Kraft Group Cuts 5% Of Gillette Stadium Full-Time Work Force
Patriots Exec Dir of Media Relations Stacey James said that 5% of Gillette Stadium's "full-time work force received pink slips" on Friday, according to Thomas Grillo of the BOSTON HERALD. The layoffs "will affect employees who worked in food and beverage service, the ticket office, security and marketing." James said the "reduction in force does not include Patriots, Revolution or Kraft Group employees." James said that 5,000 employees work for the Kraft Group worldwide, but he said that he "did not know how many employees worked at the stadium prior to the cutbacks" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/15).
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Patriot Place Will Include 15 Restaurants, A
Luxury Hotel, And Healthcare Facility |
PATRIOT PLACE: In Boston, Charles Pierce writes under the subhead, "Why Robert Kraft's Patriot Place Is The Model For The New Age Of Pro Sports." Patriots Owner the Kraft family has spent $350M to "launch a singularly ambitious retail and entertainment project unlike any seen anywhere else around the league, a 1.3 million-square-foot development that eventually will include at least 15 restaurants, a luxury hotel and spa, and a healthcare facility." The development of Patriot Place "seems to be pointing the way forward for many of the other teams in the league," as teams are "looking to maximize the revenues available to them on land they already own." The new Cowboys Stadium being built in Arlington, Texas, "will feature a Hall of Fall Museum," and the Packers "have remodeled Lambeau Field to include an 'Atrium' that can be used more often than the 10 times a year in which the Packers play home games." Patriot Place "trades on its team's success in an almost subliminal way," as its logo is the lighthouse that has "come to be the trademark of Gillette Stadium." But except for the Patriots HOF and some sweatshirts being sold, the Patriots' logo is "practically nowhere to be found in Patriot Place." Patriot Place Dir of Project Administration Ted Fire: "From day to day, the stadium itself is backdrop. It's one more piece of Patriot Place in that it gives the project identity." Pierce notes the Kraft Group leases the space at Patriot Place to tenants, and at the start of the '08-09 NFL season, Patriot Place was 90% full, "if you include commitments from stores not yet open." Pierce: "The whole thing seems like the culmination of a series of mergers decades in the making -- sports wholly merged with entertainment and entertainment wholly merged with consumerism and the corporate culture" (BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE, 11/16 issue).
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