Gillette Stadium

New England Patriots

About Stadium

In Foxborough, Massachusetts, located 24 miles southwest of Boston and 20 miles northeast of Providence, Rhosde Island is Gillette Stadium, the home of the NFL’s New England Patriots. It’s not only their home field, but it also acts as the team’s administrative offices.

In addition to being the home of the Patriots, it also plays as the home field to Major League Soccer’s New Egnland Revolution and the University of Massachusetts’ Football program since 2012.

The stadium is owned and operated by Patriots’ owner’s company, Kraft Sports Group, which is a branch of his larger operation, The Kraft Group. This group not only owns the Patriots, but also MLS’ Revolution, as well.

Upon its completion the stadium was known as CMGI Field, but after the “dot-com bust,” the naming rights were purchased by Gillette who renamed the field. Gillette has since been bought out by Procter & Gamble, however the stadium retained the name due to Proctor & Gamble still using the Gillette brand.

The Patriots have sold-out the stadium every preseason, regular season, and playoff game dating all the way back to the 1994 season when they still played at the old Foxboro Stadium.

Gillette Stadium was a privately funded project with a budget of $325 million and a final seating capacity of 68,000 in the venue. In the same way that the Boston Red Sox own Fenway Park, the Patriots team owns Gillette Stadium.

When first proposed, owner Robert Kraft envisioned the stadium being modeled akin to the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium which had opened a year earlier in Baltimore. The construction team eventually went through 200 designs before settling on one that Mr. Kraft liked and approved of.

•Capacity: 66,829

•Opened: May 11, 2002

•Playing Surface: FieldTurf

•Location: 1 Patriot Place

Foxborough, Massachusetts 02035

History

• On December 6, 1999, the local town of Foxborough approved the plans to build a stadium on their grounds, and ground was broken on the project on March 24, 2000.

• The stadium was first opened on May 11, 2002 for a Major League Soccer contest between the New England Revolution and the Dallas Burn, with the Revolution winning by a score of 2-0.

• The Patriots didn’t open up their new home stadium till September 9 of 2002 when a large ceremony was held to celebrate the Patriot’s Super Bowl XXXVI Championship before a Monday Night Football match-up with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

• The stadium has opened up the NFL regular season on primetime three different season: 2004, 2005, and again in 2015.

• On January 10, 2010 the Baltimore Ravens stunned the Patriots and their fans by handing the Pats their first home playoff loss in impressive fashion, beating them by a score of 33-14. Their second home playoff loss would come against the division rival Jets on January 16, 2011by a score of 28-21.

• Even though it’s located 95 miles from the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, in 2012 the stadium and the university agreed to have Gillette Stadium be the new home of UMAS’ football program.

Past and Current Teams

New England Patriots (NFL) (2002–present)
New England Revolution (MLS) (2002–present)
UMass Minutemen football (NCAA) (2012–present)
Boston Cannons (MLL) (2015–present)