Kaid Benfield Archive NFL & LISC assist community sports facilities with grant program
Posted July 13, 2011 at 1:27PM
This seems like a great project. Excerpted from the press release, with only minor changes from me:
The National Football League is supporting the development and renovation of community sports fields with 13 new grants totaling $2.5 million being directed to schools, parks and facilities across the country.
A partnership between the NFL Youth Football Fund and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the NFL Grassroots Program has awarded more than $30 million in grants over 13 years to local nonprofits focused on the health and welfare of their communities, especially the children in their neighborhoods. The latest round of grants supports new and upgraded (football and multi-sport) fields in the following NFL cities:
| Team Affiliation | Field Location |
| Arizona Cardinals | Phoenix, AZ; Riverside Elementary School District |
| Atlanta Falcons | Atlanta, GA; Park Pride |
| Buffalo Bills | Buffalo, NY; Buffalo Legacy Project |
| Chicago Bears | Chicago,IL; Parkways Foundation |
| Cincinnati Bengals | Cincinnati, OH; Cincinnati Public School District |
| Cleveland Browns | Toledo, OH; east Toldeo Junior Football League |
| Minnesota Vikings | Minneapolis, MN; Minneapolis Public Schools |
| New England Patriots | Nashua, NH; Nashua School District |
| New Orleans Saints | New Orleans, LA; Algiers Economic Development Foundation |
| Philadelphia Eagles | Camden, NJ; Camden Board of Education |
| St. Louis Rams | St. Louis, MO; PHL, Inc./St/ Louis Public School District |
| San Diego Chargers | San Diego, CA; Sweetwater Union High School District |
| San Francisco 49ers | San Francisco, CA; South San Francisco Unified School Dist. |
The NFL Grassroots Program is administrated by the NFL Youth Football Fund and LISC, which provides financing and other support to community development corporations across the country. The program has resulted in the construction or renovation of 243 football fields nationwide since its inception. Fields are newly built or significantly renovated, with improvements such as irrigation systems, lights, bleachers, scoreboards, goal posts and turf. Grassroots grants are issued once established funding thresholds are reached for each project.
For more details, start here. I'm annoyed these days at the NFL labor dispute, which may or may not be nearing resolution, depending on which report you hear or read. But the league and the teams deserve credit for all sorts of greening operations (some assisted by my NRDC colleagues), including this one.
Added 11.18am July 13:
According to a story by Mike Jones in today's Washington Post:
"The Washington Redskins are installing 8,000 solar panels in a FedEx Field parking lot that will generate enough electricity to supply a portion of the stadium’s power on game days and all of its electricity the rest of the week, according to people with knowledge of the organization’s plans . . ."
The full story also includes references to greening efforts by the Seattle Seahawks, Philadeplphis Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, and Arizona Cardinals.
Move your cursor over the images for credit information.