Even as they pulled out of the deal — a complex four-party financial arrangement negotiated in private with regional leaders — the Cleveland Cavaliers touted its merits, casting blame upon local organizations and disdaining Clevelanders who dared intervene.
The deal would have “significantly upgraded one of the oldest arenas in the NBA,” a press release lamented. It would have made the Q “more competitive for the long term.” It would have “created over 2,500 project-related construction jobs, grown The Q’s permanent job base to 3,200, increased tax revenue to the City’s General Fund and neighborhoods, extended the Cavaliers lease for The Q to 2034, rehabbed 40 gym courts and floors in the city of Cleveland’s rec centers and all Cleveland Metropolitan School Districts high schools.” And of course, it would have “brought an NBA All-Star Game to Cleveland in 2020 or 2021 along with its $100 million+ economic impact.”
These bullet points were breathlessly anthologized in the angry release whose central purpose was blaming a voter-led referendum effort on the deal’s collapse.
The project’s architects had hoped that construction would begin in June, but the project was delayed, per the release, “due to a prospective referendum being placed on the ballot by the Washington, DC-based Metro Industrial Areas Foundation represented locally by a group calling themselves the “Greater Cleveland Congregations” (GCC), Service Employees International Union District 1199 and the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus.”
The release went on to celebrate the economic benefits of the Q and thank the civic leaders for supporting the deal.
“Civic and community support for the project was earned by the public-friendly, private and self-generating funding source structure being an efficient, significantly less costly and beneficial way to extend the life of a core public asset for the long term,” the release said. “The Cavaliers organization will no longer participate in the partnership formed for The Q Transformation project and the need for a referendum no longer exists.”
Armond Budish released a statement as well mourning the deal’s demise and denigrating opponents.
“Contrary to misinformation put out by the opposition,” Budish claimed, citing nothing, “the death of this deal actually means there will be less money, not more, available for social and community services. By killing this deal, the opponents have harmed the future for our neighborhood residents.”
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2017.
Armond Budish is saddened that there will be no free Cavs tickets in the holiday envelope. His press release was pathetic.
This is not about the Cavs, or even about the Q…It’s about power…This renovation was the latest exercise in “rent seeking (using public funds to enrich private individuals)” to take place, virtually unchallenged, in the past dozen years…Back in 2000, or thereabouts, County voters rejected a proposal to build a new convention center by a margin better than 60/40…During the Campbell Administration, a similar referendum was pulled when research demonstrated that it would lose 70/30…
THEN the casino robber barons hijacked democracy with their statewide casino referendum, and the heads of the major Chambers Of Commerce across the state on the case to make sure the referendum passed…THEN, having figured out how to use the ballot box to fleece taxpayers, they found an unvoted means to raise the sales tax to give the oligarchs the cash flow they wanted to build a convention center/ med mart / hotel which the voters had soundly rejected, because…they had the power to do so…and because they figured out how to buy off or intimidate anybody who so much as asked a question…
This disgraceful strategy has become a civic template: the beneficiaries of the proposed public largesse put up a few million to grease the wheels of politics to get a 50-fold return on their “investment”…Irrespective of the possible merits of the issue (and, in my opinion, the merits are paper-thin), it’s about damn time some group of organized folks stood up and said “NO!”…Power is never granted…It is taken…It would be good if this exercise in democratic defiance launched a real civic dialogue about the value of this sort of public larceny..And the “civic-mindedness”of the oligarchs and their enablers on the staffs of the community’s ever-metastasizing non-profit “economic development” organizations…
I didn’t read any evidence to dispute your so called “bullet points” Most if not all are a plus…. WTF Now there’s one less group to foot the bill ,when not if, a major upgrade to the Q will have to take place ?? Whatever the big issue is , “power” ?? Not smart long term planning…. Will the Q really follow The Coliseum
How did using tax revenue to make improvements to the asset generating the revenue become so controversial?
Honestly this deal died because of a miscalculation on the part of those that drafted it, who felt satisfied that it was a good deal and just assumed that everyone else would see it that way too. It’s slightly off-putting when someone comes up to you and says, hey, me and some other people negotiated this for you behind closed doors, but it’s a really good deal, don’t worry. Then, when you disagree, and ask some questions, the deal suddenly is named an emergency measure and goes through without you even getting to say okay to it. Then you act on your legal rights, do all the paperwork, and attempt to get a say, only to be turned away on the grounds that the deal has already been agreed to, so you can’t object. So then you attempt to sue, only for the people that negotiated this for you to turn around and sue themselves, and you have to sue them to try and get added to the lawsuit since once again you’re left on the outside looking in. This all rolls together into what can be referred to as a public relations nightmare.
I sincerely think that if Gilbert and Company had just done more planning earlier on, met with the public, done all the focus groups, and been very open and honest with all of this, the measure would probably have been revised a bit from what they ended up going with, but it would have passed without trouble. The Cavs are very popular right now, and Gilbert has shown he has the power and pull to get things passed. I honestly feel that his power, pull, and popularity were counted as a given no matter what, and the few bumps in the road during this process just increased the number of people that felt uncomfortable with it.
Ultimately, a confused mind always says no. Just my opinion, but I think the actual events that happened in that first paragraph are pretty confusing, which just resulted in more and more people saying “no” until the deal just died. This will come back up because the arena will eventually need to be addressed, but I imagine it will be handled much, much differently the next time around.
Let me simplify it for the confused mind: we elect people to represent us, but some special interest group thinks they should have to “say okay” first and creates delays to kill the project because their egos were hurt. This had nothing to do with public policy. It was about a few personalities exploiting ignorance and misinformation to promote themselves.
Just because people are elected to represent us doesn’t mean the public doesn’t get a say in how money is spent. Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo were elected to represent us after all, and it hasn’t been that long since their gravy train chugged out of the station to prison. It’s not just the special interests group that wanted this referendum, the 22,000 or whatever people that signed the petition also seemed to want a say in this matter. And I would argue that this has everything to do with public policy, taxpayers want a say in the deals our politicians make because they care about our city and take pride in it. No one likes it when things are hush hush happening behind closed doors. It’s too soon since the city was taken advantage of by people that were extremely trusted for trust to just be blindly given, even to new elected officials.
No, let me clarify for any confused minds. You can get someone to say whatever you want them to when you turn them into your puppet. How do you make someone your puppet? Well, it usually involves money, closed doors, and shenanigans. I’m clearly not saying that is the case here of course. It only looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and is shaped like a duck. But it’s not a duck. Promise! (Winks)