URI to Pay Pawtucket Soccer Stadium Hundreds of Thousands for Rental in 2026
The Biz of Sports
URI to Pay Pawtucket Soccer Stadium Hundreds of Thousands for Rental in 2026
URI in the agreement has contracted to play five home games in 2026 at the Pawtucket facility due to construction on Meade Stadium at the school's campus in Kingston — the price tag for updating the stadium is $65.8 million.
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The costs, in part, are estimated for a crowd of 3,000 to 5,000 attendees at each game, according to the agreement.
The stadium is paid for in part through public funds, but neither the state nor the host city has any ownership interest in the stadium. It is owned by a group led by California-based Brett Johnson.
Rhode Island taxpayers are on the hook for $140 million in bond payments to finance the stadium.
Due to construction at URI's home field, the school signed an agreement with the stadium ownership, Tidewater Stadium (TWS), secured by GoLocalProv through a public records request.
Big Cost —
The agreement provides that URI will pay TWS in three primary ways and then, a host of additional fees and charges:
URI will pay a $30,000 per-game rental fee. With five games, this totals $150,000.
In addition, the University will cover all expenses for the games, with the cost ranging from $25,000 to $40,000. This includes everything from the production and cleaning costs.
The agreement also provides for TWS to score $4 per ticket.
The additional fees pile up too:
- The stadium provides none of the merchandise — sweatshirts, foam fingers, and the rest, but will be receive 20% of the merchandise revenue.
- TWS also retains two of the nine suites.
- TWS and URI will split suite, loge and midfield pavilion revenue 50/50.
- URI to retain three (3) 12-person loges for their use, loges may be sold, if sold, revenue to be split 50/50
- URI receives none of the food and beverage revenue
- Nor does URI receive any of the parking revenue
In total, URI will pay TWS approximately $55,000 per game in rental fees and expenses that could rise to $70,000 per game, plus $4 per ticket. If URI averages 5,000 ticket sales per game, the payment to the stadium would be an additional $100,000.
The total payment to the privately owned stadium could rise to as much as $500,000 for the five games, depending on expenses and ticket fees.