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Citizens Campaigning Against Renegade Legislators

By Dave Copeland
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, January 5, 2004

FOXBORO, Mass. -- There was no need to make arguments about the other development that would come if you built a new football stadium. There was no need for journalists to resort to the tired "if you build it, they will come" cliche to start their stories.

No one was going to buy any argument that this normally lazy hamlet needed hundreds of millions in redevelopment dollars.

Save for a few Patriots games and concerts every year, Foxboro is nothing more than a pit stop on Route 1, halfway between Providence and Boston. Always has been, always will be.

So after years of trying to get Massachusetts taxpayers to foot the bill -- even threatening to move the team to Hartford -- New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft became just the third NFL team owner to build his own stadium.

Gillette Stadium was impressive on Dec. 27 as the Patriots played their final regular season game. Although it seats just a few thousand fans more than Heinz Field, its three tiers make it seem much larger than our own recently built stadium.

Kraft borrowed $452 million. He faces $20 million in annual debt payments, but the new stadium is generating $40 million a year just from sponsorships and premium seating sales.

By conventional "wisdom" for financing sports stadiums, Kraft should be crying poor. That conventional wisdom says that teams -- no matter what the sport -- can't possibly pay for a new stadium on their own and remain competitive.

The Patriots finished the regular season with an NFL-best 14-2 record. On top of that, Forbes magazine valued the team at $756 million -- in large part because of the new stadium -- up considerably from the $158 million Kraft paid for the Patriots in 1994.

The Steelers finished at 6-10. Forbes valued the team at $608 million but, in fairness, that lower valuation stems more from the fact that Pittsburgh is a smaller media market than greater Boston. The fact that the Patriots won the Super Bowl the season they moved into Gillette Stadium also helped season ticket sales and boosted Kraft's reputation as a business genius.

Massachusetts taxpayers paid $72 million for infrastructure improvements and road construction around Gillette Stadium, but the team is required to pay that money back over 25 years. Pennsylvania and local taxpayers kicked in $185.5 million for Heinz Field.

No one is expecting the Steelers to pay that money back.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dcopeland@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7922.

Jonathan A. Kraft is the president and chief operating officer for The Kraft Group, the holding company of the Kraft family's varied business interests, which include the three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots. As president of the Patriots, Kraft oversees the management and strategic planning of each department within the organization. He also works closely with his father to represent the Patriots in all league matters and serves on two NFL owner committees.

In March 2006, Kraft designed a revenue sharing plan that led to the ratification of the league's collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the NFL Players Association. His plan provided an outline that led to a final proposal that was ultimately agreed to and ended a month-long stalemate in the negotiations.

Since his family purchased the team in 1994, Kraft has helped rebuild the franchise, bringing long-overdue stability to the once wayward organization. It has been a remarkable transformation, as the Patriots have evolved from worst to first in many categories, both on and off the fi eld.

Once tenants in the league's poorest venue, the Patriots now play in the NFL's premier stadium. Once last in the league in revenues, the Patriots now rank among the league's elite. Once a cellar dweller, the Patriots are now a perennial power. They own the pro football record for consecutive victories including postseason games (21), consecutive regular season victories (18) and consecutive playoff victories (10) and are just the second team in league history to win three Super Bowls in four seasons. Since the Kraft family's purchase of the team in 1994, he has successfully implemented many initiatives that have helped accelerate each of those transitions.

Of all the team's recent achievements, arguably the most signifi cant contribution to the organization's future success was securing financial approval for the construction of a new world-class stadium, the first of its kind in the franchise's 42-year history. Kraft developed the creative private financing strategy for the $325 million construction of Gillette Stadium. Many financial experts dismissed the viability of his plan, which relied on year-round club memberships for new clientele rather than the more conventional sale of private seat licenses to existing season ticket holders. Kraft's unprecedented plan was considered a financial risk, but proved to be universally successful.

Throughout the stadium initiative, no one was more involved in each phase of the project, including the planning, construction, opening and on-going operation and development of Gillette Stadium. Kraft worked closely with stadium designers to create a world-class sports and entertainment facility that would highlight features indigenous to New England. His team not only delivered on the promise of a fan-friendly facility, but did so on time and under budget.

Kraft and the project team also drew praise for innovative environmental practices. In June of 2001, the Environmental Business Council presented the Kraft Group with the Environmental Award for Corporate Leadership. In May of 2002, the Kraft Group received New England's Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the development and construction of Gillette Stadium.

In 2002, Jonathan and Robert Kraft received the Sports Industrialists of the Year award, presented annually by Sports Business Daily. The Krafts opened the year celebrating New England's first Super Bowl Championship. They christened their new stadium just a few months later, earning various awards and acclaim for the project. They negotiated a new naming rights partnership with Gillette and celebrated a spectacular grand opening by hosting the 2002 season premiere of Monday Night Football as Super Bowl champions, presenting both the stadium and their 2001 Super Bowl banner to the fans of New England. One month later, the Krafts' Major League Soccer franchise, the New England Revolution, won the eastern conference to qualify for the MLS Cup, which drew over 61,000 fans to Gillette Stadium, the largest single-game crowd in MLS history.

Prior to the Kraft family's ownership, the Patriots fan base was limited in range and scope. As a lifelong Patriots fan, Kraft was committed to expanding the Patriots fan base through an innovative multi-media outreach. Under his directive, the Patriots in March of 1995 became the first professional sports team to launch an offi cial website. Just two years later, the team debuted the first use of streaming video, offering a nightly video update. Since then, streaming video has been a constant feature on the team's website. The technology is also used to broadcast "Patriots Live!" featuring live feeds of every Patriots press conference. The Patriots' other Internet initiatives include a highly successful ecommerce division, providing Patriots fans around the world easy access to Patriots merchandise and apparel. In 2004, the team showed their commitment to globalizing the Patriots brand when they launched the NFL's first Chinese-language version of their website.

In April of 1995, the Patriots began publishing Patriots Football Weekly, the first and only full-color weekly publication offered by a sports team. It appears on newsstands throughout New England and is distributed to Patriots fans throughout the world.

Following the Super Bowl XXXVI championship, Kraft commissioned the production of a DVD entitled "3 Games to Glory," providing fans an opportunity to re-live three of the most memorable games in franchise history. Since then, he has overseen the production of its sequels, "3 Games to Glory II" and "3 Games to Glory III," each featuring over five hours of behind-the-scenes content on a two-disc DVD set. The Patriots remain the only team to produce and sell such extensive commemorative DVDs.

Since Robert Kraft's purchase of Foxboro Stadium in 1988, Kraft has helped bring many world-class events to Foxborough, including international soccer matches and concerts. Past performers include The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Elton John, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd and The Dave Matthews Band. For his efforts, the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, Inc. presented him with the "Spirit of Tourism" award for promoting tourism and economic activity in the Commonwealth.

A Williams College graduate, Kraft also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is on the board of directors for several organizations, including the U.S. Soccer Federation, Citizen's Bank of Massachusetts and Children's Hospital Trust. He is also on the board of trustees at Williams College, the Belmont Hill School and Park School.

Kraft is active in youth athletics, coaching Pop Warner football, youth soccer and Little League baseball in the greater Boston area. In 2006, he was the recipient of the Warner Award, named after Glenn S. "Pop" Warner. The award is presented annually and is considered Pop Warner's highest honor.

Kraft and his wife, Patti, have three children.