MLS in Cle--, er, Summit County
That's right, it sure sounds like if there is a soccer stadium built it will be far away from downtown Cleveland. That sucks.
I don't really know who to believe on this subject. Bert Wolstein is not necessarily a guy whose words I take at face value, but the silence on the part of Jane Campbell and Cuyahoga County commishioners is telling. I have no particular insight into their efforts, but I suspect these people aren't warm to the idea of an MLS team because they weren't, you know, consulted first. The effort to get an MLS team has been almost an exclusively private effort to date. Wolstein most likely came to local officials looking for a land and stadium deal after he'd done the groundwork on getting a team. My bet is local officials were not willing to rearrange their own agenda's to fit Wolstein's timeline. I can understand boths sides of such a scenario. And I blame both parties for not being able to make any apparent progress on a deal.
On top of all of that, it's kind of a shame that the region doesn't recognize the potential value of an MLS franchise in Cleveland. If you look at the country (and the world) demographically, there are lots of reasons to think having major, professional soccer here would come with some nice benefits. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but if my job responsibilities included promoting Northeast Ohio, developing business in the region, or similar tasks.... I'd be trying to move mountains (well, big hills at least) to make this happen.
Having a stadium in Summit county will still be great. It will still provide positive PR and a degree of economic impact. It might make getting the project off the ground more feasible. But it's kind of like the different between the Gateway project and building the Lake County Captains stadium out in Eastlake. If I am Wolstein, I'm lowering my average attendance figures by a couple thousand people. And a Summit County stadium runs contrary to so many things you hear about urban sprawl and regional development.
I don't really know who to believe on this subject. Bert Wolstein is not necessarily a guy whose words I take at face value, but the silence on the part of Jane Campbell and Cuyahoga County commishioners is telling. I have no particular insight into their efforts, but I suspect these people aren't warm to the idea of an MLS team because they weren't, you know, consulted first. The effort to get an MLS team has been almost an exclusively private effort to date. Wolstein most likely came to local officials looking for a land and stadium deal after he'd done the groundwork on getting a team. My bet is local officials were not willing to rearrange their own agenda's to fit Wolstein's timeline. I can understand boths sides of such a scenario. And I blame both parties for not being able to make any apparent progress on a deal.
On top of all of that, it's kind of a shame that the region doesn't recognize the potential value of an MLS franchise in Cleveland. If you look at the country (and the world) demographically, there are lots of reasons to think having major, professional soccer here would come with some nice benefits. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but if my job responsibilities included promoting Northeast Ohio, developing business in the region, or similar tasks.... I'd be trying to move mountains (well, big hills at least) to make this happen.
Having a stadium in Summit county will still be great. It will still provide positive PR and a degree of economic impact. It might make getting the project off the ground more feasible. But it's kind of like the different between the Gateway project and building the Lake County Captains stadium out in Eastlake. If I am Wolstein, I'm lowering my average attendance figures by a couple thousand people. And a Summit County stadium runs contrary to so many things you hear about urban sprawl and regional development.
posted by Michael @ 2:42 PM
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