cadmen

Right.

To be fair, l am not against a dome stadium. Actually l think a dome is kinda cool. I'm simply against the extravagant cost. Especially in a market like Cleveland. And especially at a time like this when we are in the process of paying for the hundreds of millions in (beautiful and probably needed) upgrades to the other two sports facilities downtown. When we need to find a way to build an incredibly expensive jail and courthouse. When we continue to have difficulty funding the social services in the city. When we want to fund major investments on the lakefront and the riverfront. When our rail network is teetering from lack of investment. When any number of other very expensive and forward thinking projects must be funded. I'm as big a local sports fan as anyone on this site. I DON'T want to lose the Browns but considering the financial climate here, a very fair offer has been made to the team to build a new stadium on the lakefront. The only reason Haslam turned it down is because of his ego and greed. He looks around and sees Jerry World or SoFi in LA and is envious. He says "l'm a player too, Where's my palace?" "Where's my cash register?" And that's the problem with much of modern sports today. Greedy players, even more greedy owners. A country is what it funds. In today's America we fund entertainment. We build Disneyland's and sports palaces. We pay our entertainers exorbitant dollars and their owners rake in even more AND get huffy when there is some pushback. The entertainment pendulum has swung too far into crazy. Time to pull it back and spend more of our tax dollars on the people and less on the entertainers and their owners.

No one else does either. Asking for tax payer funding of 1.2 billion isn't the final ask either. It's going to cost multiple hundreds of millions to reconfigure the roads around the dome too. Who thinks (other than Jimmy) that's a fair ask? And all that money just so fans are warm and comfortable. That's the sell but the real reason is to maximize the money Jimmy can get his hands on. We live in the era of the billionaire grifter. It only stops when we stop supporting them.

Nice to see a local celeb investing in the local market.

All these new hotels...what do the operator's know that we don't? I'd be happy to see a skyline changing hotel and call it a day. Can't get too greedy now.

Guns aren't the problem. It's actually fingers.

Great find @Ethan. I had no idea a Trump guy could be that enlightened.

I do think the idea of placing a new stadium on the Burke site is by far the best choice. Unfortunately Haslam is not going to wait until the land is available so that idea is probably a non-starter. I also agree replacing the stadium with a conceptional idea like the presentation is a much, much better use of the land. But again, in order to pull that plan off we would need an inordinate amount of money. If you couple this idea with developing the riverfront as well a a new jail, a new courthouse not to mention building Haslam his dome...well you see, NEO does not have the money to pull off even half of those beautiful ideas. It's too bad though. If we could find a way Cleveland would be transformed. It's just not going to happen. My prediction is we build the jail and courthouse. And we build some version of the riverfront. We keep Burke an airport and as for the Browns...all bets are off. Anything is possible including moving the team out of the area.

I'll tell you what, after the Browns stadium is torn down, after Burke is closed and after St. Vincent's is demolished we're sure going to have plenty of vacant land. Land just sitting there not doing a hell of a lot. Let's hope those expected climate refugee's get here sooner rather than later. We're gonna need 'em.

Well, there goes another piece of my life into the mists of time. I worked in St. Vincent's operating room for four years back in the day. I loved working there and loved working downtown. Maybe it's just because l was younger then but l remember the atmosphere in and around the hospital seemed vibrant, full of posibilities. Maybe it was just that there were people walking around back then. Now, it's awfully quiet. Soon it will be a blank slate. Hopefully it will turn into a busy residential neighborhood but l'll always remember it as a great place to work in a great time to be young.

Yeah you must be referring to the new 40 story tower Dimit is designing for (insert name here) in downtown or was it University Circle... wait, l think it's going up in the old Lakewood hospital site. I'm sorry, l can't exactly remember the location. Come to think of it, it now occures to me the exact location is somewhere between my ears.

Very nice to see this bit of good news today. The population increase isn't great but maybe it's just the beginning of a very positive trend.

I'll check my inbox. Nope. Nothing.

Nice pic. That tree is looking green and healthy. What's that blueish thing in the background?

So Ken, what do you think of Friedman's departure? I'm no expert but it seems to me the port has made a lot of positive strides under his administration. I think his loss will be felt.

Lol! Take what? If Haslam gets what he wants it will cost the taxpayers 1.2 billion. Some gift.

If Haslam was a Clevelander he would do this. He would stay in the old(??) stadium until the Burke land was available then build this...but he's not a Clevelander.

^ l'll take it.

For what it's worth l'm not opposed to some kind of public dollars being used for a stadium facility. I don't like it, but l'm not opposed to it. What l am opposed to is the level of public dollars. There needs to some kind of balance between a city and an owner. Plus, it's important to take into consideration a cities potential ability to support a new stadium. It's obvious a New York, LA or even a city like Atlanta or Houston can afford a much more expensive facility than cities like Buffalo or Cleveland. Wealthier/larger cities may be in a better position to afford a more expensive facility. The sports game is not played on a level playing field. That being the case, l think Cleveland has made Haslam a fair offer. Refurbish the stadium on the lakefront with 475 million in public dollars added to Haslam's contribution. It's what WE can afford. WE can't afford to kick in a billion or more for a dome we aren't asking for, not to mention road infrustructure around it. If Haslam want's a Taj Mahal in Cleveland he'll have to build it himself. We've made a fair offer but egos being egos, l'm expecting things to get ugly now and l'm expecting the final result to not be of our liking. We may lose the team.

^ Exactly.

As a guy who favors work from office l have to say l'm glad to see companies asking people to report back to the office - or suffer the consequences. Of course l realize some form of WFH is here to stay, l just want to see it minimalized.

I have faith corporate America will do the right thing here. Wait...what??

Let's be real here. The BP move is nothing but a way for Haslam to leverage public money for his pockets. We're not asking for this. HE wants it. Hell, we're not even asking for a new stadium on the lakefront. These new facilites are for the owners pocketbooks, not the fans comfort. But as long as cities pay the owners will play(us).

Crap. Why can't these rich guys get rich honestly? This is not good for Cleveland development.

Anyone drive from downtown to UC on Euclid Ave recently? What a mess that road is. Come to think of it Euclid started breaking down right after they put the new bus line in. I know weather does a number on our streets but l think the reason for it breaking down so soon is the method in which it was built. Somebody made some bad decisions there.