Foxborough officials said Wednesday they’re willing to try to stand in the way of Gillette Stadium hosting 2026 World Cup soccer games this summer if security funding issues aren’t resolved in the next few weeks.
Select Board Chair Bill Yukna said town officials will not grant the entertainment license necessary for the matches to be played in Foxborough until the parties involved figure out who will pay the event’s estimated $7.7 million in security costs up front.
Seven World Cup matches are planned this summer for Gillette Stadium, which will be known as Boston Stadium, for the tournament.
The approximately $7.7 million is needed for security across 39 days, town officials told MassLive on Wednesday, and would be used to cover associated costs for security, medical and communication to host the international sporting event.
While the town may eventually receive federal grant money allocated for this purpose, it would first have to foot the bill and get reimbursed later.
“The town is going to stand behind the request of the $7.7 million for both manpower and some capital and expense items. And if they aren’t met, then as this board has discussed in the past, the license won’t be granted. We are going to be very clear with that,” Yukna said at a Foxborough Select Board meeting Tuesday night.
Foxborough Town Manager Paige Duncan said the town does not have enough money in its accounts to cover such a price tag, and Yukna emphasized the need to protect taxpayer dollars.
“We’ve never believed that we were supposed to come up with the money,” he said.
Foxborough town officials are currently looking to the Kraft Group or FIFA to foot the bill for security costs, but nothing has been decided. The entertainment license must be granted by March 17.
Asked to respond to reports of the Foxborough Select Board’s concerns, Julie Duffy, the chief marketing and communications officer of FIFA World Cup Boston, issued a brief statement from the Super Bowl, where World Cup officials are promoting this summer’s event.
“We are working closely with FIFA, the stadium, and the town of Foxboro to reach an agreement,” Duffy said.
The Kraft Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.
Still, Duncan said she is confident the World Cup matches scheduled to take place in Foxborough this summer will go forward as planned. The town is “thrilled” to host the event, even as a funding source for the security costs remain unclear, she said.
“I actually don’t think that the World Cup isn’t going to happen. I think (FIFA’s) gonna have to find a way to resolve all these issues because they need this event to happen,” she said.
How Foxborough got to this point
Up until November 2025, Foxborough officials were under the impression the Kraft Group would foot the bill for police details and other security costs during the World Cup as it does for New England Patriots games and other events at Gillette, Yukna said.
After discovering this was not the plan — and that neither FIFA nor the Boston Host Committee were set to pay for security costs either — the town of Foxborough applied for the FEMA-funded FIFA World Cup Grant Program. The grant was part of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and is designated to be used on security costs for the tournament.
Massachusetts is slated to get $47 million from the grant, but municipalities such as Boston and organizations such as the MBTA are competing with Foxborough for money, Yukna said.
The Select Board chair was unsure which state agency will decide how the grant money is allocated, but Foxborough was supposed to find out whether it was approved for the $7.7 million on Jan. 30 and did not.
The governor’s office could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.
Duncan said she was doubtful the town would be reimbursed for the full security costs even if they are awarded the grant, but she did not specify why.
Yukna expressed pessimism about whether the issues around the security funding could be resolved in the next month or so. The March 17 deadline would only give the town 90 days to complete all the planning involved for an event of this scale, he said.
Yukna described his confidence level surrounding resolving the security funding issue as “low” on Wednesday.
“I do hope that they take us seriously. That’s why we had to resort to deadline on getting an application submitted to us and now a deadline on getting it finalized,” he said.
FIFA has so far submitted a license application, but not all the details have been agreed upon or finalized, town officials said.
How other cities are responding to steep security costs
There are 11 U.S. cities hosting World Cup matches. While there are no games taking place in Boston, it will be involved in related events. Five more matches will be hosted in Canada (3) and Mexico (2).
The other U.S. host cities are Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Even leaders of larger communities are expressing concerns about the costs associated with hosting the World Cup.
“There’s a little bit coming in, but certainly there is not enough to cover our cost,” said Lisa Gillmor, mayor of the Bay Area city of Santa Clara, California, where six matches will be played, according to Politico. “It’s a tall task to take on.”
Houston and Dallas are pulling tens of millions from Texas’ Major Events Reimbursement Program Fund, Politico reported. Kansas’ Wyandotte County, where Kansas City is located, is considering a new hotel tax.
In November, Massachusetts lawmakers approved $10 million in a $2.31 billion year-end budget that Gov. Maura Healey signed into law — only half of what the governor had requested.
