There are so many things wrong with the Haslem’s plans for building a stadium in Brook Park. I don’t even know where to begin.
They talk about all the development that is going to come with it. Where? The old Ford plant is almost completely boxed in, by the airport to the west, Holy Cross Cemetery to the east and south, and I480 to the north. Where are the hotels going to be built? In between grave stones at Holy Cross? Between airstrips at Hopkins? The spot is very limited with no room for expansion.
The Browns talk about Super Bowls and Final Fours. If those ever happen, it will be only once. The NFL favors warm weather for the Super Bowl, And every covered stadium in the country bids on the Final Four. We would have to wait our turn with 30 other sights. So we are going to spend three billion dollars on two events that might happen once over the next thirty years?
Northern Ohio is a downtown centered urban area. The Cavs and Indians play there. Play House Square is there. Cleveland State is there. The hub for our mass transit is there. Major hotels are located there. We are able to attract events like NCAA basketball early rounds for men and the finals for women. Browns, Indians,a and Cavs. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is downtown, our areas number one attraction for out of towners.
Many people chose to stay downtown and walk to the games, whether they are at Progressive Field, Rocket Arena, First Energy Stadium. Many of us have a favorite place to tailgate and, again, walk to the game. That is especially true for Browns games. Many of us meet friends at various sites and take public transportation downtown for games, especially true for the Browns games.
We have two very functunal convention centers, the Huntington downtown and the old Tank Plant near the airport. Between the two of them Greater Cleveland can accominpdated almost any event or convention possible, from the Republican Convention 0n 2016, to the car show every year.
Does the supposed cost of the project include infrastructure? How are we going to get there? I480 and the Brook Park rapid station are not even slightly able to acomadayte a Browns crowd.
So many Cleveland traditions will be eliminated. Tailgating in the Muny Lots. Tailgating where we do in one of the Lots in the Flats. Taking busses and the rapid downtown on game day. Staying in a downtown hotel the night before Sunday games, or the night after Monday and Thursday night games.
In 1990 less than 2000 people called downtown home, now it is over 23000. Throw in those who live in Ohio City, Tremont, and around the CSU campus, and you have thousands of people who call downtown and its surrounding areas home. A lot of those people have invested a fair amount of money in condos and townhouses. One of the reasons many of them do this was to live in a walking environment, including walking to Browns games. How many people are going to be aboe to walk to games from home, or from a hotel for that matter, if the Browns move to Brook Park?