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Robert Kraft and Steve Wynn on Friday began to tap into the free media of cable access to sell Foxboro residents on their vision of a jobs-and revenue-producing Route 1 resort and convention with an "intimate" rather than a gaudy, Las Vegas-style casino.
Their approximately 10-minute tape appealing for local support for what Wynn called an "exemplary" and "fanciful" destination began to air last night on Foxboro Cable Access.
"I think this is a place I would make feel intimate," Wynn, who built casinos in Las Vegas and China, says of his concept of a Foxboo casino, to be located unseen in the back area of the hotel. The project would generate some 10,000 jobs, he says.
Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, says that any money he makes from the $1 billion development would go to charity and to "Uncle Sam," to improve the Kraft family legacy, but that if townspeople don't want the project, it won't be built.
"I'm worried about what's going to happen to our social fabric if we don't bring jobs back to America," Kraft says.
Their messages was scheduled to aired at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on Comcast Channel 8 and Verizon Channel 39, FCA executive director Mike Webber said. The video can be seen anytime on FCA's website, fcatv.org
"The vision and promises about the benefits of the casino presented in the video appear to be contrary to the vision of those citizens who do not want a casino in Foxboro," Selectwoman Lorraine Brue said.
"The video suggests that the citizens decide if it is in their best interest to have this project move forward. To date, the majority of citizens I have spoken to are not in favor of having a casino in our town."
With Foxboro facing "one of the most important decisions in the history of our town," Brue said she expects a large turnout at Tuesday's selectmen's meeting and at a forum tentatively set for Dec. 17 at Foxboro High School, and hopes the Kraft and Wynn organizations will be there "to ensure they receive direct citizen input on their proposal."
"I believe the majority of the citizens will tell Mr. Kraft and Mr. Wynn, that with all due respect, their vision is not one that is compatible with life in Foxboro. Foxboro citizens and the surrounding communities do not want a casino and all of the negative social impacts they believe it will bring."
Selectmen Chairman Larry Harrington could not be reached for comment following Friday's airing of the tape.
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