FOXBORO, Mass. — A test run at Gillette Stadium last week for the Friendly Match between Brazil and France gave Foxboro town leaders some insight into how the World Cup matches may go this June.
“Safety and security is the number one goal of these events,” said Chief Michael Grace of the Foxboro Police Department. “To have an international game of this magnitude, 63,000 people, it was excellent.”
Overall, Chief Grace says it was a great event from a safety standpoint, with no arrests, but the biggest concern was the traffic.
He gave a debrief of the event to the Foxboro Select Board Tuesday night.
“It was a 4PM game and it collided with commuter traffic, and there’s too many cars and not enough roadway,” said Chief Grace. “I’ve never sat here and said I can fix the traffic – I can mitigate it to the best of our ability, but there’s only so much you can do.”
Chief Grace says they were bombarded with ride shares clogging side streets and forcing gridlock on 95 and Route 1, which led to some other issues for residents.
“Using people’s yards as bathrooms and things like that,” said Amy LaBrache, a Foxboro Select Board member.
Chief Grace says because of the traffic, about 7,000 fans didn’t make it inside the stadium for the start of the match.
“We can’t change the infrastructure, we can’t change 95, so the only thing we can control is messaging,” said Chief Grace.
That messaging is to beware of game days during the World Cup in June and July, and work from home if you can.
“It’s asking way too much of our community now, I mean when it takes a poor senior citizen 30 minutes to get from Stop and Shop to Cross Street that’s too much,” said Mark Elfman, a Foxboro Select Board member.
Luckily the chief says mostly local fans attended the Friendly match, while they’re expecting way more visitors for the World Cup, who may rely more on public transit, like the commuter rail and organized buses from hotels to hopefully mitigate some of the traffic.
“I think we as a board have to start thinking real seriously of when these events are and how they’re now going to affect our community,” said Elfman.
Some select board members say they may start limiting the number of major events the town hosts if it becomes too much of a burden on the residents.
They’re also putting together a community resource guide for Foxboro residents to learn more about the impacts of the upcoming World Cup.
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