"Foxboro Stadium is quintessential New England. The permanent home of the Patriots - thanks to stadium owner Bob Kraft, who purchased the team in 1993 using the lease as a purchasing wedge - is as raw as a New England winter and as chilly as a New England spring, with no frills and seldom many thrills (14-50 record through 1993). Being a Patriots fan is like serving on an Atlantic fishing boat: lots of ups and downs, plenty of wet weather and not a lot of excitement.
Billy Sullivan owned the franchise when it played at Boston University. It "graduated" to Fenway Park, then to Boston College and Harvard, before Bay State Raceway owner E.M. Loew offered a piece of land less than an hour from Boston, Worcester and Providence.
A vote was won from the townsfolk of Foxboro - the only town whose selectmen can decide NFL Monday night football schedules - and the first game was played less than a year after groundbreaking.
It's a very basic stadium with one big bonus - great sightlines. There are good seats everywhere. And $10 million has been put into improvements since Kraft bought the stadium, with another $60 million promised.
Former Coach Bill Parcells said he became convinced of fan support when 42,810 showed up for a Jets game in 1993 with bonechilling winds gusting to 68 mph, accompanied by relentless sheets of rain."
As written by The Sports Staff of USA TODAY in "The Complete Four Sport Stadium Guide" for Fodor's Sports
On August 14, 2000 as written to Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal Pat Sullivan writes: The listing of of public-private breakdowns of stadium costs [July 17, 2000 - Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal] listed the cost of Foxboro Stadium as $61 million. That is slightly off the mark. Foxboro Stadium was built in 327 days for slightly more than $7.1 million, which was $200,000 over its initial budget of $6.9 million. At approximately $100 per seat, Foxboro (designed by David Berg and built by J.F. White Construction) remains one of the great stadium construction miracles of all time.
It is also a miracle for another reason. Since 1971, well over 15 million people have passed through Foxboro's turnstiles at literally no expense to the taxpayers of Foxboro or Massachusetts. Because of a then unique ticket surcharge, the town of Foxboro has been paid millions of dollars. Unlike many of the stadiums built or proposed today, direct, attributable revenue has been generated by this arrangement.
These agreements and the stadium itself represent the tireless efforts of my father; William H. "Billy" Sullivan, to ensure the long-term viability of pro football in New England. His tenacity and creativity built Foxboro Stadium. As an example, he established one of the nation's first naming-rights agreements in 1970 when he persuaded Schaefer Brewing Co. to put its name on the facility. The price: a whopping $150,000.
