A petition drive is underway to stop the city of Cleveland from spending $88 million to help renovate Quicken Loans Arena. The Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, Greater Cleveland Congregations, and two service unions want voters to decide if the city should help fund the upgrades. What happens if they’re successful is uncertain.
The groups want the city to spend the money on neighborhood issues instead of Q renovations. They have about 30 days to collect 6,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. Cleveland State University law professor Allen Weinstein says if they’re successful and voters reject the city’s expenditure, other parties involved in the project, the Cavaliers, Cuyahoga County and Destination Cleveland, could sue. But he says it’s more likely the city will be given a chance to start from scratch.
“To try to put together another deal that might start to reduce the opposition that people have to spending this money on the Q. You know, some kind of different package. What that would be, obviously nobody could tell. But that would be my expectation of what would happen rather than lawsuits from these different parties.”
Backers of the renovation project say it will keep the arena competitive, which ensures it can attract as many events as possible to create local jobs.
