Robert Kraft Makes Shocking Decision To Cancel All Ed Sheeran Concerts At Gillette Stadium — The Reason Is Not What You’d Expect
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour has already been through a rough stretch at Gillette Stadium. Robert Kraft’s venue spent weeks at the center of controversy after Macklemore’s removal from the opening lineup. Fans heading into this weekend hoped the drama would finally take a back seat to the music.
Instead, a different problem showed up. A powerful nor’easter began tracking toward New England earlier this week. Forecasters warned of serious wind and rain across the region. Stadium crews paused stage construction Thursday while officials watched the storm closely.
By Friday, Kraft and tour organizers made the call. Sheeran’s Friday and Saturday night shows at Gillette Stadium were officially canceled.
Weather Forced A Decision Nobody Wanted To Make
A representative for the tour explained the reasoning in a statement. Stadium and tour management, along with public safety officials, had spent the past week closely monitoring the forecast.
“Due to the severe weather forecast throughout the weekend, the tour has made the difficult decision to cancel the Ed Sheeran concerts,” they told TMZ. “The decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority.”
Forecasters expected wind gusts up to 55 mph in Foxboro. That number came from CBS Boston’s coverage of the storm, which also forecast up to 2 inches of rain.
Ticketmaster buyers received automatic refunds. Everyone else can request theirs through their original point of purchase. Even a planned protest from Massachusetts Peace Action, organized around Saturday’s show, became moot once the concert itself disappeared from the calendar.
The timing only adds to a messy few weeks for the tour. Kraft had already drawn accusations from Macklemore over his removal from the tour’s opening lineup. The rapper made pro-Palestine comments onstage at MetLife Stadium before his exit. Kraft later defended the decision in writing, citing a commitment to keeping hate speech off his venue’s platform.
Refund Complaints Piled Up Before The Storm Even Arrived
That controversy had already created headaches beyond the concert itself.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said her office fielded nearly 200 complaints. Those came from fans struggling to get refunds through Ticketmaster after Macklemore’s exit, well before the weather ever entered the picture.
The backlash also spread beyond Foxboro. A Wall Street Journal report claimed three other NFL owners quietly backed Kraft’s decision to pull Macklemore from the show.
Macklemore pledged $1 million toward Palestinian relief. Kraft then countered with a $2 million humanitarian donation of his own. What started as a booking dispute has turned into a very public standoff over who controls the final word on a private stadium’s stage.
Sheeran’s Loop Tour isn’t done for the year, even with this weekend wiped out. The schedule shows him picking things back up in Atlanta on October 3. That gives the tour a real chance to leave the last few weeks of controversy behind.
