Eagles Reaction
Apparently, our video left a mark
The Eagles have thrown the challenge flag at the suggestion that money they owe the city could spare the libraries Mayor Nutter wants to cut.
I’m told they didn’t appreciate the headline I slapped onto my blog after posting a video that questions the team’s citizenship:
“Eagles to Libraries: Drop Dead.”
I think this one’s going up to the replay booth for review.
You hear the Eagles are fighting the city over about $10 million, and you think that’s like a rounding error to a team that, according to Forbes, is worth $1.1 billion.
It’s not that simple….
If you remember back to the go-go 1980s, when Philadelphia was flush and the Eagles were not, taxpayers helped by letting the team keep the revenue from luxury boxes built at the Vet for 15 years.
The grace period is done, but the Eagles have never ponied up. A judge has said the city is entitled to 70 percent of the revenue from those boxes. That’s about $9.6 million, plus interest.
But when the city sued for that money in Common Pleas Court in 2004, the team made a counterclaim. They seek to be made whole from a 2001 preseason game that was canceled when the new artificial turf at the city-owned stadium was so ragged and uneven that the NFL said it was unsafe to play the Baltimore Ravens.
Eagles president Joe Banner put the losses at $7.8 million for that one game, figuring what the team missed in revenue from ticket sales, TV and radio broadcasts, and concessions.
The case is before Judge Albert Sheppard. Both sides say they are eager to resolve the dispute. The clock ticks….
The Eagles are rightly feeling bruised by my clumsy “Drop Dead” line because they do work in the community for literacy. This year the team made 330 stops in poor neighborhoods around Philadelphia, giving children 37,767 new books, which cost more than $200,000.
Brendan Skwire, who helped create the video about the Eagles and the libraries, is unmoved. He is a grant writer who lives in Kingsessing, which could lose one library, a pool and a sprayground in the cuts.
“I have little sympathy for the Eagles’ hurt feelings mainly because there’s a debt – and until a court says it’s invalid, it’s still outstanding,” he told me.
“They can afford to do this and, given their community relations priorities [kids, literacy, athletics], they should. And it’s outstanding PR value that lasts for years.”
One number keeps coming back to me: $7.8 million for a preseason game. Sounds like a perfect opportunity for a benefit. They could call it the Library Bowl.
Look, let me be clear here. I think it’s great that the Eagles give out books to poor families and neighborhoods. And the bookmobile is a great investment.
But at a time when the city is slated to lose 11 libraries and 63 out of 72 pools, for a “savings” (if you can call foreclosing on a kids’ future “a savings”) of nearly $11 million dollars, that $200,000 the Eagles spent in the service of children’s literacy is a few cents. As I’ve pointed out numerous times, the libraries not only provide books, they provide internet access, community classes for adults, after-school programs for children, and a safe place for kids to go when school lets out and mom and dad work (3 shootings last year, one attempt this year, and a recent shooting right around the corner). Rubin doesn’t say the debt’s been paid back, simply that no decision has been rendered. On the same note, I’m sure Mr. Banner is sincere that his team doesn’t owe any money, but that’s for a judge to decide.
If the Eagles are upset by our video, perhaps they should think a minute about what it means to be a hero. I, for one, would love to be celebrating the Eagles, and anyone else that steps up to the plate to save our city and its resources. And the moment someone steps up, like Ed Snider, I’ll call them out as the heroes they are.
To that end, I’d like to once again point out that Ed Snider adopted the ice skating rinks. Where are the rest of our teams?
December 15th, 2008 at 11:08 am
[...] comments here. [...]
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
hey brendan, it’s isaac’s brother sam – cool blog, thought you might like to know on this subject that the city of San Diego is suing its chargers over 180,000 owed the city from the team. Why can’t we do that?
http://www.kolotv.com/sports/headlines/38067499.html