Boycott the Birds
AMOUNT OF money the city will save by shutting 11 libraries: $8 million.
Amount of money the Eagles have owed the city for years: $8 million.
It’s a tie!
Actually, it’s more than a tie. It’s an outrage. Back in 1985, when the Eagles were struggling financially – yes, back in the olden days, it was possible for an NFL team to be struggling – the city helped out by building sky boxes for the team at the old Vet stadium, and agreed to let the team keep all the revenue for 15 years. After that, the team would pay the city a share of the money.
That money, $8 million, should have come in 2001. It’s seven years later, and the city has yet to see a dime. The city sued the team in 2004 for more than $10 million, including back payments and interest.
It is time to put the thumbscrews to this very large corporate deadbeat, which is trying to get out of its debt by by blaming the city for a lost exhibition game (yeah, I know, cry me a river, a whole exhibition game) and tying up the whole thing in court.
The Philadelphia Eagles make a BIIIIIG show about their concern for kids and for the community. They have a bookmobile and encourage literacy! They build playgrounds! they have a host of educational initiatives.
And yet, when it comes to paying back the $8,000,000 that keeps public libraries open, the Eagles (whose brand new stadium was built with $200,000,000 in public funds) are nowhere to be found. That my friends is the very definition of a corporate deadbeat.
To me, the measure of a man (or a corporation) is not those initiatives undertaken because they provide good PR value or a sweet tax deduction. To me, the measure is what a person or company does when the chips are down simply because it’s the right thing to do. And by that measure, the Philadelphia Eagles fall very short of the goal they should be aiming for. Thus I have the following proposal, which I make with no small degree of sadness as I love football and I love the Eagles:
BOYCOTT THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES UNTIL THEY PAY BACK THE $8,000,000.00 THEY OWE OUR CITY. Don’t go to their games, don’t watch them on TV, don’t buy their memorabilia and branded garments. As the Daily News suggests.
Write to Jeff Lurie, CEO, Philadelphia Eagles; NovaCare Complex; One NovaCare Way, Philadelphia, PA 19145. Tell him what losing your library means and why the Eagles should be better citizens.
If Lurie and the Eagles don’t have the class to settle their debt with the city so children and families will have neighborhood public libraries, then they do not deserve our business. Boycott the deadbeats until they pay up: our city’s kids and families need the money a lot more than a bunch of already-wealthy players, managers, and owners.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
[...] not in the way you might first think. Brendancalling for action: BOYCOTT THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES UNTIL THEY PAY BACK THE $8,000,000.00 THEY OWE OUR CITY. Don’t go … [...]
November 29th, 2008 at 11:59 am
[...] Boycott the Birds … back in the olden days, it was possible for an NFL team to be struggling – the city helped out by building sky boxes for the team at the old Vet stadium, and agreed to let the team keep all the revenue for 15 years. After that, the team would pay the city a share of the money. That money, $8 million … [...]