Blank is a dedicated Democratic supporter, having donated thousands to Hillary Clinton's campaign, the Bullock Victory Fund, which backs the party's 2020 candidate for Montana senator, Gov. We were living in a single-bedroom apartment in Queens. But its the NFL itself that should be held to greater account and responsibility than it ever is. America has long struggled to deliver a fair and equitable democracy to all of its citizens. >> I listen to what he says and sometimes I'll cringe. Do it in November. But staying in the city and trying to work with the community definitely beats the usual stadium construction scam and unwanted racial division that has become far too common in sports today. Young you are. And that's it. And he had to mop the floors for weeks and months on end. More must be done to address the underlying issues that have led to these incidents across the country. But We Aint Seen Nuthin Yet. We've broken every season ticket record per game. 9. We need to recognize those truths. The Gruden e-mails were leaked from a (way too) long-running investigation of the toxic (i.e. And next thing I know, he was sitting on his knees and with a gun to his head. . A study by ESPN and FiveThirtyEight in October 2020 showed Blank is a bipartisan contributor to political campaignsbut contributed more to Democratic candidates from 2012 to 2020. Blank, who is worth about $6.2 billion, per Forbes, is one of the higher donors among Biden's billionaire backers, who outnumber Trump's at 134 to 101, although more of Biden's backers have given the $2,800 personal maximum. So it was good. The latest of Blank's many charitable endeavors is aimed at helping the museum expand its reach. A Handful of Things I Could Not Care Less About, Matt Birk: Rape Victims Are Playing the Rape Card?, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But really, in my view, it's mostly that talking to young people about, you know, here's somebody who's been there, done it, gotten on T-shirts, lived it, and somebody whose name they respect or the least they know of, I should say, in most cases. Arthur Blank on NFL kneelers: 'Players have no interest in being disrespectful to flag' Political Insider By Jim Galloway, Political Insider Trump is apparently referencing a highly sourced. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. Two Gruden compadres, ex-Gophers star and former NFL coach Tony Dungy and his ESPN partner Mike Tirico, both black, are in a bad spot for defending Gruden about his michellin [sic] tires description of another black guys lips. Arthur Blank, owner of Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, co-founder of Home Depot . Now, there's no place for violent protest. The Atlanta Falcons new stadium is going to be beautiful. Theres at least one more level to the Jon Gruden disaster that NFL fans should consider about the leagues remarkable influence. It's hard to believe. Those come first. Seventy-threethousand stood up and clapped, gave him a great hand. It starts with respect. We Have Every Reason To Expect a Lot More from the NFL, no promises that it will reveal everything it has found out. However, the Atlanta Falcons new home, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, may foster a new era of stadium construction and community engagement. Continued: https://t.co/yePGJUaGVV, Ive got a lot of love and respect for police officers., We dont want to see Targets burning. Blank also contributed $28,500 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2008. The statement reads: "We are at our very best. Home Depot cofounders Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus have long been on separate sides of the fence when it comes to politics. Blank is a strong supporter of the Democratic Party. And part of that is reducing our environmental impact.. Another Home. They all understand it's, you know, you have an opportunity to be here on Earth and how do you want to leave it? But I would keep raising my hand. We dont have the answers, but we are committed to listening and responding to the people who have made this their lifes work and to the citizens they serve. Friday on Political Rewind: Mary Rodgers grew up among some of Broadway's biggest names, from Sondheim to Bernstein. 7) Your support makes this possible. I concede, as others who know him personally have, that Im stunned that a guy like Gruden who has been a high-profile media/cultural presence for over 20 years, regularly giving live interviews, chewing up air time as a TV analyst and obliging all the other requests for personal contact that go with being a football celebritry could conceal his essential meat-headedness so long and so well. But that was typical of my mother. Blank's statement did not specify any initiatives or call any elected officials or political parties by name. And they've worked collectively for the United States, for everybody in this country, 330 million people. They want to have a home-field advantage. /Producer ( Q t 4 . And he recently gave $250,000 to committees supporting Joe Biden, Forbes reported. What I Learned Over One Cup of Coffee Yesterday Morning, You Want to Laugh at Liz Truss and The Brits. In 2014 it emerged that Bruce Levenson, who owned the NBAs Atlanta Hawks, had written an email that amongst other things theorized that the black crowd [at Philips Arena] scared away the whites, adding for good measure: I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black. Levenson later that year sold his stake in the franchise, and the Hawks have worked hard to win back their black audience. The Falcons were the first pro football team in the South, founded during the civil rights era in 1965. A Member of the Blank Family of Businesses. And it was early on a Sunday morning. 03/03/2023. In 2022, they plan to connect with over 1 million voters/ potential voters through phone banking, text banking, in-person canvassing events, and going door to door. So everything is designed to accommodate the soccer fans so they feel like this is their place as a result of that. So when we started, MLS was ranked like 22nd among all the leagues in the world. Falcons owner Arthur Blank spoke with reporters during a 10-minute teleconference from the Super Bowl. So, I would say it was very successful. We Present You Trumps Deposition, More or Less Verbatim. >> But Still Not Even an Indictment. