Let’s say you own a home and invite someone into your home to serve as entertainment at a backyard party. And then let’s say the entertainer decides to hire an opening act in an attempt to add value to said entertainment. But then something goes sideways in a hurry: The opening act turns the performance […]
Page D2From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 23 September 2026
Macklemore asks stadium owner to match $1 million for Palestinian aid; is removed from tour, offered a meeting
As it ran on the front
You are thinking of it as a firing. It was not a firing. The man removed from the stage was not employed by the man who owns the stage. What an opening act holds in a stadium is a licence — permission, revocable at the pleasure of whoever granted it, and nothing more durable than that. Macklemore asked, from the stage, that Robert Kraft fund Palestinian humanitarian aid. Macklemore came off Ed Sheeran's tour. Dave Portnoy put the instrument plainly, and with some warmth: "He owns the stadium, it's his house."
And the money? Macklemore gave one million dollars and asked Kraft to match it. Kraft says the match was made — against the two million dollars Ed Sheeran had asked him to match, for "aid in the region". Sheeran asked. Sheeran, mind you, who has the tour.…
…(cont) The argument arrives this week dressed as a backyard party: you own a home, you engage an entertainer, the entertainer engages an opening act, and something goes sideways. A home. Kraft says he would welcome a sit-down; music sources say Macklemore has not responded. A sit-down ... offered, you understand, by the party who does not require one.
One million dollars, and the remainder of the tour.
Past the fence the road is his. A man whistles. The gate shuts.
“A guy asks a billionaire to match a million bucks for humanitarian aid and gets taken off the tour, and the defense on offer is "He owns the stadium, it's his house." That's the con in one line: whoever owns the building owns what you're allowed to say inside it, and everybody else is renting the microphone. Now Kraft wants a sit-down, which costs him nothing, and the money he says he matched went to the guy who still has a tour.”
“It's private property, that's not censorship, that's a booking decision — and frankly Mr. Kraft matched two million dollars, which nobody seems eager to mention. Did I say booking decision? I don't think I said that. He asked to sit down, the other fellow hasn't responded, so who exactly is refusing the conversation here?”
The receipts
· Dave Portnoy defends Kraft over Macklemore expulsion: ‘He owns the stadium, it’s his house’ from the morgue, 17 Sep 2026
· Macklemore, Ed Sheeran ask Robert Kraft to donate to Palestinian humanitarian aid from the morgue, 17 Sep 2026
· Macklemore and Robert Kraft release dueling statements on humanitarian aid donations from the morgue, 17 Sep 2026
· Robert Kraft wants sit down with Macklemore after billionaire got him thrown off Ed Sheeran tour from the morgue, 17 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.