Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Garth Brooks is Asking an Oklahoma Hospital to Give His Donation Back

Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks made a half a million dollar donation to a hospital in his hometown last year with the understanding that the building would be named for his mother who passed away back in 1999. The building got built, but Garth’s beloved mother wasn’t made the namesake, so now he wants his money back.

From ONTD:

It’s all over a deal Garth claims he made with Integris Canadian Valley Regional hospital in Yukon, Oklahoma about four years ago. In his lawsuit, filed in state court in Oklahoma, Garth claims his donation was supposed to go towards a new hospital building that would be named after his mother Colleen — who died from cancer in 1999.

But the building never got built — despite a $27 million renovation and expansion project last year — and Garth wants his money back claiming the hospital breached the donation contract.

The hospital claims it’s all a giant misunderstanding and hopes the dispute will reach a “swift and amicable end.”

My first inclination is to say “Let it go, Garth. Half a mil is nothing to you and you’re asking for a hospital to give you back your money. Just move on.” But then I thought about how expensive hospitals are and that they are very much a real business. If the paperwork holds up, Garth is right to ask for his money back.

20 CommentsLeave a comment

  • Hey Molls! What have you been smoking? Shouldnt it at least be “Garth Brooks is asking an Oklahoma Hospital for his Donation back”

  • Molls, your interpretation of the source article is a bit off:
    Article: The building Garth Brooks gave his money for was never built.
    Molls: The building was built, but the hospital reneged on the naming agreement.
    $.5 Million may not even be enough to acquire the furnishings and computer equipment for a hospital’s doctors lounge.
    The new, furtively modified title is less crappy than the previous one.

    • Remember, you’re talking about Oklahoma. Those hayseeds build with scrap lumber and shit they find on the side of the highway. .5 million to them is like a billion dollars to a New Yorker.

      • Yes, sadly I have. I’ve had the distinct pleasure to drive through Oklahoma and through Oklahoma city one or twice. I’d rather rub sandpaper on my pitbulls nuts until he mauls me than have to even enter fucking Oklahoma. If anyone wants to know what the USA is gonna look like 10 years after the holocaust, just drive through OKC.

  • I live in Yukon. The main boulevard is named after him- “Garth Brooks Boulevard”. He probably wants the whole city to be named after him. This seems like an asshole move.

    • If the naming was part of the deal, then it was the hospital’s contractual responsibility to live up to. Whether or not you think your main boulevard being named after him is enough already or not, that doesn’t mean he should give up a contractual right. Dude’s got money. If your city is so hard up for cash that it needs to rely on his donations to build shit, then maybe your problem should be with your city and not with one of its benefactors.

      By the way, what is wrong with your people? Couldn’t come up with any names of your own so you had to name your city and valley after places that already exist? There’s no Garthbrooksville yet to the best of my knowledge, so maybe it would be nice if you DID name the whole city after him. At the very least it would be unique.

      • I’m not from here, and I didn’t name the city, so you might want to call the city and ask them about it. You didn’t have to be a jerk about it, though.

        And I think you’re incorrect about the city being hard-up for cash, as the hospital is not run by th city of Yukon.

      • Canadian Valley refers to the Canadian River which flows through the middle of the state. And as far as I know was named before statehood.

  • I am curious about this Garth thing, was the donation based solely on the naming of the building and nothing else. Then he has a right to be p*ssed.

    Didn’t Oprah pull the same move?

    She had donated money to a College in Tennessee(?) and made it clear they had to spend it her way or she would demand the full donation back.

    And when the school spent a little of it on something that was not on the Oprah approved list, something that was a plausible purchase for the College, she had a freak fit and demanded the full donation back.

  • I think half a million dollars would only pay for a nice neon sign with her name outside, that’s all. Let the hospital keep the money for the updates and improvements which would honor your mother’s name and other sufferers as it should be spent wisely.. and give more money or raise it towards the actual building and outfitting of specific cancer ward or shut up about the memorial sign fund.. you miserly egotistic idiot..

    • Dude, he’s just trying to honor his mother’s memory. It was a contractual stipulation that should have been met, but it wasn’t. He’s fully within his rights to request the donation back. If it were my mother, I’d want her name on the building, too. Lay off.

  • I think the only way this would make sense is if the building was not built, otherwise it would be pretty ridiculous for them to refuse to name the building after her.

  • $500,000 may just be a chunk of change to him, but it was still his money. He could have spent it on expensive music toys and gadgets or an expensive car, but he wanted to do something nice. He wanted to honor his mom at the same time. Nothing wrong with that. A contract is a contract and they should have honored his wishes.