AUDIO RECORDING: No World Cup Practices at Pawtucket Minor League Soccer Stadium, Admits Owner

AUDIO RECORDING: No World Cup Practices at Pawtucket Minor League Soccer Stadium, Admits Owner

GoLocal secured copies of a memorandum and audio tape capturing the investors and owners of the minor league soccer stadium being built in Pawtucket, discussing that there is little hope of World Cup teams practicing in Rhode Island.

The World Cup will be played in the United States, and multiple games will be hosted at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough in 2026.

The seven World Cup soccer games are coming to Gillette Stadium and are expected to have a $1.1 billion economic impact on New England, and an $800 million impact in Massachusetts, according to Brian Bilello, board chair of Boston Soccer 2026 and president of the New England Revolution. The impact of Providence, especially hotels in the area, may be worth hundreds of millions.

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There had been talk that Pawtucket could potentially be a location for practices or training for one or more of the teams, but that now appears to be highly unlikely.

Due to a deal that Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee agreed to, Rhode Island taxpayers are on the hook for bond payments of more than $143 million to fund the stadium, but Rhode Islanders have no ownership in the stadium.

 

According to the memorandum:

Seth Klempner of Rosemawr — a lead investor in the Pawtucket stadium — asked about "any potential hosting of facilities or practices for the upcoming 2026 World Cup games.”

But, Daniel Kroeber of Fortuitous Partners said, “Several conversations are being had, but has concerns that teams may not want to play on the turf,” according to the memo.

 

 

"Their Guys Won't Play on Turf"

On the audio transcript of the recording, investor Klempner asked if the World Cup teams would be using the Pawtucket facility.

“I was just on the phone with the Israeli consulate that wants to bring the national team over here, which my guess is they probably won't make the World Cup, so maybe they are ones that come over and play some friendlies, but we're thinking about unique ways to do that,” said Kroeber.

“The only thing we have going against us is it's turf, and yeah, these guys won't play on turf," added Kroeber. 

 

Get the State to Pay More

Despite Rhode Island taxpayers already paying more than $142 million to finance the Pawtucket stadium, Kroeber says they may try to get the State of Rhode Island to pay more - specifically, to pay for grass fields to be installed on top of the existing artificial sports turf.

“So we could potentially do what all these NFL stadiums are doing, [which] is put grass in for the for the events if we can get, you know, something that made sense and we get the state to partner with us offsetting some costs to make it make it happen,” said Kroeber.

 

Big Promises - Rugby, Lacrosse, and Women’s Team

Kroeber also outlines that additional programming will be announced.

“I will say there's a lot of other programming that is going really well — not quite ready to announce, but I'm hoping in the coming weeks we'll have some very exciting news on potentially two very, very big concerts in the building we're very close with  Major League Rugby on them having their championship game in the stadium both this year and next year,” said Kroeber.

 “We know that Premier Lacrosse League wants to be there next year. They couldn't get it in their schedule this year, but they're really excited about bringing it to the stadium, and then we're getting closer and closer to finalizing a launch of a women's team, which probably will come out publicly before the stadium opens but probably looking at something around the 2026 season,” he added.