State aid for the stadium was limited to $70 million for infrastructure such as road and sewer improvements, which forced Kraft to be creative in his financing. "This is a different environment here in New England," Stacey James, director of media relations for the Patriots, tells GlobeSt.com. "Around the country there is more public money used in financing stadiums. That wasn't something that was pursued here." The money of his own that Kraft is putting into this stadium is also reportedly more than any other franchise in sports history.

Kraft's financing plan involved locking in very low interest rates for the 25-year term of the loan rather than just for the construction period. This will save him tens of million of dollars in interest payments. In order to do this, the team had to rent a good credit rating from Ambac, a company that leases high credit ratings to low-risk entities who want to lower their interest payments. Reportedly, this is the first time Ambac covered the risk of a professional sports team that was 100% privately financing its project.

Once the team had such a high credit rating, it was able to get into a 28-day auction rate security market. Salomon Smith Barney agreed to a rate swap contract with the team, in which the financial company will continually roll over 28-day loans for 25 years. The Krafts will not disclose how much they paid Ambac and the investment bankers, but reportedly they still come out way ahead.