FOXBOROUGH — Bill Yukna was out shopping the afternoon of March 10 when his phone rang.
On the other end was Robert Kraft.
For the first time in a months-long, high-stakes, and increasingly bitter standoff over who would pay for World Cup security costs in Foxborough, the two central figures in the dispute were speaking directly.
Within 24 hours of that call, a deal was in place that cleared the way for the entertainment license needed for seven World Cup matches at Gillette Stadium, and on Tuesday night the Select Board closed the book on the deal in a unanimous vote.
Yukna, chair of the Foxborough Select Board, had become the symbol of the town’s resistance. The retired CFO of a private equity firm with a deceptively laconic manner was representing a town of less than 19,000 that refused to front $7.8 million in taxpayer money for security at a global tournament.
Kraft, owner of Gillette Stadium and the Patriots and leader of Boston’s bid to bring the games to New England, was the local face of the big-money forces behind the tournament.
Forbes estimates his net worth at $13.8 billion and he is a friend to both FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose organization is staging the largest sports tournament ever with some $11 billion in estimated revenues, and President Trump.
Kraft and FIFA had all the money Foxborough needed to assuage its planning concerns.
But Foxborough had the power to deny the license Kraft and FIFA needed.
After a tempestuous Select Board meeting March 3, talks had devolved further with a volley of barbed statements. At their lowest point last weekend, the pace and urgency of the talks heightened.
But at the time, there was no compelling reason to believe the conversation between Yukna and Kraft would yield an immediate resolution, those with direct knowledge of the negotiations recalled.
“We couldn’t compromise,” said Yukna. “This was not something that we had the ability to say, ‘We’ll do something different.’ There was no choice.”
In fact, the day after Yukna and Kraft spoke, the Boston 26 committee disclosed to the town that FIFA had expressed “deep concern” over whether Foxborough would issue the entertainment license.
If the licenses wasn’t issued by the town by March 17, the committee wrote, “FIFA will have no choice but to cause the World Cup games (that are currently contemplated to be held at the Stadium) to be played at a venue located somewhere other than in Foxborough.”
Behind the scenes, state Senator Paul Feeney, Governor Maura Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, and US Representative Jake Auchincloss, who had all been involved in talks along the way, encouraged the sides to keep talking.
“I spent probably more time in my car and on the phone during these last few days than I have in eight years of being in the Senate ― it was a lot of going from one event to the other and then sitting in a parking lot somewhere in my Jeep Grand Cherokee having a conversation and trying to get this thing done,” said Feeney, himself a former chair of the Foxborough Select Board. “Candidly, there was never a moment that I felt like any side was beyond working through these issues.”
Political pressure on both sides was applied, said one source, with the Kraft Group well aware of what “a disaster” it would be if the games were moved out of New England.
Foxborough for its part signaled it was open to a “creative compromise” about paying the cost of security details over five installments. After the town signaled its agreement with the deal, Kraft picked up the phone.
“I really don’t know how well his people kept him informed about every piece of it, but he seemed to be well informed on at least the basics of everything that we were talking about,” said Yukna.
“I explained to him why we needed it the way we needed it, and he understood. He said he would direct his people to make the adjustments.”
The outline of the conflict emerged in early February, when federal funding from the Department of Homeland Security that would have met the bulk of the town’s security needs failed to materialize.
That was when the Select Board began making the same two points at its meetings: One, just because much of the world’s attention would be focused on Foxborough, that was no reason for the town to front the security costs with taxpayer dollars and then have to chase down repayment later.
As for the second, whoever did end up fronting the security costs would have to follow the lead and advice of Foxborough police and fire on what protective equipment to buy and when, for a complex security strategy that became even more involved after the war with Iran began Feb. 28.
The town’s stance drew an increasingly sympathetic response from the public as the media shared clips from board members expressing their dismay at a procession of witnesses from FIFA, the Kraft Group, and the FIFA/Kraft Group aligned Boston 26 host committee, which was having its own problems raising money.
“There are so many moving pieces that are part of this whole event — you’re talking about multiple agencies, you’re talking about multiple funding sources — it’s the largest sporting event in the world, The logistics alone just really blow your mind,” Feeney said. “And I think sometimes when you get so many moving pieces, it just starts to kind of collapse from the weight of itself.”
The collapse started to feel permanent in the days following a feisty board meeting March 3. But a major stumbling block had been in place for weeks: Satisfying the equipment list and procurement timeline submitted by Foxborough Police Chief Michael Grace and Fire Chief Michael Kelleher.
According to sources with direct knowledge of the talks, the list of new equipment Grace wanted for the department included anti-drone technology, gunshot detectors, sophisticated radios, and BearCat tactical armored vehicles.
Massachusetts officials tried to arrange a loan of some of the equipment from the State Police, with both the state and the Kraft Group thinking the town would never need the specialize equipment again after this summer.
But Foxborough police didn’t want loaner equipment.
March 17, the date set by the board for the license deadline ― was also the deadline for the board to receive more than $1.5 million for the first wave of equipment purchases, and even that was later than what the police department originally wanted.
At the March 3 Select Board meeting, two lawyers from Goulston & Storrs representing the Boston 26 host committee presented a plan in which the Kraft Group would backstop the town’s security expenditures, invoices would be paid promptly, and equipment purchases would be guaranteed by June 1, which was less than two weeks before the first game on June 13.
Town officials said that timeline was far too late.
“Waiting till June 1 is unacceptable ― please don’t do that to me,” Grace told negotiators. “The simple solution is very simple. Fund what we need funded and this issue is over tomorrow.”
Two days later, negotiations deteriorated further when a letter from the Kraft Group about funding commitments and a separate, conciliatory letter from Boston 26 and FIFA that were sent to the town were mistakenly interpreted as evidence of a final agreement.
That set off a swift “there is no deal” missive from the town, which in turn led to the Kraft Group expressing its feelings of being “deeply disappointed” and bewilderment over “what the town requires at this stage to get to ‘yes.’ ”
But the parties got over that exchange and began zeroing in on a solution, which meant agreeing to Foxborough’s original demands for funding and equipment.
Not long after the March 10 call ended, the Kraft Group wired $1.512 million to the town, the first installment of more than $5 million it will pay toward the security plan.
And in return, on Tuesday the Foxborough Select Board delivered the entertainment license that will allow the Kraft Group, Boston 26, and FIFA to host some 65,000 fans each at seven World Cup soccer games beginning June 13.
Globe columnist Shirley Leung contributed to this report.
Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.