needed in time for the start of the World Cup in June, according to local officials. They said the town’s worked for months to prepare for the event while waiting for the funding issue to be resolved.
The World Cup is generally considered the biggest global sporting event in terms of viewership and cultural impact. Millions of fans from all over the world are expected to travel to North America to take in this year’s tournament.
The tension between cities and their responsibilities for hosting the games is spreading. A fan festival planned for Liberty State Park in Jersey City was canceled this month, even though tickets had already been sold.
President Donald Trump in October said he would seek to move World Cup games out of Boston if he thought the city wasn’t prepared or if conditions were unsafe, criticizing Boston Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu in particular. Wu has previously said the city is looking forward to hosting the games.
Massachusetts has applied for $46 million in federal funding for World Cup security. That money will be spread across events including a fan festival in Boston, measures needed to guard against terrorist attacks and, Foxborough hopes, its public safety costs. But the grant hasn’t been secured yet and the funds may fall short of what’s needed, Yukna said.
Massachusetts’ funding application covers only about half of the total expected needs for state and local agencies, according to a report to state legislators. The money for World Cup security is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is affected by the current shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are in the final stages of reviewing applications to ensure proper oversight,” a representative for FEMA said. “No funds have been awarded yet under the FIFA World Cup Grant Program.”
Leaders in Massachusetts are optimistic about finding a solution, even with the deadline fast approaching and few outward signs of progress.
“I’m confident all of that will get sorted out, and we’ll have what we need,” Governor Maura Healey told reporters last week.
The Kraft Group typically covers security costs for concerts and football games held at Gillette Stadium but FIFA is the one seeking a license for the World Cup games. FIFA declined to comment about the impasse.
At a Foxborough Select Board meeting last week, Yukna asked Mike Loynd, the chief executive of the Boston host committee, and FIFA 26 venue operations director Kevin Clark which entity is responsible for security funding. When neither initially responded, another town official quipped, “therein lies the problem.”
Loynd ultimately said the committee has contractual responsibility for stadium safety but “the question is how is that then assured.” Clark deferred any question about funding to the town and stadium operator.
Foxborough is in talks with the Kraft Group about that organization putting up at least some of the funds temporarily to resolve the standoff and then getting reimbursed when the federal grant comes through, Yukna said. But “we’re just not at a point yet where we have solid information about what they will or won’t do,” he said.
A Kraft Group spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Boston’s organizing committee has estimated the World Cup games will generate more than $1 billion in economic activity in the region, though officials in Foxborough itself, which lacks the hospitality infrastructure of the capital city, expect to see a fraction of that.
The benefit will likely be comparable to any other event that’s hosted at Gillette Stadium, Select Board Vice Chair Stephanie McGowan said at last week’s meeting.
“This is not a money maker for this town,” McGowan said. “In fact, it’s probably more of a headache than it’s worth.”
–With assistance from Sarah McGregor.
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