Foxborough, MA Homeowners Rent Their Yards for Parking for the FIFA World Cup

World Cup Parking Near Gillette Stadium: Why Your Best Spot Might Be Someone's Front Lawn

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is officially almost here, and for the thousands of fans heading to matches at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, the excitement is real and so is the parking challenge.

With official stadium lots priced at $175 per spot and only 5,000 spaces available directly to ticketholders, fans are already looking for alternatives. And as it turns out, some of the most creative solutions are coming straight from the neighborhoods surrounding the stadium.

A Neighborhood Parking Economy Is Born

Residents living near Gillette Stadium are no strangers to game-day parking. For years, homeowners in the area have quietly offered their driveways and lawns to concertgoers and football fans. But the World Cup, with its global scale and intense demand, has brought a whole new wave of neighbors into the mix.

There's just one catch: not every town plays by the same rules.

In Foxborough, where the stadium is located, a 2012 bylaw prohibits residential parking lots entirely. Only businesses can apply for temporary parking permits, and with very limited grandfathered exceptions, homeowners inside Foxborough town limits simply don't have a legal path to participate.

South Walpole Steps In

That's where neighboring South Walpole comes in. The town allows residents to obtain annual stadium event parking lot licenses through the Select Board, and this year, homeowners are taking full advantage.

Justin Burdon, a South Walpole resident who lives about a mile from the stadium, went through the licensing process and received approval for 26 spaces. He plans to charge $100 per spot and expects to personally wave people onto his front lawn on game days when the traffic backup makes driving any further simply not worth it. If all his spots fill for all seven matches, he's looking at over $18,000 in total income, not a bad return for a front yard.

His sister-in-law, Emily Burke, is doing the same thing just down the road. She received approval for 27 spaces, also priced at $100 each. She points out that her street has a dirt path at the end that connects directly to the stadium, about a ten-minute walk, making it an especially attractive option for fans who want to skip the traffic and get moving.

For both of them, the motivation is part financial and part community spirit. As Burke put it, she's looking forward to meeting fans from all over the world right from her own front yard.

The Numbers Behind the Demand

To understand why homeowners are willing to go through the permitting process, it helps to look at the scale of what's coming. According to FIFA World Cup Boston, 5,000 parking spaces in stadium-controlled lots are being sold directly to ticketholders. Another 6,000 spaces are available in satellite lots. For an event that draws international crowds to a relatively suburban venue, that supply is going to get stretched.

The $100 private lawn spots represent a meaningful discount compared to the $175 official rate, and for fans arriving without a pre-purchased pass, the choice becomes pretty straightforward: sit in traffic and hope for availability, or pull into a neighbor's yard, save $75, and walk ten minutes to the gate.

What This Means for the Area

For residents of South Walpole and surrounding towns, the World Cup isn't just something happening nearby, it's arriving on their doorsteps. Streets that normally see quiet suburban traffic will be welcoming fans from dozens of countries over the course of the tournament. Foxborough officials have noted they expect parking demand to be roughly in line with other large-scale events the stadium has hosted, like the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, and say the town's infrastructure should be able to handle it.

But for the neighbors who are showing up at the end of their driveways with hand-waved directions and entrepreneurial energy, it feels like something bigger. As Burdon summed it up: the whole world is coming to Foxborough.

Heading to a Match? A Few Tips

If you have tickets and you're planning your game-day logistics, here are a few things worth knowing:

Official parking passes ($175) can be purchased directly through FIFA World Cup Boston and are reserved for ticketholders. Satellite lots offer an additional 6,000 spaces. Private lawn parking in South Walpole runs around $100 per spot and can fill quickly on game days. If you're driving, arriving early is your best insurance policy. And if you find yourself a mile out and gridlocked, keep an eye out for the neighbors waving you in. They've done their homework, they have the permits, and they'll get you there on foot faster than your GPS will.