primetime
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2005
- Messages
- 13,627
- Reaction score
- 15,375
Can't believe you of all people are giving Kraft credit for that.
The stadium was only not publicly financed because for once in the past 30+ years the MA legislature actually acted sanely and refused to whore themselves out to Kraft.
Also, Kraft was perfectly happy to accept taxpayer-raping proceeds from Hartford.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the team ended up staying in Foxboro and that he decided to go ahead and use his own money after the state showed him the back of the hand. But it's not like he used his own money because he believes public financing of stadiums is wrong. It's because he weighed his options and decided that Foxboro & using his own money was better for him in the long term than somewhere else & taxpayer financing.
You're right, an owner isn't going to do something out of the good of their heart if it has any impact on the bottom line and I probably am giving Kraft too much credit - I was in my teens when the Hartford and new stadium debates were ongoing so I don't remember a lot of it. But even if the intentions weren't noble, the outcome was good for the public. I'm not certain some of other of Kraft's business ventures have been particularly well thought out (for instance, the outdoor mall in the middle of nowhere in New England, and 10 miles from the Wrentham Outlets, no less) but he can take those risks because he has the Patriots, a veritable money printing machine.