The Clippers are publicly owned because the economics of owning a minor-league baseball team didn’t work out in the 1970s just like the economics of a women’s professional soccer team doesn’t work in Columbus today, we just didn’t subsidize billionaires back then like we do now…
Eh, the economics of owning a women’s professional soccer team work fine, especially when the prospective owners have two (2) soccer-specific stadiums in their portfolio that the women’s team could play in already. Besides, you generally don’t make money owning a team, you make it selling the team. HSG is just asking for public funds because they know they got a good chance of getting it.
Amazing article. How the rich continue to live off the backs of citizens. Thank you for this in depth explanation of grift. You are the most generous person in the room.
Bravo! The work you’ve done here used to take an entire team of city hall reporters. Since the demise of local investigative reporting, the clowns you expose probably thought the days of accountability were over. Now these rodents need to run and hide in their bunkers at Scioto Country Club.
DJ - Nice job on the testimony at City Hall. I love to think of the Haslam acolytes squirming internally when faced with facts as they're laid bare in a public setting.
Thank you for this article, rich in data, we need this kind of reporting more now than ever. (We used to rely on the 'Stadium Slayer' but I think he moved..? Like, to Vermont?
It seems to me that the only way to stop this stuff is a national law that bans tax subsidies for professional sports owners. Absent a national ban, I don't know how to stop folks such as the Haslams from shopping around for cities that will provide tax money. If there's another answer, I'd be happy to hear it.
Thank you for pointing out the Greek life/frat connections that plague our council and local politics with useful idiots for the Epstein class. Curious if the activities of the partnership fall under a RICO classification, considering the extensive, decades long collaboration to defraud the public.
Sad that the Haslams snookered the #SaveTheCrew brand into shilling for this so easily but at the end of the day, that was all effectively about the same thing.
In my 2007 book Democratizing Cleveland: The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland Ohio 1975-1985, I describe the rise of a vibrant community organizing movement in Cleveland, before it ran afoul of the Great and the Good and local foundations for being a bit too raucous in its activism. The result was a counter-insurgency campaign that buried community activism, or even wild eyed advocacy as part of the civic ice age that followed the coup d'état that ended Kucinich's administration. The Big Freeze lasted for over 20 years. The Greater Cleveland Partnership was the result. Philanthropic foundations are hit men for ruling class power than insures that non-profits don't get too serious about social change. Forget ICE, the DHS, or the FBI. The most powerful force to control dissent in the US are the foundations.
Here for everything except the shot at the Clippers. They don’t receive public subsidies. They’re a county-owned public asset. That’s the dream, baby
I didn't mean it as a shot at the Clippers. More at Huntington. But I agree that's the model. Still, Lou Seal was still there with the rest of them.
Hate that some of our faves might be implicated, but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may.
The Clippers are publicly owned because the economics of owning a minor-league baseball team didn’t work out in the 1970s just like the economics of a women’s professional soccer team doesn’t work in Columbus today, we just didn’t subsidize billionaires back then like we do now…
Eh, the economics of owning a women’s professional soccer team work fine, especially when the prospective owners have two (2) soccer-specific stadiums in their portfolio that the women’s team could play in already. Besides, you generally don’t make money owning a team, you make it selling the team. HSG is just asking for public funds because they know they got a good chance of getting it.
Amazing article. How the rich continue to live off the backs of citizens. Thank you for this in depth explanation of grift. You are the most generous person in the room.
Maybe they could build the stadium on the landfill?
Just sayin'
Well done!
Bravo! The work you’ve done here used to take an entire team of city hall reporters. Since the demise of local investigative reporting, the clowns you expose probably thought the days of accountability were over. Now these rodents need to run and hide in their bunkers at Scioto Country Club.
Excellent reporting! Thank you
DJ - Nice job on the testimony at City Hall. I love to think of the Haslam acolytes squirming internally when faced with facts as they're laid bare in a public setting.
Thank you for this article, rich in data, we need this kind of reporting more now than ever. (We used to rely on the 'Stadium Slayer' but I think he moved..? Like, to Vermont?
Good on you, DJ.
It seems to me that the only way to stop this stuff is a national law that bans tax subsidies for professional sports owners. Absent a national ban, I don't know how to stop folks such as the Haslams from shopping around for cities that will provide tax money. If there's another answer, I'd be happy to hear it.
Thank you for pointing out the Greek life/frat connections that plague our council and local politics with useful idiots for the Epstein class. Curious if the activities of the partnership fall under a RICO classification, considering the extensive, decades long collaboration to defraud the public.
Sad that the Haslams snookered the #SaveTheCrew brand into shilling for this so easily but at the end of the day, that was all effectively about the same thing.
https://freepress.org/article/it-s-not-your-park-give-away-billionaire
In my 2007 book Democratizing Cleveland: The Rise and Fall of Community Organizing in Cleveland Ohio 1975-1985, I describe the rise of a vibrant community organizing movement in Cleveland, before it ran afoul of the Great and the Good and local foundations for being a bit too raucous in its activism. The result was a counter-insurgency campaign that buried community activism, or even wild eyed advocacy as part of the civic ice age that followed the coup d'état that ended Kucinich's administration. The Big Freeze lasted for over 20 years. The Greater Cleveland Partnership was the result. Philanthropic foundations are hit men for ruling class power than insures that non-profits don't get too serious about social change. Forget ICE, the DHS, or the FBI. The most powerful force to control dissent in the US are the foundations.