As the Cavs and their partners — Cuyahoga County, the city of Cleveland, Cleveland.com — rolled out their supporting arguments for spending some $70 million in public money (plus interest) on renovating Quicken Loans Arena, they repeated a number of disingenuous claims and stats.
Among those was this number: $245 million. That’s how much direct spending was tied to the Q and arena-related activities in 2016, according to a study by consulting firm Conventions, Sports & Leisure International that was commissioned and paid for by the Cavs.
Big number, right? Especially when you have it repeated, in error, by outlets with headlines like, “The Q averages 2 million guests, $245 million in direct spending a year.”
Not only is it simply a number for 2016 only, not an average, it includes all financial impacts tied to the RNC, which Cleveland will not be hosting again. And beyond that, it includes money that would have been spent in Northeast Ohio anyway.
Jay Miller at Crain’s Cleveland took the extra step the Cavs’ partners at Cleveland.com didn’t by looking deeper into the study and — gasp — asking a question or two.
Asked in an email exchange with Crain’s to break down that number, CSL president Bill Rhoda said the figure includes between $40 million and $45 million generated by the Republican National Convention. In addition, in the text that supports the financial impact analysis that came up with that $245 million, CSL notes that, “it is estimated that approximately 25 to 30 percent of the direct spending … would take place locally regardless of the presence of the Arena and Team.”But yeah, let’s trust the Cavs.That’s money that would be spent on restaurants, movie theaters or other entertainment venues instead of on basketball tickets and hot dogs if the city had no basketball team.
So, subtracting $40 million in RNC spending and reducing the direct spending figure by another $61 million (25% of the $245 million) that would mean that $144 million is a more accurate figure of the future financial impact of Quicken Loans Arena on the community. That 59% reduction [Editor’s note: Pretty sure Jay means 41% reduction here], in turn, would reduce as well the $44 million in annual tax revenue the study said would be returned to the city and county annually, a key argument being used to generate support for the public outlay.
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2016.
There is one and only one flaw to every argument like this:
THEY HAVE BETTER NEGOTIATORS ON THEIR SIDE THAN WE DO.
It’s their job to make money, get the city to improve facilities, etc. They don’t steal. They aren’t committing any crimes. The problem is:
WE HAVE WORSE NEGOTIATORS THAN THEY DO.
And that’s why we need a wholesale change in how this city does business and who is on our team. It’s time to stop hiring the usual cadre of political appointees and start hiring the best in the business. Pay more, get more. Right now, it’s like the Cavs playing a charter high school team. We don’t stand a chance.
As with the Cavs’ original math, Mr. Miller’s agenda is affecting his math. He double dipped on the RNC numbers.
If you subtract every penny of it, you can’t then also use it in the 25 – 30% reduction. Using your corrected logic, it should be a 25% reduction of $205m.
How can you be so negative with this whole concept to begin with. Either way the Q is generating millions upon millions of dollars for our city. We have the oldest arena in the NBA and all of these get public funding. This is why the city of Cleveland got held back in the first place when there wasnt allowed to be a building taller than the tower city so they just built everything in chicago. Stuff like this is why we are so far behind. You build it up by making your city a more lively place to visit and live and in turn creating more jobs and more private investment follows. So ridiculous how some people are even second guessing this. This is all forgetting the fact that the literally just won the championship from a city that obsesses over sports!
“This is why the city of Cleveland got held back in the first place when there wasnt allowed to be a building taller than the tower city so they just built everything in chicago. Stuff like this is why we are so far behind.”
And this is where I quit reading …because it became quite obvious to this former Chicagoan that you had no clue and didn’t know WTF you were babbling about.
Chuckles the Clown
Other politics aside, an improvement to the arena likely does bring potential future windfalls such as NBA all star game and NCAA tournament weekends, so even with the steady Cavs income, the side perks and overall feel of the city is likely worth it.
I don’t feel its worth it at all, NLC, and we don’t have the Cavs to thank for our city turning around. We have the residents that felt pride in Cleveland and stood up for the city to thank for this turnaround. People want to live downtown now, people travel for the culinary scene and leave the city impressed. The Cavs just want to update the arena and get a whole bunch of money from the city to do it because they know the market in Cleveland is hot right now, and the city paying for it is better for the Cavs than the Cavs footing the bill or it not happening. But aglazen is right, we’re represented by a bunch of politicians who are fighting each other for who can be first in line to bend over in front of the Cavs and grab their ankles. There is no one representing people opposed to this at the table, so thank goodness some people are able to crunch numbers, ask questions, and vocalize opinions about this.