Some time ago I wrote about this country’s sports obsession and the habit cities have of spending public (i.e. our) money on stadium, ballpark, racetrack etc upgrades to convince wealthy team owners to not relocate elsewhere.
The tone of my piece was, I see, rather discouraging; in it I envisioned an endless loop of payments to aforesaid owners, new stadiums, eventual recurrence of extortion demands, lather, rinse, repeat. And lo, along comes a public money offer to keep the Cleveland Browns football in, well, Cleveland. At nearly a half billion (with a B) dollars, that would represent a huge chunk in any city’s budget but negotiations were unsuccessful; the Browns will be leaving Cleveland to build a new domed stadium in the suburbs, surely with another city’s funding.
What is different about this piece is Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s telling of his disappointment that it didn’t work out, but with a truly refreshing and encouraging addition that I had to highlight. He says:
“As mayor, I will always prioritize the needs of residents and businesses,” Bibb said in a statement. “The Haslem Sports Group may want a roof over their heads, but my responsibility is to ensure that Cleveland residents have a roof over theirs.”
What a welcome perspective! Sadly, it will likely doom his re-election prospects (as ‘the mayor who lost the Browns’), but this writer hopes that Bibb will eventually run for some national office. He showed reasonable thinking in his conclusion. There’s a place in leadership for that type of sanity.
In no particular order 