Gillette Stadium

The building opened its doors on 11 May 2002, not with football but with a New England Revolution friendly against Dallas Burn, which the home side won 2-0 in front of 22,006. The first NFL game followed that September. Both tenants have shared the same address ever since, an arrangement that lets the club and the league rotate a single pitch between two very different calendars.

That pitch has changed more than once. FieldTurf replaced the original surface in 2006 and was refreshed again in 2021, a maintenance rhythm typical of a stadium that hosts football through the winter and soccer through the summer. Capacity has moved the same way, trimmed down twice since opening — from 68,756 at the start to 64,628 today — as the ownership adjusted seating rather than left the numbers fixed at construction.

Gillette Stadium is also on the calendar for the 2026 World Cup, listed to hold 64,146 for that tournament, a figure close enough to its current NFL capacity that little beyond markings and branding needs to shift between codes.