Wild Raise Season-Ticket Prices NYC FC Hires Claudio Reyna As Football Dir Haslam Apologizes To NFL Owners Kings Seeing High Demand For Season Tix NHL Franchise Notes NYC FC Owners Still Hopeful On Queens Stadium NYC FC Key To Building Man City Brand Leiweke Seeks To Make Raptors Canada's Team Bobcats Apply For Hornets Name Change Orioles Wait For Luxury Suite Sales
Upcoming Conferences and Events
SBD/30/Franchises
PATRIOTS' KRAFT WEIGHS FUTURE AS HE FACES $13M LOSS FROM '94
Published January 30, 1995
Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, who told the BOSTON GLOBE that his team lost over $13M in '94, has called on the State of Masssachusetts to back up promises made to him when he bought the team last year. In a front page exclusive, Kraft said "commitments he thought had been made to him prior to buying the team have drowned in a sea of political rhetoric," and has left him "pondering the Patriots' future, both short-term and long- term." Kraft said Gov. William Weld and state officials have "abandoned promises of $15 million" in state aid for improvements to Foxboro Stadium and Route 1, and that a plan to "relieve the stadium's financial situation must be worked out within six months or he will have to decide to sell or move the team." Kraft: "I can last like this maybe two or three more years, but if I don't see something happen in the next six months I'll have to do some planning." Kraft originally thought $15M in state aid would go to short term stadium improvements, while plans for a megaplex in Boston moved forward. Those plans "appeared to die last week" when a summit of legislative leaders announced that private sector backers had four months to come up with money to finance a domed stadium. If there is no megaplex, Kraft is seeking "roughly $50 million in state backed financing" to allow renovation of Foxboro Stadium, including new luxury suites and club seating. Although Kraft states he "cannot go on like this indefinitely," he wants to stay in MA: "I am a local boy. I grew up in Boston" (Ron Borges, BOSTON GLOBE, 1/29).




