What does that mean for Vikings basketball, and CSU as a whole?
Let’s start at the beginning. All the way at the beginning.
A Green and White Elephant
When the Wolstein Center – known as the CSU Convocation Center until 2005 – opened 34 years ago, it was the largest university arena in Ohio. Approved and built in the aftermath of the Vikings’ men’s team’s Sweet 16 run in 1986, the building’s 13,610-seat capacity was certainly influenced by a bit of hubris about the program’s future. Mostly, though, Cleveland State saw an opportunity to own a large indoor venue downtown, given that the region’s only major arena at the time was the old Richfield Coliseum, some 25 miles away.
That monopoly was short-lived, however, as the Cleveland Cavaliers’ present home, the building now known as Rocket Arena, opened in 1994. Regardless, the Wolstein Center still managed to lure plenty of high-profile events during its first decade and a half, including two turns with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (one of which saw Horizon League rival Milwaukee make their own Sweet 16 trip), the NCAA Wrestling Championships, a bevy of major concerts, and even a 2008 Democratic primary debate between eventual president Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The Cleveland Crunch packed the building during its run of three indoor soccer league titles between 1994 and 1999.
CSU certainly did its part as well, at least for a time. High profile men’s opponents like North Carolina, Michigan, Michigan State, and Georgetown drew big crowds for Vikings home games, while the women’s team earned a visit from UConn in 2005.
However, despite those outliers, the Vikings’ men’s attendance average never topped 5,000 fans for a full season. By the mid-2000s, the mammoth green curtain that has become one of the Wolstein Center’s signature features showed up to slice the arena’s capacity to roughly 8,500 during Cleveland State games. Given the discrepancy between the venue’s size and interest in CSU basketball, alongside an event calendar that isn’t nearly as busy as it used to be, the fact that the building carries an annual operating deficit of at least $1 million is hardly surprising.
Dropping the Anchor
The notion of replacing the visibly-aging behemoth dates at least as far back as that impossible-to-miss green curtain, and maybe even further, though plans have never made it much past the “wouldn’t it be nice” stage of development.
Most recently, the university’s ten-year master plan unveiled in November of 2022 (and approved by the CSU Board of Trustees two months later) called for the demolition of the Wolstein Center and the construction of a replacement facility in the northeast corner of campus, on Payne Avenue, near E. 24th Street. The project, termed a “multipurpose arena” within the plan, was to include between 5,000 and 7,000 seats – perhaps still an ambitious figure for Cleveland State basketball, but one that would differentiate it from Rocket Arena and make it a destination for second-tier events.
Under the plan, the Wolstein Center site was vaguely re-imagined as a “partnership district,” potentially including research and development facilities, a hotel, or retail space.
At the time, CSU’s former senior vice president of business affairs and chief financial officer, David Jewell, told Crain’s Cleveland Business that the numerous projects included in the master plan would be financed one by one between then and 2033. The earliest construction, he said, would begin in late 2023, and accordingly CSU began soliciting and narrowing down proposals from developers.
Late 2023, however, brought entirely different news: a projected $34 million budget deficit for the university. Internal cost-cutting brought the number down to $11.5 million, and the board of trustees authorized the use of financial reserves to cover the rest. While that crisis was averted, the larger issue was that without a significant course correction, CSU’s reserves would be wiped out within five years.
Quietly, plans for a new arena were shelved at that point.
“Football” at Cleveland State
Cleveland State has continued to do the best it can with the Wolstein Center, which still hosts a decent number of events beyond college basketball. From 2021 through 2024, it served as the home of the NBA G-League’s Cleveland Charge and, beginning in January, a revived version of the Cleveland Crunch will bring indoor soccer back to the building.
At the same time though, the university has continued its efforts to make its $1 million per year problem disappear. In March, CSU published a request for qualifications, which was followed in May by a request for proposals, essentially inviting developers to submit their ideas for the site.
That process resulted in something quite surprising. On August 28th, the board of trustees accepted a proposal from the United Soccer League (USL) and USL Cleveland to transform the Wolstein Center footprint into a soccer stadium, with associated mixed-use developments. Formal talks between the sides are well underway.
The 15,000-seat facility would host a Cleveland team in a new league tentatively called USL Division One, which is set to begin play in 2028 and will sit next to Major League Soccer on top of the U.S. Soccer development pyramid. A women’s team, which would likely compete in the Gainbridge Super League (the USL’s highest women’s circuit) is also part of the proposal.
“This project is about more than a new stadium. It’s about transforming our campus, creating opportunities for our university community and contributing to the revitalization of downtown Cleveland,” CSU president Laura Bloomberg said in the school’s press release.
