France’s 2-0 win over Morocco in the quarterfinal round of the World Cup was the seventh, and last, game of the tournament played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. Which means that Gillette Stadium can now return to being Gillette Stadium.
Which also means that it’s out with the grass, in with the surface that only eight percent of all players prefer.
Which also means that someone (or more than one someones) will be removing the pieces of tape applied to the “Gillette Stadium” labels on more than 64,000 seats.
That’s still one of the most amazing wrinkles of FIFA’s rider for hosting World Cup games. The sponsor’s names had to be entirely removed from each venue, in large ways, in small ways, in all ways.
How many extra hours of work will it take to remove the stickers that eradicated all evidence of Gillette? It comes down to how many stickers can be removed per hour. As one per minute, that’s still more than 1,000 hours. Which means it would have taken more than 1,000 hours to put them on in the first place.
Regardless of the cost (and the ensuing profit) for Gillette Stadium or the 10 other NFL venues hosting World Cup games, it was worth it. It’s become the predominant national sporting event of the summer of 2026.
The five remaining games will be played in Miami, Kansas City, Atlanta, Dallas, and New Jersey. Amazingly, SoFi Stadium in L.A. didn’t get a semifinal or the final.
Say what you will about L.A. (and I can say plenty), but SoFi Stadium is the best venue of the 11 that were used for the World Cup, far superior to MetLife Stadium, the site of the championship match in eight days.
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