Firstrust Bank Chairman Richard Green much prefers being in balmy Phoenix over chilly Minneapolis, but otherwise the Philadelphia Eagles minority owner said this year's Super Bowl buildup has been similar to what he experienced when the team last appeared in the big game five years ago, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
For Conshohocken-based Firstrust, though, the difference is drastic because it is now the official bank of the Eagles, which opens up more avenues to leverage that distinction into adding clients and building existing relationships. And that’s exactly what the bank is doing in Phoenix this week.
“All of our staff and our customers are much more engaged in the process,” Green told PBJ.com Tuesday from Arizona, where he is getting ready for Sunday’s game. “Not that you need it a lot to work up any enthusiasm, but there's also a little sense of partnership, of ownership, with our staff. That enthusiasm translates to our clients as well.”
Green originally tried to cobble together an ownership group to make a bid for the Eagles in 1985 when Leonard Tose was forced to sell the team to pay off his more than $25 million in gambling debts at Atlantic City casinos. He lost out to Norman Braman, a Philadelphia native and highly successful South Florida auto dealer, who forked out a reported $65 million for the team. When Braman sold the team in 1994 for a reported $185 million to Jeffrey Lurie, the Boston native was looking to add someone local to his ownership group. He turned to Green, whose investment has paid off handsomely as the Eagles are now valued at $4.9 billion, according to Forbes.
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PBJ.com has more on Green's personal connection to the team and how the company is getting ready for the Super Bowl.
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