Ballpark lease extension will benefit all of Cuyahoga County: Tom Yablonsky

The national anthem is played during the last home game of the Cleveland Indians season at Progressive Field on Sept. 27, 2021. After the season, they become the Cleveland Guardians. In a guest column today, Tom Yablonsky, executive director of Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp., cites the economic transformation of the Gateway district downtown after the publicly owned baseball stadium and basketball arena were built as among reasons he feels Cleveland City Council and Cuyahoga County Council should vote to extend the lease at Progressive Field.
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CLEVELAND -- For anyone who wants our city and county to prosper, it’s a no-brainer to support the proposed Progressive Field lease extension.

It doesn’t matter if you like baseball or are a sports fan. Any objective review of what the Cleveland Guardians mean economically to Cuyahoga County quickly shows it simply makes too much sense. Dollars and sense, to be more precise.

I’ve dedicated 40 years of my professional life working in leadership positions at nonprofit organizations dedicated in large part to the revitalization of downtown Cleveland -- including the preservation of its unique historical architecture. Those grand old buildings very much help to define what Cleveland was and is.

But it was two new buildings – Progressive Field and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse – that were the undeniable catalysts for the $1.7 billion that has been invested in the historic districts that abut the Gateway sports complex.

Just 30 years ago, downtown Cleveland – particularly in the Gateway district where Progressive Field opened in 1994 – was eerily desolate. Pitted with vacant lots and empty buildings, our city’s front door was uninviting and uninspiring. To illustrate that very simply and starkly, at that time, there were only six restaurants, no housing and no hotels. Today, the Gateway district is arguably the most vibrant part of Cleveland’s downtown, with 29 residential addresses, seven hotels and nearly 60 bars and restaurants.

Tom Yablonsky is executive director of Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp.

There are economic and social ramifications of such a poor image. A dreary, empty urban landscape negatively affects Cleveland-area businesses that strive to attract the best and the brightest young people to come work and live here. Young people are vital to any large city, simply because they are the future. And many of these young folks are attracted to urban living. They want a walkable city that has plenty to offer. Thirty years ago, that was a tough sell for downtown Cleveland. Today, it is just the opposite. More and more people are living downtown.

The public owns our beautiful ballpark, which is now one of Major League Baseball’s older venues. The open-air structure endures Cleveland’s “brisk” winters. Like any building, it needs to be maintained. It also needs to be updated to meet the steadily evolving needs of sports fans. Public-private partnerships are the norm between cities and Major League Baseball venues in the United States. Community leaders across the country recognize the undeniable benefits of being home to a major league ball team.

In recent years, the baseball team averaged over 1.5 million fans who come to Progressive Field annually. Many of them live outside of Cuyahoga County. They spend money in Cleveland at bars, restaurants and hotels – most of which opened after the ballpark and the arena were built. The resulting financial infusion generates millions of dollars a year in tax revenues for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County. Those revenues are used to hire police officers and supply other public services that benefit residents throughout Cleveland and the rest of Cuyahoga County. The resulting businesses that have flocked to downtown since the ballpark opened have also meant thousands of jobs. People holding those jobs don’t just live downtown – they reside throughout Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.

The proposed lease extension guarantees that our baseball team will remain in Cleveland through at least 2036.

I’m so very proud of what downtown Cleveland has become. The ballpark is a big reason we are so much better off today than we were long ago. I respectfully urge Cleveland City Council and the Cuyahoga County Council to approve the new lease proposal – which will result in no new taxes. What it will do is to help continue the transformation downtown, which benefits everyone who lives in Cuyahoga County.

Tom Yablonsky is executive vice president of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance and executive director of the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp.

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