Op-Ed: Class Snuggle - Cozying up to Cleveland’s Most Reviled Billionaire Owners

Dave Wondolowski’s recent Crain’s Cleveland Op-Ed reads like a Haslam Sports Group press release. While it’s entirely on-brand to see Wondolowski shilling for the wealthy and well connected, it’s still striking to read him – as a labor leader – lobbying for socialism for NFL owners and rugged capitalism for the rest of us.

By his standards, gifting a $1.2 billion public subsidy to billionaire NFL team owners should be celebrated and not evoke moral outrage.

Not surprisingly, Wondolowski ignores the overwhelming mountain of evidence. “Economic research is unequivocal” according to a recent piece in The Atlantic explaining “these subsidies are a boondoggle for taxpayers,” and “Stadiums do not come close to generating enough economic activity to pay back the public investment involved in building them.” But why let the evidence get in the way of a good story.

If public subsidies of sports facilities paved a path to a more prosperous region, our county would be thriving after the hundreds of millions spent on Gateway and the Brown’s Stadium over the past thirty years. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. We all know the rap – we top most national rankings for childhood poverty, infant mortality and lead poisoning rates.

Of course, we will never be allowed to vote for the stadium subsidy as was done in Kansas City – which rejected the public money for the champion Chiefs. Instead, we will allow a legislature funded by billionaire political donors like the Haslams to receive whopping returns of their investment dollars buying politicians.

Publicly financed stadiums do one thing very well – transfer wealth from residents to billionaire owners.

Why then would one espouse gifting $1.2 billion to perhaps the worst performing NFL owner, Jimmy Haslam, after he has already made $3.5 billion in passive appreciation on the teams’ value? Why would one argue for increasing ticket, parking and food costs for fans attending their beloved Browns games when a wonderful stadium and its Cleveland legacy exists on the lakefront?

To answer those questions one has to examine the individual arguing that Comrade Haslem should be subsidized with public funds.

Many are likely perplexed by Wondolowski’s shameless boosterism for the Brook Park Browns’ project. But none of this should come as a surprise. Wondolowski’s personal political “power” comes from his proximity to the rich and his willingness (well, really his zeal) to do their bidding.

Dave Wondolowski is a paper tiger. His spoils come from selling out working people in our county, including his members. Wondolowski is the favorite labor “leader” among business and elected officials (despite his often embarrassing indiscretions) because he provides cover. He’s a useful foil in advancing policies and campaigns that benefit corporate interests.

One look no further than the late 2023 Port of Cleveland decision to strip the 100% prevailing wage policy on Port financed projects. Wondolowski serves on the Port board and was unable to stop the repeal, nor is he waging a campaign to reinstate the policy. In labor circles, the prevailing wage is sacrosanct.

The Port’s decision undermines standards for building trades workers – the very workers Wondolowski is tasked with representing. Is this a demonstration of power? Power is the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. There are few, if any, examples of Wondolowski exerting power. Instead, Wondolowski is an expert at the class snuggle — delivering for bosses and not workers.

The proof is a review of the Browns’ Brook Park proposal. There is not a single peer reviewed publication that finds that the public is on the winning end of publicly financed stadiums. This project will hurt building trades members who are also residents and taxpayers.

Wondolowski’s arguments come from a lack of imagination and leadership. To argue for building projects that only enrich billionaire owners is an obscene betrayal of his own members and the community at large.

There are endless public infrastructure projects that our county desperately needs. These are the types of projects that would invest in building a more resilient and dynamic economy. Just look around and you can see the needed infrastructure investments. A domed stadium that sits empty most the year misses the mark entirely.

We’re at a pitchfork moment politically. Elected officials that fail to understand this are in for a rude awakening. Why should county residents get all the downside and none of the upside of the Brook Park project? The increase in the value of the Browns franchise will go to the Haslams – not the residents of the county.

Moreover, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County still don’t have a clear funding plan to cover their obligations to Gateway to maintain Rocket Mortgage Arena and Progressive Field. Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Ohio should be investing in projects that improve the well-being of all residents. These projects should be built with union labor that pays the prevailing wage. We should also ensure that workers in service sector jobs that involve public subsidies are free to form unions free of intimidation and harassment with living wages.

One labor leader put it succinctly: “Wondolowski would gladly build the gallows for his membership so long as a project labor agreement was connected to the project.”

What we build and who we build it for matters.

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