The timing could not possibly be worse for the Cleveland Clowns and the City of Cleveland to announce its plans for a new dome stadium in Brook Park, of all places. The team is 1-6 with the worst QB in the entire league, who was greeted to the justified sound of cheers upon tearing his Achilles and collapsing to the turf. This was after those same fans rightly booed Groper Cleveland when he was announced in pregame introductions.
Players spent the postgame interviews attacking the fans for being insensitive, improper, incorrect and every other adjective that should aptly describe the Browns’ embarrassing and inexcusable play on the field.
The fans are repeatedly slapped across the face in return for shelling out thousands of dollars every year to watch crap. Where ever could this frustration be coming from? Only an idiot such as Jimmy “Hee Haw” Haslam would fail to see the chaos that would ensue from bringing an alleged serial predator on a fully guaranteed contract to front the Browns franchise. They have effectively broken the fan base in a way that 20 straight years of losing could not do.
But now, Haslam and his crooked family of hucksters including oily, two-faced hacks like Browns Executive Vice President JW Johnson are attempting to pull another fast one over on not just the City of Cleveland, but the entire State of Ohio. Mayor Justin Bibb, who looks like he should be working as a barista at Starbucks, announced the commission of an economic impact study to foresee the potential loss of $30 million a year in revenue for downtown Cleveland.
Cleveland residents will be sold a bill of goods on how the new, ridiculous Roman Circus dome stadium will “bring economic growth to the region” or how the wealth “will be returned to the people who paid for it.” Nonsense. The dome is a billionaire’s plaything and all of the losses for its funding will be pinned on the taxpayer. Never mind some cookie-cutter, event-based “revitalizing” of the region. What you’ll get is a corporate-riddled, dull and bland, “entertainment district” without any creativity, character, or color whatsoever.
In Detroit, the building of the “Little Caesars” arena came with the promise of restoring Midtown Detroit to a vibrant attraction, in a way that would “repay” those sucker taxpayers who funded it. Instead, and not surprisingly, the area has still been untouched, effectively a vacant parking lot scattered with the remains of former strip malls.
Jimmy Haslam does not actually care about giving back to the community, or even the Browns themselves. Lining his pockets is the first and foremost priority, and anything beneficial for others comes merely as a byproduct in his mind. If the dome was such a slam dunk for the regional economy of Cleveland, that’s plummeted from a million residents down to about 300,000, why wouldn’t Hee Haw fund it himself?
The answer is that he knows the returns for the taxpayer will be minimal. Brook Park, much like Midtown Detroit, will hardly change. The only changes will be in the immediate vicinity, where Browns fans are treated to prepackaged events and gimmicks. A poor man’s version of Crocker Park, which still lies 20 minutes away. Keep in mind, SoFi Stadium in San Francisco was paid for by private funds, $5.5 billion of them, and we’re talking about the second-highest GDP for a city in the U.S. compared to a fading mid-west rust belt town, being forced to pay $1.2 billion for a sports team’s venue.
Areas like the outskirts of metropolitan regions used to be colorful and exciting spots, unique to the people who raised families there and built it themselves. Now, after the extra few hundred million dollars they’ll rape the residents for, the spot will be “restored” to a sterilized, cold, corporate hellhole.
This would be a total ripoff if it were the 2008 New England Patriots coming off an undefeated season. Surely, for a Clowns team that can’t score 20 points and a quarter-billion-dollar “leader” who can’t throw 200 yards and has yet to reach a TD total on par with the number of sexual assault lawsuits while he’s even on the field, the whole ordeal is just a cash grab and con job.
Those who wear brown-and-orange colored glasses every day will be fooled by the prospect of a fancy new stadium, and won’t care regardless. Those who are easily fooled by bread and circuses will be entranced by the prospect of betting windows and shops anywhere within walking distance around the dome. However, the money still has to be officially apportioned by the state in order for Hee Haw to rake it in. Do your part, take a stand, and call your state legislators to tell them you will not support them if they commit to approving public funding for the Roman Circus Dome. Do everything in your power to prevent Jimmy Haslam and his shameless mafia family from burying the City of Cleveland in misery any longer. Do that, and there may be a path towards shipping them out of town once and for all.
The post Reject the Haslam Crime Syndicate’s Childish, Ridiculous Stadium: People of Cleveland Should Do Everything In Their Power to Block Funding appeared first on Cleveland Sports Talk.