FOXBOROUGH – The redheaded stepchild of the Boston sports community has finished out its final season of existence with its $325 million replacement looking over its shoulder.
Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and then Sullivan Stadium, will be put out of its misery in due time and unlike the Boston Garden and, someday, Fenway Park, not one area sports fan will shed a tear at the loss. Not with the brilliance and beauty with which it is being replaced.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft took the long way from Foxboro Stadium to the site of his CMGI Field located just across the parking lot.
After a tough battle with the notoriously rigid Massachusetts politicians, Kraft signed a deal in November 1998 with Connecticut Governor John Rowland to play his team’s home games in Hartford. The Patriots’ owner changed his mind five months later and took virtually no money from the Commonwealth to help build a state-of-the-art facility right next to the old stadium.
The result is what National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has called the Camden Yards of football, referring to the way that ballpark reshaped the way baseball stadiums were built.
From day one, Kraft and fellow Patriots executives wanted the new stadium to have a look and feel that is distinctly New England. After seeing the plan in action, there is no doubt that the group accomplished its mission.
Fans will be beckoned by the beams of light from a mock lighthouse located at the stadium’s main entrance. As they approach the gate, fans will pass under an old-style bridge that can only be described as Walden-esque. Along each side of the main entrance are wide access ramps that will allow fans to ascend to whatever level their seats are located with ease.
The general admission seats will not change, in number at least. There are roughly 60,000 seats at Foxboro Stadium, a number that will be equaled at CMGI. The difference, however, will be in the club seating and luxury suites. Six thousand seats between the 20-yard lines are available only through 10-year commitments at between $3,750 and $6,000 per year.
Another two thousand fans will be seated in the 80 luxury boxes located behind the reserved seating section. Like the club seating, luxury boxes also require a 10-year commitment and include year-round availability to the businesses that rent them. Companies may hold banquets, important meetings, or wine and dine an important business partner any day of the year.
Unlike the old stadium, CMGI has a specific seat for everyone with a ticket. Of the 60,000 seats in Foxboro Stadium, 53,000 are on benches without backs. CMGI Field has a chair back seat – with cup holder – for every Pats fan. The average seat width at the new stadium is more than two inches wider than the bench space given to patrons at Foxboro (19 inches to 16.5 inches) while club seating will allow for even more room at 21 inches wide.
Along with the added comfort of a backrest and improved seating room, other improvements will reduce the strain on fans’ eyes, necks, and ears. The Patriots will have two giant video boards in the stadium that are of high definition. Fans will not be required to do as much squinting in CMGI because of the extra screen and gigantic size of each (48 feet by 27 feet).
The seating situation at Foxboro has strained plenty of necks in its 28-year existence. Many of the benches are placed in tough angles for the fans to see the action, sometimes pointing toward a corner of the field, but every one of CMGI’s seats have a bird’s eye view, looking squarely at the 50-yard line.
The public address system at Foxboro had two volumes during Patriots games: hushed whisper and insanely loud. The fans seated near the single point sound system would feel their ears ringing for hours after the game, while virtually everyone else in the stadium heard the announcements as nothing more than a murmur.
The sound system at CMGI is of the highest quality. It is called a full stadium distributed sound and was described by the tour guide as surround sound for the fans. Thankfully, bleeding ears will be a thing of the past at Patriot games.
There will be an easier, more casual flow to attending the games. The concourses are two times wider than those at the old stadium, allowing for much easier passage to and from the seats. There are twice as many bathrooms and 250 more concession areas in the new stadium.
Complimenting the concession stands are wide-open areas behind the seating sections above each end zone. These will be available for anyone and everyone with a great view of the field, enough room to stretch out, and picnic tables to enjoy a hot dog or two.
Fans can take all the time they need getting back to their seats as CMGI tour guides promise fans that no security guards will bother bystanders checking out the action from that vantage point, no matter how much of the game they spend at either location. Providing a more family-style atmosphere, this policy will allow the fans spending money for seats in the higher sections to feel more comfortable about enjoying the game from a closer view.
Even the fans flocking to the concourse area to grab a beer or a pretzel can stroll instead of jog, because there will be over 1000 television monitors within the stadium, compared with 500 in Foxboro. But patrons won’t even have to look for a monitor, as the concourses are layered so there is a perfect view of the field of play from the walkways.
Even the fans that stay in their living rooms to watch Patriots games can rejoice over the new stadium. CMGI will improve their favorite franchise in two major ways.
First, the improvement of revenue from the luxury boxes and club seating will improve Kraft’s ability to give free agents big signing bonuses. So the extra money – once it pays off the cost of building the most expensive stadium ever built solely with private funding – will help the Patriots woo players with extra incentives.
Second, the level of improvement has done nothing short of amazed the current Patriots players. Tour guides and CMGI construction workers both passed along stories of players walking into either the training area or the weight room and simply glowing in excitement. The weight room at CMGI field will be more than four times larger than the current closet-sized one in Foxboro Stadium. The large slab of concrete has trouble generating much hot water and gave trainers and conditioning coaches almost no extra room to work with players. CMGI has a bevy of training rooms and promises hot showers for everyone.
Fans, players, and executives are all pleased with the new stadium, which, combined with 2001’s unexpected success, will help promote the New England Patriots as one of the top franchises in the entire NFL.
He may have been forced to take a few detours to move over an acre or so, but the extra mileage sure seems to have paid off for Bob Kraft and the Patriots.
