#capital repairs

This website has written many times about the poor people of Cleveland. To summarize briefly, when Cleveland voters passed a bill in 1990 that increased a local sin tax, the revenues from this tax hike were supposed to pay for upgrades needed at the Cleveland Guardians and Cleveland Cavaliers venues. It hasn’t. Instead, the teams ask every year for millions of dollars that the city doesn’t have…

Over the past few months, many articles have questioned how Cleveland will pay for the millions of dollars of upgrades demanded by their local sports owners. Gateway Economic Development Corporation, the owner of the Cleveland Indians ballpark (Progressive Field) and the Cleveland Cavaliers arena (Rocket Arena), is supposed to pay for venue upgrades with revenues from a 1990 voter-approved sin…

Last week, the Houston Chronicle wrote a solid article that went into how bad the city was financially suffering from the stadium deal with the Houston Texans. It is worth a read. Currently, Harris County Sports & Convention Corp, directly manages the stadium and nearby facilities for the county. However, the local government is “in charge of maintenance — not the Texans”. Recently, Harris County…

Last year, I wrote a story that discussed how the local sports teams in Cleveland were continuing to fleece local taxpayers year after year. In 2014, the city of Cleveland allowed for an extension of revenue from a sin tax to be put into a pot of $260 million (used over the next 20 years) and used by the three sports teams if they needed something. Unfortunately, both the Cleveland Cavaliers…

Cleveland. For the love of all that is holy and important. Stop agreeing to pay for all capital repairs for your sports teams. It is costing you SO MUCH MONEY. Your city already has so many financial issues to worry about. Will your local banks go bankrupt? Will your local health centers continue to lose $200 million a year? But don’t worry about their local sports teams. The Cleveland Cavaliers…