Report: Bruins’ owner Jacobs forced to pay back nearly $14 million to community

A group of Boston teenagers, calling themselves the Hyde Square Task Force, have uncovered a decades old clause in the construction agreement between Boston Bruins owner and TD Gardens chairman Jeremy Jacobs and the city of Boston that reveals the city’s residents are owed $13.8 million from the team.

The Task Force found that TD Garden and its parent company Delaware North (owned by Jacobs) have failed to comply with a 1993 state mandate that requires them to raise funds for recreation centers in the area that were never built. In short, Jacobs just never fulfilled his promises. Given his track record, it’s unlikely he ever really intended to in the first place, however representatives from TD Gardens are calling the situation an “oversight”.

“Since when is ignorance of the law an excuse not to follow the law?” asked Lorrie Pearson, 17, a member of the Hyde Square Task Force. TD Gardens and the Jacobs crew are doing their best to distance themselves from any wrongdoing, with a representative merely saying, “TD Garden and DCR are committed to working together to develop a much clearer sense of everyone’s obligations moving forward and a resolution on the matter with realistic and relevant information.”

Don’t hold your breath on getting any of that cash though, kids. Just ask any Bruins fan about Jeremy Jacobs and his money. After all, this is the guy who removed water fountains from the rink so that fans would have to pay for bottled water…