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.jpg) Gillette Stadium in 2007 | |
  Gillette Stadium Location in Massachusetts  Gillette Stadium Location in the United States | |
| Former names | CMGI Field (May 11–August 4, 2002) |
|---|---|
| Address | 1 Patriot Place |
| Location | Foxborough, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 42°05′28″N 71°15′50″W / 42.091°N 71.264°W |
| Public transit |  Franklin/Foxboro Providence/Stoughton Line at Foxboro (regular service for Franklin/Foxboro Line, game days only for Providence Line) |
| Owner | Kraft Group |
| Operator | Kraft Group |
| Executive suites | 82 |
| Capacity | American football: 64,628 (2023–present) [1] 65,878 (2015–2023) 68,756 (2002–2014) Soccer: 20,000 (expandable)[2] |
| Record attendance | 71,723 (concert; Ed Sheeran, July 1, 2023) |
| Field size | American football: 120 yd × 53 1/3 yd[3] Soccer: 116 yd × 75 yd |
| Surface | FieldTurf (2006–present) Grass (2002–2006) |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | March 24, 2000 |
| Opened | May 11, 2002 |
| Construction cost | $325 million ($551 million in 2023[4]) |
| Architect | HOK Sport (now Populous) |
| Project manager | Barton Malow[5] |
| Structural engineer | Bliss and Nyitray, Inc. |
| Services engineer | Vanderweil Engineers[6] |
| General contractor | Skanska[5] |
| Tenants | |
| New England Patriots (NFL) (2002–present) New England Revolution (MLS) (2002–present) Massachusetts Minutemen (NCAA) (2012–2016, 2018) Boston Cannons (MLL/PLL) (2015, 2024–future) New England Revolution II (MLS Next Pro) (2020–present) | |
| Website | |
| gillettestadium.com | |
Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is 22 miles (35 km)[7][8] southwest of downtown Boston, Massachusetts and 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Providence, Rhode Island. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL) and the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS). It opened in 2002, replacing the adjacent Foxboro Stadium.[9][10] It also served as the home venue for the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Minutemen football team in 2012 and 2013, while on-campus Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium underwent renovations; it continued to serve as a part-time home venue for higher attendance UMass games through 2018. Gillette Stadium's seating capacity is 64,628, including 5,876 club seats and 82 luxury suites.
The town of Foxborough approved plans for the stadium's construction on December 6, 1999, and work on the stadium began on March 24, 2000.[11] The first official event at the stadium was an MLS soccer game on May 11, 2002, where the New England Revolution defeated Dallas Burn, 2–0.[9][12] Jeremiah Freed was the opening band at the WBCN River Rave on June 9, making them the first band to play at the stadium.[13] Grand opening ceremonies were held on September 9, when the Patriots unveiled their Super Bowl XXXVI championship banner before a Monday Night Football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.[14] The stadium was originally known as CMGI Field before the naming rights were bought by Gillette after the "dot-com" bust.[15] Although Gillette was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2005, the stadium retains the Gillette name. In September 2010, Gillette and the Patriots announced that their partnership, which includes naming rights to the stadium, would extend through the 2031 season.[16] Additionally, uBid (a wholly owned subsidiary of CMGI until 2003) continued to sponsor one of the main entrance gates to the stadium.[17]
Gillette Stadium is served by special MBTA Commuter Rail service from Boston and Providence during events, plus regular weekday service via the Franklin/Foxboro Line, at Foxboro station. The Patriots have sold out every home game since moving to the stadium—preseason, regular season, and playoffs. This streak dates back to the 1994 season at Foxboro Stadium;[18] by September 2016, it had reached 231 games.[18] The stadium is owned and operated by Kraft Sports Group, a subsidiary of the Kraft Group, the company through which businessman Robert Kraft owns the Patriots and Revolution.[19]
The stadium is set to host several matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Due to FIFA rules regarding stadium sponsorships, Gillette will be known as Boston Stadium for the tournament, in reference to the Greater Boston area the stadium sits on.[20][21][22]
History
Foxboro Stadium
From 1971 to 2001, the Patriots played all of their home games at Foxboro Stadium. The stadium was privately funded on an extremely small budget and featured few amenities. Its aluminum benches would freeze over during cold-weather games and it had an unorganized dirt parking lot.[23]
Foxboro Stadium did not bring in the profits needed to keep an NFL team in New England; at just over 60,000 seats, it was one of the NFL's smallest stadiums.[24][25]
In 1984, team executive Chuck Sullivan funded the Victory Tour of The Jacksons, in an attempt to earn more profit for the team. Tickets sales failed, however, and the team's debt increased even further – to a final total of US$126 million.[26] After two unsuccessful owners bought the team and stadium, it was clear that a new stadium had to be built for the team to stay in New England. This is when other cities in the New England area, including Boston (which was previously home to the Patriots), Hartford, and Providence became interested in building new stadiums to lure the Patriots away from Foxborough.[27]
