Foxborough, Kraft Group Have Indemnification Agreement in Place; Focus Shifts to Insurance

Foxborough took an important step towards licensing a series of summer concerts at Gillette Stadium after the town and the Kraft Group successfully agreed on a new indemnity agreement for stadium events. 

"What is now in place following many weeks of discussion between our counsel, special counsel and counsel for the Kraft organization is indemnification agreements that are signed and approved," said Foxborough Town Manager Kevin Paicos.

Foxborough's Board of Selectmen Tuesday unanimously approved a motion to acknowledge an indemnity agreement has been reached between the town and the Kraft Group for New England Revolution soccer games and three summer concerts - Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift (two shows) and Kenny Chesney (two shows).

"This has been held up for many months now and we’ve held up full approval for many concerts and soccer [matches]," said Foxborough Board of Selectmen chair James DeVellis. "It is imperative that with the New England Revolution season starting [Saturday] ... that was a catalyst for getting this done [Tuesday]. To put into further context … it sounds like it’s a pretty easy issue but there’s been many hours put into this and I don’t think everyone got exactly what they wanted but got mostly what we wanted and it allows us to go forward."

While significant progress has been made towards granting Gillette Stadium licenses for its summer events, an agreement on liability insurance for events after June 30 still needs to be reached.

"Unfortunately, we don’t have an insurance policy after June 30 because we are not there yet with MIIA," DeVellis said. "I think this gets everybody to where we need to be as best as both sides can with a second effort coming before June 30."

Paicos said he remains confident an agreement on liability insurance will be reached by June 30.

"[Insurance] continues to be negotiated and while I’m quite optimistic that we will achieve that, we don’t have it for [Tuesday]," Paicos said. "We will not have it by the 25th of March when your previous contingent motion expires."

To work around that issue, selectmen approved two motions Tuesday. The first, updates the previous motion approved in January by acknowledging the indemnification agreement has been reached and the licenses for the five summer concerts will be issued contingent upon the successful negotiation of liability insurance. 

The new deadline for an agreement to be made on liability insurance is June 30.

"Other than [extending] this every 30 days, we jointly decided to make it through June 30 because it is going to take a bit of time to get this in place," Paicos said.

Selectmen also voted Tuesday to issue the New England Revolution its event license for matches before June 30 because the town's insurance is in place for events prior to July 1 and the Revs home opener is Saturday, March 23.

"Second motion authorizes soccer games through June 30 unconditionally, continues to authorize soccer games after July 1 but with the condition that the insurance still has to be negotiated," said Paicos.

As for where negotiations currently stand regarding the liability insurance, Paicos said there are currently two options on the table.

• "Kraft Group will take a separate policy, which will insure the town that they will pay for it directly," Paicos said of the first option. 

• "The town will take the endorsement on its policy, which the Kraft Group would pay for," Paicos said. "This is not as good [as the first option] because losses that occur with an endorsed policy will accrue to the town's losses and affect premium. It’s very hard to assess the incremental effect of that so we prefer to have a completely separate policy."

To read more on the indemnity agreement between the town and the Kraft Group, click here.