Robert Kraft is an American business magnate who is the chairman and chief executive officer of The Kraft Group, a diversified holding company interested in paper and packaging; sports teams New England Patriots, and MLS team New England Revolution. He also owns the Major League Soccer team New England Revolution. The president of the Independent Spirit Awards for 2008 also owns a film production company that has produced several movies since 1990 and television shows, including Project Runway.
Robert Kraft made his fortune in paper and packaging. His father, Harry Kraft, a Russian-born immigrant who started a scrap metal business in Bronxville, New York, gave Kraft $1 million to buy his first business, Rand-Whitney Packaging Corp., with partners. Kraft built Rand-Whitney into a multi-million dollar company before merging it with another company to create International Forest Products.
He bought the National Hockey League’s Hartford Whalers in 1994 and moved the team to North Carolina, where they became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997. The sale of the Whalers to Peter Karmanos ultimately led to Kraft’s eventual purchase of Foxboro Stadium. Five months after the Hurricanes moved to Raleigh, he bought a 50% share of English Premier League soccer club Leeds United with an option to become majority owner in 2002, when Leeds was one of England’s best-supported and most successful teams. However, Kraft declined due to Leeds’ financial problems and sold his interest soon after.
Robert Kraft has also been the majority owner of the New England Revolution since 1996 and served as the club’s president from 1995 until 2006. He bought New England’s share of Gillette Stadium, home to both teams, for $106 million in 2002. Since then, he has repeatedly sought to expand the seating capacity of Gillette Stadium. In 2003, he won a zoning variance from the City of Foxborough to increase capacity by over 10,000 seats from its original 15,000. See related link for additional information.
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