Location discussions
The first major stadium proposal from another city came in September 1993. Lowell Weicker, the Governor of Connecticut, proposed to the Connecticut General Assembly that a new stadium should be built in Hartford to attract the Patriots to move there, stating that a stadium had "potentially great benefit" if it were built. The bill passed in the State Assembly on September 27, 1993.[28]
Back in Massachusetts, there was a proposal to build a "Megaplex" in Boston, which would be the site of the stadium, as well as a new Fenway Park (the home park of the Boston Red Sox) and a convention center. The proposed sites for this hybrid convention center-stadium were along Summer Street in South Boston or at the so-called Crosstown site along Melnea Cass Boulevard in Roxbury, adjacent to Boston's South End. The administration of Massachusetts Governor William Weld pushed for construction of a full "Megaplex" at the crosstown site, with then-new Boston Mayor Thomas Menino favoring construction of a new, stand-alone convention center in South Boston. Ultimately, the residents of neither of these neighborhoods wanted a stadium, and as a result, Menino backed out, fearing that it would affect his chance at re-election.[29] The Fenway Park plan was cancelled after many "Save Fenway Park!" groups popped up to save the historic ballpark.
Kraft then began a plan to build a new stadium in South Boston. In that plan, Kraft was to pay for the stadium himself, hoping to win the support of Weld and Menino. He began to sketch designs, but the project was leaked to the press in December 1996. The residents of South Boston objected to a stadium being built in that location, causing Menino and Weld to become angry at Kraft. Kraft abandoned all plans for a Boston Stadium after the affair.[30] In January 1997, Kraft began talks with Providence mayor Vincent Cianci to relocate the team to Providence and build a new stadium there. The proposed 68,000-seat domed stadium would have cost $250 million, and would have been paid through income taxes, public bonds, surcharges on tickets, and private funds. Residents of the neighborhood of the proposed project were extremely opposed to the project because the surrounding area would have needed massive infrastructure improvements. The proposal fell through after a few weeks.[31]
During a news conference in September 1998, the team revealed plans to build a new stadium in Foxborough, keeping the team in Massachusetts. It was to be funded by the state as well as Kraft himself. This plan brought more competition from Connecticut, as a $1 billion plan to renovate an area of Hartford, including building a stadium.[32] Kraft then signed an agreement to move the team to Hartford on November 18, 1998. The proposed stadium included 68,000 seats, 60 luxury boxes, and had a projected cost of $375 million.[33] As before in Boston and Providence, construction of the stadium was challenged by the residents. Problems with the site were discovered, and an agreement could not be reached regarding the details of the stadium. The entire plan eventually fell through, enraging then Connecticut governor John G. Rowland, who lobbied hard for the stadium and spent weeks deliberating with Robert Kraft.[34] Rowland announced at a press conference that he was officially "a New York Jets fan, now and probably forever".[35] In 1999, the team officially announced that it would remain in Foxborough, which led to Gillette Stadium's construction.[36] After the Hartford proposal fell through, Robert Kraft paid for 100% of the construction costs, a rare instance of an NFL owner privately financing the construction of a stadium.
Design
On April 18, 2000, the team revealed plans for the new stadium in Foxborough.[37] It was announced as a 68,000-seat stadium at a cost of $325 million, with the entire cost privately funded. Boston is thus the only city in professional sports in which all facilities are privately owned and operated.[citation needed] The Kraft Group (owner of the NFL team the Patriots and the MLS team the Revolution) owns Gillette Stadium, the Red Sox own Fenway Park, and TD Garden is owned by Delaware North (the owner of the Bruins) (the Celtics rent the TD Garden from Delaware North).
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Concurrently announced was a new road to access the stadium from U.S. Route 1, and an additional 3,000 parking spaces to accommodate the increased number of fans.[37]
The stadium was designed by HOK Sport (now Populous). Kraft wanted it modeled on M&T Bank Stadium which had opened in Baltimore in 1998. Kraft insisted on it having a "front door" with a Disneyland-like entrance. Populous went through 200 designs before coming up with one that Kraft liked.[38] The entrance includes a lighthouse (which was originally designed to shoot a light 2 miles (3.2 km) high) and a bridge modeled on Boston's Longfellow Bridge.[39] The lighthouse and bridge are now featured on the stadium's logo.
