Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who last appeared on this site way back yesterday as owner of the Asheville Tourists who got $421,000 in Paycheck Protection Program money to defray pandemic-related costs and now is set to get a share of the $550 million that minor-league baseball owners are asking for to defray even more costs or lost profits or something, declared yesterday that he wants to give state money to the owners of the Cleveland Indians in exchange for them signing a lease extension:
The governor declined to say how much the state would put up for Progressive Field renovations, as he’s said he’s yet to have “meaningful discussions” about the issue with state Senate President Matt Huffman or state House Speaker Bob Cupp. He also said he couldn’t say when he’s looking for lawmakers to approve the money, as that would depend on negotiations between the team and local leaders…
“I’m going to do everything I can to see that the state puts money in this, and makes a difference, and helps — helps — to make it happen,” DeWine continued.
DeWine said that the team’s owners are considering a 15-year lease extension with two 5-year options after that. Asked if this would include a non-relocation agreement, DeWine said the owners have “no plan of relocating” and “are absolutely committed to Cleveland,” which is simultaneously not really an answer to the question asked and also doesn’t really explain why the state should give an as-yet-undetermined pile of money to a team to get it to stay if it would stay regardless.
As for those owners, the Indians’ majority owner is billionaire lawyer Larry Dolan, but as he’s 90 years old, the day-to-day operations are controlled by his son Paul. Paul’s brother Matt is also a co-owner, and also a Republican state senator who is chair of a key committee:
Publicly funded upgrades to the Indians’ stadium have been in the works for a while now, with the chair of the stadium board saying last month that the county’s share would come to “the tens of millions, if not more.” It’s unclear whether DeWine’s state money would come on top of the county money or be part of that, but given that we’re talking an as-yet-blank check here, that’s kind of a meaningless distinction anyway.
seeing how a lot of minor league teams got eliminated last year, isn’t it a conflict of interest for a minor league team owner to negotiate with a MLB team? He could easily give the MLB team a good deal so that he still has a minor league team affiliated with MLB next year.
It’s been a long day already but I initially read that as Passive Aggressive Field instead of progressive and that immediately feels appropriate.