The Jacobs family announces a fund for part-time employees...but there’s a catch.

This morning, the Jacobs family announced that they had created a $1.5 million fund to help the in-arena employees that are going without work while the COVID-19 shutdown of the season continues. They are the last ownership group in the NHL to do so, after a lot of public shaming from all sides, up to and including the Massachusetts Attorney General.

Now, if you’re reading that and came across a bit of a hitch in the form of that big, fat, “if”, you’ve probably come to the same realization that a lot of other people did: They’ve piled the money up and are waiting to see if they have to give it out because the season is all but over, rather than just making sure everyone gets a check on time.

Now, a pragmatist might say that “hey, you never know. They could be playing games in stadiums soon enough," like losing almost a month’s worth of games is something you just come back from, and for those optimists in the crowd, I cannot overstate how much everyone else around you values that in these trying times. Never stop being you.

The more rational mind however, will correctly point out that the Jacobs family dragged their feet on something that every other team in the league got to before they did in spite of some not exactly being cash-solvent, and are now hanging onto it for the next three weeks to see what happens.

I hate to break it to you through a sports article, but this COVID-19 thing isn’t going to be a month-long hiatus from polite society. We’re at the point where we’re almost going to need a second training camp in the middle of April and that’s if we’re lucky. This isn’t going to be solved in a day. It’s not surprising, given the priorities of Jeremy Jacobs and Delaware North in the past, and for some fans that is an acceptable evil they’re willing to put up with in order to see their hockey team win a Cup...but your hockey team shouldn’t have to be shilling for GoFundMe's for the in-arena people.

Brad Marchand shouldn’t feel like he has to break his Twitter silences that he reserves for trolling fans for this:

If I were a PR guy for DNC, I don’t think the guy that was the focal point on the side of the owners during the last two lockouts would want this to be the reaction, but how can it not be? The Jacobs family, who runs Delaware North and the Bruins, is worth $3.2 billion US and makes a boatload of cash every year off the backs of part-timers like the ones in Boston who work Bruins and Celtics games. The B’s and Celts are some of the most financially successful teams of the sport they’re in.

The money they put together is pocket change in comparison to the sheer amount of cash they rake in every year. You can absolutely stand to get those checks out. Because those arena folks that sell your Delaware North food? They need that cash now. Places that could possibly fill that loss of income aren’t hiring in the middle of a pandemic. Many rely on that income for various things as most do, and in the Boston area? That money doesn’t go to waste. This is an expensive place to live. Hell, it’s an expensive area to live in. It’s no wonder that The Athletic found some employees were still a little gun-shy about this.

It is a bad, bad look from an ownership group that frankly, could stand to show a little more compassion. Read the room, and pay these people what they’re owed for making the in-arena experience possible.

If, and it's a big if, we're all just misreading the statement and the money is already being dispersed, then cool. But in the meantime while we wait for April, please do go to the Gofundme and donate if you can.