In a "stunning turn" for TD Garden, the venue has reached an agreement with the state to pay $1.65M to "help build a youth recreational facility in Jamaica Plain," according to Spencer Buell of BOSTON magazine. The move comes after teenagers "working with the Hyde Square Youth Task force uncovered an agreement" in a '93 law compelling TD Garden to "host three fundraisers a year to support neighborhood recreational centers." However, as is now "widely known, it didn’t." Now, decades later, TD Garden has "responded to the pressure drummed up by the teens and agreed to pay up" (BOSTONMAGAZINE.com, 8/3). In Boston, Milton Valencia in a front-page piece notes the teenagers "staged a protest at TD Garden that had already been planned for Thursday to call on the parties to reach an agreement." Dozens of teenagers and their advisers "attended the rally and held signs in protest" of Bruins Owner Jeremy Jacobs, whose firm Delaware North owns the facility. The teens "calculated last week that TD Garden owed the state" $13.8M." Those teens said that TD Garden and the athletes who play there "could have helped raised the money." Officials said that the retroactive sum was "calculated based on what TD Garden raises in other community-style fund-raisers, particularly the three it holds each year for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/4).
