Mar. 28, 2006 - A brief spat between the Boston and Philadelphia convention center authorities over which city can claim bragging rights to history has ended with Philadelphia agreeing to make a new marketing slogan ... history.

Since autumn, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which runs the new convention hall in South Boston and the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in the Back Bay, has used a new marketing tagline: Boston. Making Convention History.

But last month, Boston officials were surprised -- and a little put out -- when the Pennsylvania Convention Center began using a remarkably similar slogan: Where Conventions Make History.

After a three-week flurry of lawyerly e-mails and Federal Express packages proving Boston began making history first -- at least in convention advertising -- Philly officials earlier this month agreed to drop it. Their new tagline: Where Bigger Meets Better.

Philadelphia officials declined to comment. MCCA executive director James E. Rooney couldn't resist invoking some -- what else? -- history, including Benjamin Franklin's 1723 defection from the Hub to Philadelphia and last year's New England Patriots Super Bowl XXXIX win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

"I guess the rivalry continues," Rooney said. "They got Ben Franklin from us; we beat them in the Super Bowl; and now we get our slogan back. I am thinking of putting a huge bell in the front lobby."

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