Boston World Cup games in jeopardy due to security spending freeze – The Mercury News
By Greg Ryan, Bloomberg
A Massachusetts town is threatening to block seven World Cup games in the Boston area this summer unless someone steps up to pay millions of dollars in security costs that local officials say they can’t afford.
Although billed as taking place in Boston, the games will be played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, about 20 miles southwest of the city and home of the National Football League’s New England Patriots. And Foxborough’s budget can’t handle an expected $7.8 million in police and public safety-related costs, local officials said.
Without an agreement to cover those costs, Foxborough is threatening to deny FIFA the entertainment license it needs to host the games, which include the opening round of matches between England and France and the quarter-final elimination game.
“It’s not the town’s responsibility,” Foxborough Select Board Chairman Bill Yukna said in an interview.
Foxborough has only 18,000 residents. The multi-billion dollar security bill is roughly 7% of the city’s annual budget and more than half of what we spend on public safety in a typical year. FIFA, the Boston World Cup host committee or the Kraft Group of billionaire Robert Kraft, who owns the Gillette Stadium, have committed to handling the costs of these games.
The town has set a deadline of March 17 to prepare the grant. After that, it is not possible to purchase and install all the security infrastructure that will be needed in time for the start of the World Cup in June, according to local officials. They said the city worked for months preparing for the event while waiting for the funding issue to be resolved.
The World Cup is generally regarded as the biggest sporting event in the world in terms of viewership and cultural impact. Millions of fans around the world are expected to travel to North America for this year’s tournament.
Tensions between cities and their obligations to host the games are escalating. A fan festival planned for Liberty State Park in Jersey City was canceled this month, even though tickets were sold out.
President Donald Trump said in October that he would want to remove the World Cup games from Boston if he thought that the city had not been repaired or the conditions were unsafe, criticizing Boston Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu in particular. Wu has said that the city is looking forward to hosting these games.
Massachusetts has applied for $46 million in World Cup security funding. That money will be distributed to events including a fan festival in Boston, necessary measures to prevent terrorist attacks and, Foxborough hopes, its public safety costs. But the grant is not yet available and the funds may be less than what is needed, said Yukna.
Massachusetts’ funding request covers only half of the total expected needs of state and local agencies, according to a report to state lawmakers. Funding for World Cup security comes 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,” said a FEMA representative. “No funds have been released yet under the FIFA World Cup Grant program.”
Massachusetts leaders are hoping to find a solution, even if the deadline is fast approaching and there are few outward signs of progress.
“I’m hoping that all of that will be fixed, and we’ll have what we need,” Governor Maura Healey told reporters last week.
The Kraft Group usually pays the security costs for concerts and football matches held at Gillette Stadium but FIFA is the one who wants the license for the World Cup matches. FIFA declined to comment on the incident.
At a meeting of the Foxborough Select Board last week, Yukna asked Mike Loynd, chief executive officer of the Boston host committee, and FIFA 26 field operations director Kevin Clark which organization is responsible for security funding. When they didn’t respond at first, one city official laughed and said, “there’s a problem.”
Loynd finally said that the committee is contractually responsible for the safety of the stadium but “the question is how that is ensured.” Clark deferred any question about the funding to the city and stadium operator.
Foxborough is in discussions with the Kraft group about the organization putting at least some of the money aside for a while to resolve the dispute and then returning the money when the grant comes in, Yukna said. But “the time has not yet come when we have solid information about what they will or will not do,” he said.
A spokesman for the Kraft Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Boston organizing committee has estimated that the World Cup games will generate more than $1 billion in the economic sector in the region, although the officials of Foxborough itself, which does not have the hospitality infrastructure of the capital, expect to see part of that.
Profits are comparable to any other event hosted at Gillette Stadium, Board Vice Chairwoman Stephanie McGowan said at last week’s meeting.
“This is not about making money in this city,” McGowan said. “Actually, it’s probably more of a headache than it’s worth.”
-Courtesy of Sarah McGregor.
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