Birmingham City Council Approves Incentives For HBCU Classic At Legion Field
Legion Field is adding another HBCU football classic to its schedule.
The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to approve an agreement with Morehouse College and Tuskegee University to host their annual match-up for three years, starting this October.
The deal calls for the city to provide up to $500,000 per year in incentives and in-kind services to host the event.
The Tuskegee-Morehouse Classic previously has taken place in Columbus, Ga. — but Mayor Randall Woodfin, a Morehouse alumnus, told the council that organizers “have not felt the support they need” to stay there.
“The schools were looking for a better experience,” he said. “They were out looking for another city to be in. We could either show them what Birmingham had to offer, or they could go to another city.”
HBCU classics are annual football games between Historically Black Colleges and Universities, taking place during the season at a neutral site. Morehouse College is in Atlanta.
Bringing this match-up to Legion Field is part of an ongoing effort to boost the 94-year-old stadium, said Council President William Parker, particularly since UAB will soon be taking its football program to the under-construction Protective Stadium in the city’s downtown area.
“The goal is really to have different football classics every weekend between Labor Day and Thanksgiving,” Parker said.
District 8 Councilor Steven Hoyt expressed skepticism that the game would garner the same type of audience as the Magic City Classic, a game each year at Legion Field between Alabama State University of Montgomery and Alabama A&M University of Huntsville. Hoyt argued that Morehouse’s football program wouldn’t generate enough interest — though he acknowledged that Tuskegee’s football team would.
“I’m just trying to see the projected economic impact of this game and why we’re not offering other local colleges this same kind of package, i.e. Miles College, who has won championships for the last three years or so,” Hoyt said. “
“There seems to be quite a momentum going with respect to that, and last time I checked, Morehouse wasn’t winning that many games … It seems disingenuous to not go to Miles or Tuskegee or one of these other schools where we know in past history an excess of 40,000 or 50,000 attended those games.”
Parker told Hoyt to “stay tuned” for new announcements about Miles College and Legion Field, which he said would be coming “very soon.” Hoyt ended up voting with the rest of the council to approve the contract for the Tuskegee-Morehouse Classic, which is scheduled to take place Oct. 9.
Prediction market trader ‘Magamyman’ made $553,000 on death of Iran’s supreme leader
It's the latest trade drawing scrutiny on the popular prediction market site for appearing to show an insider making profits on military secrets.
Oil prices rise sharply in market trading after attacks in Middle East disrupt supply
The high prices came as U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and retaliatory strikes against Israel and U.S. military installations around the Gulf sent disruptions through the global energy supply chain.
Satellite images provide view inside Iran at war
Satellite images from commercial companies show the extent of U.S. and Israeli strikes, and how Iran is responding.
Mideast clashes breach Olympic truce as athletes gather for Winter Paralympic Games
Fighting intensified in the Middle East during the Olympic truce, in effect through March 15. Flights are being disrupted as athletes and families converge on Italy for the Winter Paralympics.
A U.S. scholarship thrills a teacher in India. Then came the soul-crushing questions
She was thrilled to become the first teacher from a government-sponsored school in India to get a Fulbright exchange award to learn from U.S. schools. People asked two questions that clouded her joy.
Sunday Puzzle: Sandwiched
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with WXXI listener Jonathan Black and Weekend Edition Puzzlemaster Will Shortz.
