Foxboro Stadium

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Foxboro Stadium
Image:Foxborostade.png
Location	Foxborough, Massachusetts
Broke ground	September 23, 1970
Opened	August 15, 1971
Closed	January 19, 2002
Demolished	2002
Owner	Foxboro Stadium Associates (former)
Surface	AstroTurf (1971-1990), Grass (1991-2001)
Construction cost	$7.1 million USD
Former names	Schaefer Stadium (1971-1983) Sullivan Stadium (1983-1989)
Tenants	New England Patriots (NFL) (1971-2001) New England Revolution (MLS) (1996-2001) New England Tea Men (NASL) (1978-1980)
Capacity	60,292 (football & soccer)

For the present stadium in Foxborough, see Gillette Stadium.

Foxboro Stadium (or Foxborough Stadium) was an outdoor sports venue located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Although the official spelling of town's name is "Foxborough", the shorter spelling was used for the stadium^[1]

The stadium was built in 1971 as Schaefer Stadium, and it was to be the home venue for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. The Patriots were previously the Boston Patriots of the American Football League, which entered into an agreement to merge with the NFL in 1966 effective with the 1970 season. The Patriots had played their home games from 1963 to 1968 in Fenway Park, home of baseball's Boston Red Sox, which was poorly suited to be a football venue and also had an inadequate seating capacity (only about 40,000 seats).

Foxboro Stadium was built at an announced cost of $4,000,000, a very small amount, even at the time, for a major sports stadium. Because of this, and also the era in which it was designed and built, it had very few amenities of the type that became commonplace at football stadiums a short time later, such as individual seating, "club seats", luxury suites, and deluxe locker rooms for the teams. As premium seating became a major source of revenue for professional sports teams, Foxboro Stadium became functionally obsolete. It also only had about 60,000 seats, among the lowest in the league^[2].

Like the majority of outdoor sports venues built in the U.S. at the time, Foxboro Stadium was designed for the use of an artificial turf playing surface. When this practice fell out of favor in the 1990s due to the supposed higher level of injuries resulting from play on the artificial surface, the field's surface was replaced by natural grass, as it was at many other facilities. At Foxboro Stadium the replacement grass field never seemed to drain properly, resulting in the playing surface often becoming a quagmire during wet playing conditions.

When built it was initially referred to as Schaefer Stadium for the brewery of that name in an early example of the sale of naming rights. When this agreement expired, Anheuser-Busch took over the rights, but instead of putting the name of one of its brands of beer on the stadium, agreed to name it Sullivan Stadium in honor of the family who was at the time the majority owners of the Patriots. Only after the Sullivan family sold their majority interest in the team did it actually become known officially as Foxboro Stadium.

Foxboro Stadium also served as the venue at times for the home football games of Boston College, and hosted numerous other outdoor events, primarily concerts. Some concerts include Paul McCartney, David Bowie, New Kids on the Block, Van Halen (as part of the 1988 Monsters of Rock tour which also featured The Scorpions, Dokken and Metallica), Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, U2, Madonna, Dave Matthews Band, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Guns N' Roses (co-headlined with Metallica), The Who, Genesis and 'N Sync.

English rock band Pink Floyd performed at this venue on what turned out to be their last North American tour to date. Pink Floyd played three sold out shows at this venue on their 1994 tour in support of their album The Division Bell.

The venue hosted six games in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, five in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, the 1996 and 1999 MLS Cups, the inaugural Founders Cup, as well as the WWF King of the Ring tournament in 1985 and 1986.

Foxboro Stadium was demolished after the conclusion of the 2001 season (the season in which the Patriots won their first Super Bowl). The last game played - "The Tuck Game" - in the stadium was played in a snow storm, a Patriots win against the Oakland Raiders, which famously featured an overturned call based on the tuck rule in the final minutes. The stadium's former site is now one of the parking lots of its successor, Gillette Stadium.

Coordinates: 42°5′33.28″N, 71°16′2.91″W

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Schaefer Stadium and The Great Flush

v • d • e Venues of the 1994 FIFA World Cup USA
Citrus Bowl (Orlando) • Cotton Bowl (Dallas) • Foxboro Stadium (Massachusetts) • Giants Stadium (New York/New Jersey) • Pontiac Silverdome (Detroit) • RFK Stadium (Washington, D.C.) • Rose Bowl (Southern California) • Soldier Field (Chicago) • Stanford Stadium (Northern California)

v • d • e 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Venues
FedEx Field (Landover) • Foxboro Stadium (Foxborough) • Giants Stadium (East Rutherford) • PGE Park (Portland) • Rose Bowl (Pasadena) • Soldier Field (Chicago) • Spartan Stadium (San Jose) • Stanford Stadium (Palo Alto)

v • d • e Drum Corps International World Championship Host Venues

Warhawk Stadium (1972-73) • Schoellkopf Field (1974) • Franklin Field (1975-76) • Mile High Stadium (1977-78) Legion Field (1979-80) • Olympic Stadium (Montreal) (1981-82) • Miami Orange Bowl (1983) • Grant Field (1984) Camp Randall Stadium (1985-87,1992,1999,2002,2006) • Arrowhead Stadium (1988-1989) Ralph Wilson Stadium (1990,1995,2001) • Cotton Bowl Stadium (1991) • Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (1993) Foxboro Stadium (1994) • Citrus Bowl (1996-98,2003) • Byrd Stadium (2000) • Invesco Field at Mile High (2004) Gillette Stadium (2005) • Rose Bowl Stadium (2007) • Lucas Oil Stadium (2008-13, 2015–18)

Preceded by Harvard Stadium 1970	Home of the New England Patriots 1971–2001	Succeeded by Gillette Stadium 2002–present
Preceded by first stadium	Home of the New England Revolution 1996–2001	Succeeded by Gillette Stadium 2002–present
Preceded by Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium 1993	Host of the Drum Corps International World Championship 1994	Succeeded by Rich Stadium 1995

Boston/New England Patriots view • talk • edit
Franchise • History • Players • Coaches • Seasons • Strategy • Logos and Uniforms • Division
Stadiums: Nickerson Field • Fenway Park • Alumni Stadium • Harvard Stadium • Foxboro Stadium • Gillette Stadium Culture: Robert Kraft • Jonathan Kraft • Gil Santos • Gino Cappelletti • Pat Patriot • Colts rivalry • Jets Rivalry Super Bowl Appearances: XX • XXXI • XXXVI • XXXVIII • XXXIX Lore: Snowplow Game • Tuck Rule Game
League Championships (3)
NFL: 2001, 2003, 2004

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