{"id":764947,"date":"2026-02-20T17:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764947\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:03:20","slug":"cleveland-cavaliers-guardians-seeking-same-state-money-as-browns-to-cover-stadium-repair-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764947\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Cavaliers, Guardians seeking same state money as Browns to cover stadium repair bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

The same state money Ohio lawmakers tapped<\/a> to help finance a new Browns stadium<\/a> \u201cmay eventually help fund mounting repair costs at Progressive Field and Rocket Arena\u201d that their landlord \u201ccannot currently pay for on its own,\u201d according to Kaitlin Durbin of the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER. As with the Browns\u2019 deal, the money being sought is \u201ccurrently tied up in court\u201d and \u201cfar from guaranteed.\u201d Both teams recently applied for a combined $105M in assistance from the Ohio Sports Facility Performance Grant, a new state program that allows professional franchises to \u201crequest up to 25% of a project\u2019s estimated construction or renovation cost, capped at\u201d $250M. The Cavs requested $40M in funding toward a total of $161M in projects, some of which are \u201cmeant to support upgrades to accommodate a future WNBA franchise.\u201d The Guardians requested $65M toward a total $259M in projects. Some of the dollars \u201crelate to projects referenced in the recent Facilities Conditions Assessment Report,\u201d which outlined $412M in \u201cneeded repairs between the two facilities through the remainder of their leases.\u201d State officials have \u201cnot provided a timeline\u201d for announcing grant recipients or releasing funds, and it \u201cremains unclear whether the dollars will be distributed at all\u201d (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 2\/18<\/a>).<\/p>\n

MORE ISSUES AHEAD: In Akron, George Thomas wrote at what point does the entire stadium, arena and ballpark situation in Ohio \u201cdevolve into a realization that we\u2019re existing in a world of bread and circuses?\u201d Although the Browns are (tentatively) the \u201cfirst franchise to benefit\u201d from the law, it \u201cset a precedent that would surely open the floodgates,\u201d and the \u201cflood is here.\u201d For the Cavs and Guardians, Cuyahoga County sin tax revenue that goes to renovations \u201cis running dry\u201d or is \u201cat least woefully behind.\u201d But teams \u201cshould be quite capable of lifting themselves up by their bootstraps\u201d — and the state and its politicians \u201cshould not be doing anything to help.\u201d Thomas wrote Northeast Ohio is \u201cfilled with rabid sports fans,\u201d but they \u201care a vocal minority.\u201d The issue of stadium funding \u201crepresents a case of the needs of the few outweighing the needs of the many.\u201d The argument will \u201clikely be made that investment in sports facilities is good for an area\u2019s future.\u201d But investing in the state\u2019s people \u201cis better\u201d (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 2\/19<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The same state money Ohio lawmakers tapped to help finance a new Browns stadium \u201cmay eventually help fund…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,6060,155,6,6554],"class_list":{"0":"post-764947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sustainability"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116104043854229357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}