For the first eight years of its existence, the stadium used a video display, with a smaller LED scoreboard just beneath it, at each end of the field. The south side also had a large LED scoreboard in addition to the smaller one. In 2010, the stadium installed two new HD Daktronics video displays to replace the entire previous setup at both ends.[citation needed] At the time of their construction, the larger screen, at 41.5 feet tall and 164 feet wide (12.6 m x 50.0 m), was the second-largest video monitor in any NFL stadium; only AT&T Stadium had a larger one.[40]
Gillette Stadium ranks first among all NFL venues in stadium food safety with 0% critical violations.[41] The Gillette Stadium food service, instead of being outsourced like most NFL teams, is run in-house and is led by the Patriots executive director of foods and beverage David Wheeler.[42]
From January 18, 2021, to June 14, 2021, Gillette Stadium was used as a mass distribution site for the COVID-19 vaccine, with a total of 610,283 shots being administered.[43][44]
Marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a memorial garden was installed outside Gillette Stadium. It has a semicircle of six flowering trees, a commemorative plaque, a mural, and tribute stones with the names of the victims.[45]
2022 renovation project
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On December 10, 2021, a $225 million renovation project was announced. Construction began in January 2022 and was completed in September 2023. The renovations included a new 22,000-square-foot outdoor video board installed at the north end, the largest video board of its kind in the United States.[citation needed] A new lighthouse, which reaches 218 feet at the top, provides 360-degree views of the stadium, Patriot Place, Foxborough, and beyond.[citation needed][promotion?] 75,000 square feet of hospitality and function spaces were constructed to connect the East and West Putnam Clubs, the Dell Technology Suite Levels, and the upper concourse. The construction of these new spaces connected all levels 360 degrees. A new plaza and fan entrance were also built on the stadium's north end.[46]
Events
NFL
The venue has hosted the NFL's nationally–televised primetime season-opening games in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017, and 2019 (when the Patriots unveiled their championship banners from Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, LI, and LIII.) The first ever NFL game at the stadium was held on September 9, 2002, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a 30–14 Patriots victory. The stadium's first playoff game was held the next year following the 2003 regular season. Playing in the Divisional Round against the Tennessee Titans, the Patriots hosted the coldest game (4 °F (2 °C), −12 °F (−7 °C) wind chill) in New England Patriots history. The Patriots won 17–14. The stadium also played host to the 2003 AFC Championship Game, in which the Patriots defeated the Indianapolis Colts 24–14.[47]
The Patriots won the first seven playoff games held at the stadium between the 2003 and 2007 seasons, including the 2007 AFC Championship Game, where they beat the San Diego Chargers to improve to 18–0 and advance to Super Bowl XLII. On January 10, 2010, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Patriots 33–14, giving the Patriots their first home loss in the playoffs in Gillette Stadium. The Patriots suffered their second consecutive home playoff loss on January 16, 2011, in a 28–21 New York Jets victory. During the 2011–12 NFL playoffs, the Patriots defeated the Denver Broncos, 45–10, and the stadium hosted its third AFC Championship, where they won against the Baltimore Ravens, 23–20. However, the New York Giants ruined the Patriots' season by beating them in the Super Bowl for the second time. The following year, they again hosted the AFC Championship game, where they lost 28–13 to the Baltimore Ravens in the final game for long-term Patriots radio announcer Gil Santos. During the Divisional Round of the 2014–15 NFL playoffs, the Patriots avenged their 2012 defeat by the Baltimore Ravens by beating them 35–31. The following week, they defeated the Indianapolis Colts 45–7 in the 2014 AFC Championship. The stadium hosted its sixth AFC Championship game during the 2016 playoffs, as the Patriots defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 36–17. The seventh AFC Championship hosted at Gillette Stadium came the next year, when the Patriots knocked off the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 24–20. In the 2018 season, Gillette Stadium hosted a Divisional Round game, as the Patriots knocked off the Los Angeles Chargers by a score of 41–28 on the way to winning Super Bowl LIII. In Tom Brady's final game as a Patriot, they were upset by the Tennessee Titans in the First Round of the 2019 playoffs with a loss of 20–13. Entering the 2023 season, the Patriots had an all-time playoff record of 19–4 at the stadium.