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. He's done a lot of work in terms of animal rights, which has been great and been appreciated by all of those agencies and all those institutions. The trouble is that the NFL is not coming clean on that investigation. He would say, I don't need to be cut any slack, you know. But he was there and he finally said, Listen, you own the franchise, you have the option. I mean, I was stuttering when I was senior class president, [and in] student government. Good Company is billed as a visionary road-map for creating successful businesses. !, And listen to me, be careful where you are getting your information to JOIN protests!! It's a beautiful thing. I listen to what he says and sometimes I'll cringe. Both John Lewis John, just a month before he passed away and Andy Young have said to me that we do have to recognize that things are better than they used to be. So we spent six months maybe talking to fans, or people that were not fans, but were, you know, living in the Atlanta area at that time, and we found out that there were four or five things we had to fix. stream << So the answer would be yes. Ticket pricing was higher than it could have been or should have been at that time, and so I brought Dick Sullivan over from Home Depot, the gentleman who now runs our PGA Superstores and we came up with a strategy that we've got to sell season's tickets for $100. It doesn't mean we agree on everything, we don't, but that's healthy," he said. But, you know, I needed to change my view on what I could give back and how it could be connected to other people.. Blank, who is Jewish, also addressed the administration's failure to recognize the losses suffered by the Jewish people during the Holocaust. The family foundation has already invested over $20 million into the surrounding community. 5) To anyone interested in a deeper dive into NFL culture I strongly recommend, Big Game by New York Times Magazine writer Mark Leibovich for an inside-the-suites sense of who says what to who when its more or less just them peer billionaires talking. GPB is committedto bringing you comprehensive news coverage from Georgia, across the country and around the world. Arthur Blank greets a crowd of cheering Atlanta United fans in 2017. Left to right: Dennis Ross, Arthur Blank, Bernie Marcus, Pat Farrah, Ron Brill. Additionally in 2014, the Atlanta Braves announced that they were building a new stadium outside the city in the northern suburbs, and leaving Turner Field, which was originally the site of Centennial Olympic Stadium for the 1996 summer games. In a statement released on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium Twitter account, attributed to Blank, he said Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation leadership conveyed his sentiment directly to state officials in recent weeks. How? ,> U#kw1%dHT6qZq]9Ki o You can change your choices at any time by clicking on the 'Privacy dashboard' links on our sites and apps. Nationality: United States Executive summary: Co-Founder of Home Depot. One reporter asked Fontenot whether he thought the Falcons were getting Watson. In a time when more than half of Americans are dissatisfied with the state of our democracy, the most powerful way to demonstrate and have our voices heard is through the vote. This is chaos and were buying into it. Arthur is committed to changing the narrative around sports stadiums, said Frank Fernandez, the VP of Community Development at The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, to The Daily Beast. Theres a revelation of Blank stumbling dazedly into a parking lot after being abruptly forced out of Home Depot in 2001, and his devastation after the Falcons epic 2017 loss in the Super Bowl. Blank writes about being teased for having a stutter. About Arthur Blank Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus cofounded Home Depot in 1978 after being fired from their jobs at a regional hardware store. But the level where this Gruden idiocy touches the countrys perilous moment is where the NFL arguably one of the most popular and therefore influential organizations/corporations in the country could and should use Grudens buffoonish racism and sexism to make unambiguous statements to its fans, which is to say just about everyone in the country. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images). Pictured is the famous napkin deal that sealed Arthur Blanks agreement with Taylor Smith to purchase the Atlanta Falcons for $545 million in 2001. I think when the president [Donald Trump] in the fall of 2017 commented during his speech in Alabama about I don't want to use the words, you know what they were but he termed the players that were kneeling, in my view, in a very derogatory way. Looting is NOT THE ANSWER!!!! I am, in a certain sense. Organizations also called to move The Masters, which begins April 8. Team owner Arthur Blank, who has high expectations for the franchise, sat down with FOX 5 Atlanta one-on-one to talk football, philanthropy, and Kanye West. The Arthur M. Blank Foundation announced on Wednesday a new series of grants focusing on mental health and well-being in response to America's growing mental health crisis. So it was a great story and is a great story. Were trying to do the exact opposite of that.. "He cares deeply about giving back and making a difference in people's lives. Georgia Public Radio GPTV, a 2019 Report from the EJI documents more than 4440 racial terror lynchings in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950], National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Political Rewind: Theater critic Jesse Green remembers Mary Rodgers in 'Shy', Longtime nature writer Janisse Ray delivers gripping debut novel, At new season kickoff, Atlanta United looks for fresh start on the field. Among Blanks diverse interests are the nationwide PGA Tour Superstore chain, three guest ranches in Montana, and a family foundation that counts millions in economic development investments on Atlantas beleaguered Westside among its $660-million outlay to date. In 1978, both he and future Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank were fired during a corporate power struggle at Handy Dan. Blank told Business Insider that despite their political differences, their different leanings never got in the way of their ability to work together as partners or as friends. In order to put this grinding pandemic behind us once and for all? The league has recently been running in-game PSAs pushing cancer and mental health awareness screenings, etc. And we've had a very successful team for the first threeand-a-half years this year. Please consider making a gift today to support this vital public service. Kemp and the law's backers said it provides some common-sense reformsto ensure elections are secure. I went to a small business school outside of Boston called Babson College I would always sit in the front because I always wanted to pay attention and learn. The wealthy propose tax increases on the poor and middle class to pay for their new stadiums, and they claim that new businesses flocking to the area will magically cover the costs. And the great political leaders in the past, they were civil and they were good listeners. And so think about the implications of the choices you're making for yourself and for your loved ones, etc. Over the next two years (2021-2023), we will create an inclusive relationship with and among these grantees to share ideas, best practices, lessons and challenges. They put my mother, my brother and I in the living room with one of them and the other was searching the house, looking for cash that wasn't there. The statement came about five days after Gov. In their sixth season of Major League Soccer, the Five Stripes bring some new faces onto the field this year. In our case, the fans, customers, guests or grantees, whatever the case may be, you're going to find out the ultimate truth of what you need to do to build a business response to issues, spot opportunities, deal with problems, whatever it may be. /ColorSpace /DeviceRGB It's the fans. The problem for the big, powerful, macho NFL, as it is for every other giant public entity, is that racism and cancer are kind of the easy stuff. In Fall 2021, we launched our new Democracy program area with $10 million in grants designed to strengthen key democracy organizations to be resilient for the long haul of this work. Bernardo Little . Lawlessness, vandalism and intentionally upending the peace with any form of violence has never been productive and is not the answer. 14, He also had three children with his second wife of 16 years, Stephanie Blank. /Creator ( w k h t m l t o p d f 0 . ATLANTA - Atlanta Falcons Owner Arthur Blank released a statement on Saturday following President Donald Trump's comments on Friday about the NFL. Looting is NOT THE ANSWER!!! But in any event, that was part of just being a good listener. 17. Expand. Animals and Pets Anime Art Cars and Motor Vehicles Crafts and DIY Culture, Race, and Ethnicity Ethics and Philosophy Fashion Food and Drink History Hobbies Law Learning and Education Military Movies Music Place Podcasts and Streamers Politics Programming Reading, Writing, and Literature Religion and Spirituality Science Tabletop Games . What Does Hamline Not Understand About Academic Freedom? Paul, are you there? His daughter Dena is the executive director of the Kendeda Fund, a left-of-center private foundation founded by her mother, Diana Blank. American professional sports owners have contributed nearly $47 million in federal elections since 2015, according to research by ESPN in partnership with FiveThirtyEight, including $10 million. In 1978, they co-founded the home-improvement retailer The Home Depot, with the help of merchandising expert Pat Farrah and New York investment banker Ken Langone who assembled a group of investors. My dad didn't look at who it was. When you find common solutions that work for everybody and [are] respectful of everybody to represent the best of you. So, that represents that melting-pot philosophy: Were all in this together. Mercedes-Benz Stadium will also be home to Atlantas MLS team, Atlanta United FC. Bernie has great values and Bernie cares deeply not only about our faith, but about giving back. The largest donor was Falcons owner Arthur Blank. The ones in Atlanta on Friday started off peaceful but later turned into violent demonstrations and looting of local businesses. So we designed our stadium to accommodate not just for the Atlanta Falcons and National Football League football American football but soccer as well. I worked with him for over 40 years and we shared the same bathroom for over 30 years, which is more than any of our marriages lasted," said Blank, who's currently valued by Forbes at about $6.2 billion. I mean, those fans, they feel like that's the only sport that we're hosting in that stadium. And if all goes to plan, its also going to help a depressed community thats heard big talk before. Arthur Blank is worried that capitalism is getting a bad rap. But my mother would say to me, You know, what you have to say is important. By all accounts, those associated with the new stadium and the Westside view their presence as at least a 10-20 year commitment toward revitalizing a downtrodden community and bringing the city together. /BitsPerComponent 8 Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur M. Blank released a statement Monday on the importance of fair elections and democracy: "Free and fair elections are vital to the health of our. And I love him. The pair always strove to create a work environment that put people before politics, said Blank. More must be done to address systemic racism. Stop making people feel so fearful. ATLANTA Protests over the death of George Floyd have been gaining national attention. And to be sure, Atlanta is better than what we saw in the actions of a few last night. . Like many other enormous corporations the NFL, selling a slick, bristling mix of testosterone and patriotism, ducks away from anything with a whiff of political conflict. We, Yahoo, are part of the Yahoo family of brands. Though the 78-year-old who's now the owner of the Atlanta Falcons NFL team was aware of their political differences, he said it never had any bearing on their shared values.