Cuyahoga County council members appear to support spending $20 million on capital improvements to Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, sports venues owned by the Gateway Economic Development Corporation.
The county and city of Cleveland created Gateway, a non-profit that owns and manages the venues and is responsible for major improvements, in the early 1990’s. Those improvements are paid for through the countywide sin tax on tobacco and alcohol. But sin tax revenues are down.
A request of $20 million is being made to both the city and county, a total of $40 million, to make up for the gap between repairs approved by Gateway and revenues from the tax.
“The key to our continuing to be a big league sports town is that we maintain facilities in good condition so that we don’t have to replace facilities every 25 years or so,” said Councilmember Dale Miller. “I think it’s prudent that we move forward on this and help provide the resources to keep these facilities in good shape, hopefully for many decades to come.”
Representatives laid out for council some of the repairs that Gateway has already approved, including replacement of all elevators and escalators at both stadiums, a new emergency generator at Progressive Field and improvements to the video and sound systems at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
Some of the same representatives appeared at Cleveland City Council the day before. That hearing did not go as well for them. But city council members, who complained about the expenses, learned that Gateway was required, by its lease, to pay for these repairs. And any failure to do so could lead to withheld rent payments and litigation.
County Councilmember Sunny Simon said she was concerned about what would happen if the city doesn't pay its share.
"So, it's possible there's a scenario in which you would come back to us if Cleveland says, 'We're not doing this,’ since there's no legal obligation per se, for the city of Cleveland to step up and meet a requirement,” said Simon.
Erik Janas, the chief of staff for County Executive Chris Ronayne, said he believes the city will eventually chip in its share and a permanent solution to the revenue shortfall is being sought.
"It is our hope that we can find one in the coming months,” Janas said. “My expectation is not that we are going to come back and ask for additional dollars until that long-term solution is identified."
During its meeting on Monday, Cleveland City Council's finance committee tabled the proposal to pay $20 million from its general fund. Some council members were pressing for details on the “long-term solution” before moving ahead.
One possibility that has been floated is a surcharge on tickets at the two venues to help pay for future repairs. It’s unclear what potential solutions the county and city are considering.
Cuyahoga County council members already voted in favor of $2.85 million from the county's general fund to go to Gateway. The rest of its contribution would come from bonds issued by the county.
A proposal that would authorize the county to issue those bonds was introduced at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
