Patriots owner Robert Kraft built his fortune in paper and packaging, a business far less glamorous than professional football. So leave it to him to make improvements — and possibly an extra buck — in one of the team's most mundane operations: parking.
An offseason devoted to building a team roster to defend a Super Bowl title also included construction of two satellite parking lots, one more than a mile from Gillette Stadium, that contain a total of 1,164 spaces. The lots are not for fans but stadium employees, who will be shuttled to their posts at Gillette via a new private access road parallel to Route 1.
Until now, Kraft has had to reserve a similar number of parking spaces for these workers in lots closer to the stadium, forfeiting potential income from fans. By moving roughly half of all employee vehicles off site, Kraft frees spaces for ticket holders, who pay $40 to park in Patriots-owned lots.
With 10 to 12 home football games, plus concerts and other large events, the new parking setup could bring in nearly $1 million per year at full capacity, though a team spokesman said stadium lots typically don't fill to the brim because some fans park and walk from private lots farther away.
For a franchise valued at $2.6 billion by Forbes magazine, any extra cash will be relatively small (though $1 million would cover the Patriots' Deflategate fine). In presentations to the Foxborough Planning Board, which approved the parking project, team officials said the primary goal is to improve the fan experience. The new lots and access road will relieve some postgame congestion on Route 1 by taking more than 1,000 employee cars off the road, they argued.
"We continually look at new ways to make improvements, whether modifying our traffic management plans, expanding parking lots, implementing shuttles, or advocating for expanded MBTA service," said Patriots spokesman Stacey James. All those improvements "add up to help reduce game-day traffic" and make stadium access more efficient, he said.
Foxborough Police Chief Edward T. O'Leary said the team's traffic improvement claim is "very plausible" but unproven so far after two events — a preseason game last week and a Taylor Swift concert in July.
"I'm sort of reserving judgment," he said. "We probably won't have an event until the home opener [Sept. 10] to fully test the concept."
Kraft's ability to park workers away from the site and then bus them to the stadium through several of his connected properties serves as a reminder of his sprawling — and still growing — reach around Gillette.
Land for the more distant of the two lots, purchased last year from a company that operated the Clair Auto Group, brought Kraft's total holdings along Route 1 in Foxborough to at least 446 acres, according to property records. That does not include the 24-acre Gillette Stadium parcel, which is owned by the town.
Some private lot owners have interpreted Kraft's latest move as an attempt to draw more fans into spaces he controls.
"He and [his son] Jonathan are good businessmen," said Greg Spier, president of Maystar Realty Corp., which has a permit for 154 spaces near one of Kraft's new employee lots.
Despite owning more than 22,000 parking spots around the stadium, Kraft does not have enough to accommodate a full house of 68,000 fans, plus employees. The towns of Foxborough and Walpole issue special-event parking permits to roughly three dozen businesses near Gillette, who together add about 6,600 spaces. Some charge higher rates than the Patriots.
The permits set precise limits on the number of cars each business may park and prohibit the opening of lots more than four hours before kickoff, though O'Leary acknowledged enforcement historically has been lax.
Last season, however, State Police began auditing private lots, counting cars and checking opening times. Violators were referred to Foxborough police, who issued warnings, but no fines, to owners of nine lots that exceeded their maximum allowable capacities by at least 10 percent.
Contrary to what some owners assumed, the checks were not conducted at the Patriots' request, according to both police agencies and the team, though the Patriots pay for police details during stadium events.
Eddie Yadisernia, president of Guardian Self Storage Inc., another private lot permit holder, called the crackdown "nitpicking" but said he has no complaints about the new Patriots parking system.
The access road runs through a lot abutting his land — the former Motorcycles of Manchester site — yet Yadisernia said he "hardly noticed" the shuttles during the first preseason game.
At Seasonal Specialty Stores, which has a permit for 190 vehicles, manager Michael Small said he was not worried about losing parking business to Kraft. Though he operates one of the farthest lots from the stadium, he believes his location — facing Route 1 but with access to less-busy Route 140 — will protect him.
"I'm one of the only lots with an access point other than Route 1," Small said. "So I believe I won't be affected."
Callum Borchers can be reached at callum.borchers@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @callumborchers.