“The Wolstein Center has been a key part of our campus and the city for the past 35 years, and we will honor this legacy going forward. Our priority now is to continue providing our athletes, our entire basketball community, and the general public with state-of-the-art facilities and amenities.”
There is one possible impediment to the plan: another extremely-similar plan, one that had a head start.
In October of 2023, right around the same time that CSU was confronting the true horror of its budget situation, the Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) announced its intent to pursue an expansion franchise in the top-tier National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). A significant piece of CSG’s bid was a $150 million soccer stadium that was to seat 12,500 fans, located just beyond Interstate 90 from the Cleveland Guardians’ Progressive Field.
Cleveland lost out to Denver for the NWSL franchise slot late last year, but CSG’s contingency plan involves a scaled-back 10,000-seater that would host a women’s team in a new league called WPSL Pro, as well as a men’s team in MLS Next Pro.
It should probably go without saying that both projects will not be completed. As it is, both CSG and the USL will compete for public resources in a contentious political environment – to say the least – not only with each other, but with other sports-related construction like the Cleveland Browns’ future stadium in Brook Park.
Justin Papadakis, a 2015 CSU Law graduate who is the USL’s deputy CEO and chief real estate officer, is bullish on his side’s chances, despite a $350 million price tag.
“We do stadiums a lot,” he told Crain’s Cleveland Business last week. “Even though a lot of stadiums are being publicly financed, we think we can do this largely private, putting aside the state piece. Because you have an ancillary development, there’s a lot of ability to have those proceeds help with the capital stack of the stadium.”
In other words, Papadakis believes that developing the surrounding land will pay for most of the stadium. If he’s right, it certainly represents a strong selling point against the CSG efforts. Of course, if he’s wrong, Cleveland State will return to square one.
Ripple Effects
When Ernst & Young was called in during the heart of the budget crisis to guide CSU back to solvency, most of their proposed actions began with the 2026 fiscal year, which just opened on October 1st. Though the timelines given were strictly illustrative, the university seems to be following them fairly closely.
By the third and fourth quarters of 2026, the report suggested “[optimizing] campus space…to accommodate mothballing a building.” In terms of the Wolstein Center, that concept directly involves Woodling Gymnasium, the building it replaced, a relationship that quite possibly could be reversed in the near future.
Back in early 2023, Cleveland State began aggressively fundraising for improvements to Woodling ahead of its 50th birthday, seeking $1.2 million for an academic center makeover, new lighting and sound systems, and locker room improvements. Those efforts are ongoing, and several of the updated locker rooms, including for the Vikings’ fencing, track and field, and cross country teams, were completed in time for this year.
During the 2023-24 season, both Vikings basketball teams played Thanksgiving week games in their old barn, complete with throwback jerseys and merchandise.
That situation was required by a scheduling conflict (Cirque du Soleil had booked the Wolstein Center), but the sudden emphasis on a building mostly forgotten by the basketball crowd – at the time the games were scheduled, constructing a new arena was still the official plan – was a bit of a head-scratcher.
Now, though, it makes a ton of sense.
After all, if the Wolstein Center is redeveloped into a soccer stadium, or anything else, all of the offices, locker rooms, and training facilities presently housed in the arena will have to squeeze into Woodling. The old gym will abruptly become the epicenter of just about all of Cleveland State’s athletic activity, and in a competitive landscape like college sports, it will need to be as nice as possible. In that sense, the now-annual return trips to Woodling can be seen as pressure tests for basketball’s full-time relocation.
It also casts CSU’s decision to cut three sports teams at the end of the 2024-25 academic year in a new light, beyond simply being one of many attempts to shed expenses.
One of those programs, wrestling, used Woodling Gymnasium as its home base and competed during the winter sports season (as does basketball, of course). Eliminating it clears dates and space, both of which will be at a premium.
Further down the road, should the Wolstein Center be replaced by a soccer stadium, it’s reasonable to think that the Vikings’ soccer and lacrosse teams would begin using it, making Krenzler Field redundant. That implicates a second discontinued sport, softball, since its now-abandoned home field is adjacent to the present soccer and lacrosse facility.
Put those together, and it becomes a significant parcel of land along the north side of Chester Avenue that can be sold, redeveloped, or both.
All of that may or may not happen, but the possibilities are intriguing. If everything turns out to be wildly successful, it might even give new life to the idea of a new arena, with the second extended stint in Woodling Gymnasium akin to someone moving in with their parents until they get back on their feet.
For now, just about the only thing that’s certain is that basketball season unofficially gets underway on October 29th, when the Vikings women’s team takes on Findlay in an exhibition game. That contest will be played in the Wolstein Center.
Originally published by the HoriZone Roundtable. Republished here with permission.