The Cleveland Guardians are asking taxpayers to split the $1 million cost of renovating the Progressive Field team shop.
Board members of Gateway Economic Development Corporation, which owns the ballpark and pays for repairs with taxpayer money, heard the team’s initial pitch on the project last week.
Aesthetic upgrades – such as new lighting and retail displays – would fall on the Guardians’ side of the balance sheet, said the team’s general counsel, Max Kosman. The public would pick up $500,000 in work on heating and cooling systems, flooring, access controls and security features.
Gateway will likely vote on the proposal at its next board meeting in June. Last week the board approved around $4.3 million to replace the stadium subroof and furniture, carpeting and window blinds in the administration building. The team is covering additional costs beyond the public share.
Publicly funded repairs at Progressive Field are accounted for in the team’s 2022 lease and paid with proceeds from Cuyahoga County’s sin tax. But as Gateway leadership has warned in the past, tax revenues are running low as construction costs rise.
Mayor Bibb back on the campaign trail: Election Day 2025 may be 18 months away, but Mayor Justin Bibb is already out stumping for reelection. Since the start of the year, he has been showing up at block club-style events with supporters and their neighbors.
Bibb held a backyard gathering last week with residents on Saratoga Avenue in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood. He chatted at a Shaker Square home in March and dropped by the Mill Creek development in February.
Events like these were Bibb’s bread and butter during the 2021 campaign.
The mayor is also trying to reach voters online. His campaign is running a Facebook ad that links to a News 5 story about Cleveland’s “Residents First” housing code overhaul.
Bibb’s campaign has spent several hundred dollars on Facebook ads this year, according to data from the social media site. It’s not much money, but the early campaigning gives the mayor a jump on whoever lines up at the starting block to challenge him.