College football
As part of the UMass football program's move to Division I FBS, the Minutemen played all of their home games at Gillette Stadium for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The stadium is 95 miles away from the UMass campus in Amherst—the longest trip of any FBS member. The Minutemen's on-campus stadium, Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium, was not suitable for FBS football in its previous configuration. Its small size (17,000 seats) would have made it prohibitively difficult to meet FBS average attendance requirements, and its press box and replay facilities were well below Mid-American Conference standards. Additionally, several nonconference teams would not even consider playing games in Amherst. McGuirk Stadium was renovated to FBS standards for the 2014 season, but the Minutemen's current deal with the Kraft Group calls for the Minutemen to play four of their home games in Foxborough from 2014 to 2016 in exchange for keeping part of the revenue from ticket sales.[48][49] Moving forward, Gillette will continue to host UMass football with those games of anticipated larger attendance.
| Date | Away Team | Result | Home Team | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 23, 2010 |  New Hampshire |
39–13 |  UMass Amherst |
32,848 |
| October 22, 2011 | New Hampshire |
27–21 | UMass Amherst |
24,022 |
| September 8, 2012 |  Indiana |
45–6 | UMass Amherst |
16,304 |
| September 29, 2012 |  Ohio |
37–34 | UMass Amherst |
8,321 |
| October 20, 2012 | Bowling Green |
24–0 | UMass Amherst |
10,846 |
| November 17, 2012 |  Buffalo |
29–19 | UMass Amherst |
12,649 |
| November 23, 2012 |  Central Michigan |
42–21 | UMass Amherst |
6,385 |
| September 7, 2013 |  Maine |
24–14 | UMass Amherst |
15,624 |
| September 21, 2013 |  Vanderbilt |
24–7 | UMass Amherst |
16,419 |
| October 12, 2013 | Miami (OH) |
10–17 | UMass Amherst |
21,707 |
| October 26, 2013 | Western Michigan |
31–30 | UMass Amherst |
20,571 |
| November 2, 2013 |  Northern Illinois |
63–19 | UMass Amherst |
10,061 |
| November 16, 2013 | Akron |
14–13 | UMass Amherst |
10,599 |
| August 30, 2014 | Boston College |
30–7 | UMass Amherst |
30,479 |
| September 6, 2014 |  Colorado |
41–38 | UMass Amherst |
10,227 |
| October 18, 2014 | Eastern Michigan |
14–36 | UMass Amherst |
12,030 |
| September 19, 2015 |  Temple |
25–23 | UMass Amherst |
10,141 |
| October 24, 2015 | Toledo |
51–35 | UMass Amherst |
12,793 |
| November 7, 2015 | Akron |
17–13 | UMass Amherst |
6,228 |
| September 10, 2016 | Boston College |
26–7 | UMass Amherst |
25,112 |
| September 24, 2016 |  Mississippi State |
47–35 | UMass Amherst |
13,074 |
| October 15, 2016 |  Louisiana Tech |
56–28 | UMass Amherst |
13,311 |
| November 10, 2018 |  BYU |
35–16 | UMass Amherst |
14,082 |
Ice hockey
Gillette Stadium also hosted the eighth edition of the NHL Winter Classic, between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens, on January 1, 2016.[50]
| Date | Away Team | Result | Home Team | Event | Spectators |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 31, 2015 |  Les Canadiennes de Montreal |
1–1 |  Boston Pride |
2016 Outdoor Women's Classic | - |
| January 1, 2016 | Montreal Canadiens |
5–1 | Boston Bruins |
2016 NHL Winter Classic | 67,246 |
Notable soccer games
Memorable Major League Soccer playoff victories include wins over the Chicago Fire in the 2005 and 2007 Eastern Conference Final, sending the Revs to the MLS Cup. Additionally, the venue hosted MLS Cup 2002, four games of the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, and some Copa America Centenario matches in 2016.
The crowd of 61,316 drawn to the 2002 MLS Cup Final was the largest stand-alone MLS post-season crowd on record until the 2018 MLS Cup in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.[51] The stadium's soccer attendance record would once again be broken on April 27, 2024 during a regular season match between the Revolution and Inter Miami CF, who had signed Lionel Messi the year prior; 65,612 would watch the Revolution fall 1–4.[52]
MLS Cup
| Date | Winning Team | Result | Losing Team | Tournament | Spectators |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 20, 2002 | Los Angeles Galaxy |
1–0 | New England Revolution |
MLS Cup 2002 | 61,316 |
