Kraft Sports and Entertainment LLC and the New England Patriots sued the town of Foxborough in Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, accusing local officials of improperly squeezing them for renewed entertainment license fees tied to Gillette Stadium.
The complaint says the town repeatedly misused its state-granted licensing authority to extract funds the plaintiffs call unlawful, and that the conditions Foxborough placed on renewal of the stadium’s entertainment license exceeded the town’s statutory authority because they amounted to an illegal tax.
In the filing, the plaintiffs point to a statutory ceiling that allows the town to charge no more than $100 annually to renew an entertainment license and say Foxborough used a routine April renewal as a pretext to demand roughly $1 million in new administrative fees. CBS News reported that Foxborough officials sent an invoice for more than $950,000 in April 2026; the suit says that new charge is on top of about $4 million the Kraft Group already pays each year for special-detail services for town police and firefighters.
Context for the escalation is recent friction over World Cup security costs: in March, Foxborough Select Board members threatened to withhold the entertainment license needed for seven World Cup matches at Gillette Stadium unless the Kraft Group paid $7.8 million up front for security, a dispute that was later resolved after the Kraft Group pledged to underwrite those costs. (FilmoGaz previously wrote about the stadium’s role hosting matches this summer: Gillette Stadium to Host Matches as Eight Nations Visit Foxborough in June.)
The complaint frames the April invoice and the broader licensing demands as more than a billing disagreement: it calls the town’s tactics an unlawful extraction of funds. Foxborough, for its part, says the 2026 provision was written to reimburse the town for vital public safety and other municipal services necessary to support large-scale events at the stadium and that residents should not be asked to subsidize municipal costs associated with privately operated events.
The legal fight narrows to a statutory and practical question: does a town have authority to condition an entertainment-license renewal on sizable reimbursements for municipal services, or do those conditions cross the line into an impermissible tax that state law forbids? The plaintiffs allege the latter; Foxborough frames the same charges as reasonable reimbursement for services such as police and firefighter details at major events.
The case was filed Tuesday in Norfolk Superior Court. The lawsuit does not specify a hearing date; the next formal step will be a court ruling on whether the contested license terms are valid. A decision for Foxborough would validate the town’s ability to seek larger reimbursements tied to stadium events; a decision for the Kraft entities could curtail how municipalities impose conditions on entertainment licenses and shift the cost burden for stadium-related public safety back onto local governments or event operators.
At stake for Foxborough taxpayers and for the Kraft Group alike is who will ultimately pay for the municipal side of large, privately run events at Gillette Stadium — a question the court now must resolve.
