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One Year Later, New Patriots Stadium Privately Financed and on Schedule

FOXBORO, MA-Creative financing on the part of New England Patriots team owner Robert Kraft has enabled him to fully privately finance the building of a new $350-million football stadium here.

By Naomi Grossman | Updated on February 08, 2001

FOXBORO, MA-One year after construction began, the new football stadium for the New England Patriots here is on its way to becoming the largest privately-financed entity in the history of this state. Team owner Robert Kraft financed the $350-million project that is still on budget and on schedule.

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.

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