Rumor Mill Churning - Secret meetings with: Drew Carey - Cleveland Brown Officials - MLS people a month ago met. Basically, Drew Carey is trying to front a group pushing for a MLS team in Cleveland for MLS expansion in 2007 with toronto. Drew has been fronted for US Soccer to get the US Nats vs Venezuela next month. And also trying to get Browns & City officials with US Soccer and SUM marketing to get a Euro game summer tour stop in Cleveland. if so, MLS will see how viable Cleveland is as a new expansion team, and browns will wanna lease out the stadium.. make the revenue, and be team up with Drew to be a new owner of a team in Cleveland.
Sure o.k. Drew Carey and Randy Lerner owner of the cleveland browns are going to finance and buy their way into MLS with an expansion team in Cleveland. They (MLS) will make this announcement by the all-star game in Chicago when the other 2007 expansion team is announced. Toronto is one - the second team will be Cleveland. The team will play in Cleveland @ Cleveland Browns Field. Team name will be announced at all-star game. Congrats Drew!! a real soccer fan, and once proud Galaxy fan will now be an owner of his own MLS team.
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=293498 i defer to this thread for legitimacy... Hector... dont worry you'll be better off in the dark. doink!
Ohm the 14th team will be in Cleveland all right. Actually, to be precise, it will be in Summit County, which is about halfway between Cleveland and Akron, along Rt 8 near the intersection of Twinsburg Road. The GM will be Paul Garofolo, and the bid is finanaced by Greentree Partners, a real estate investment firm which is headed by Wolstein Associates out of Cleveland. They own the land and next Monday they will be finalizing a deal with the local school district (Nordonia Hills) for a one time cash payout of $6 million to pay for new athletic fields for the district. This will preclude real estate taxes on the site. That clears the way for the abatement bonds which are being financed by the Summit County Port Authority. Ground will be broken this Fall and the stadium will open in 2008, which is when the team will commence play, not 2007. They have a seven figure deposit with MLS and a legal letter-of-intent. Reportedly they've actually interviewed potential caoches. Drew Carey does not have the kind of money Phil, Lamar, the Krafts and the Wolsteins have and cannot afford this sort of thing. Furthermore, MLS has just spent 10 years fighting and screaming to get themselves OUT of 75,000 seat football stadiums, yet you contend that they're gleefully heading into Browns Stadium. You really have no clue, Bud. No clue at all.
Re: Sure If it is Randy Lerner - he has the money to finance the purchase because of his recent sale of his late father's investments in MBNA. The move has cost 6,000 jobs nationwide. I wasn't sure that Wolstein's group was still a player. Good for Cleveland.
If you are right fine, but I think Tequila's idea has more merit than you expect. Lerner does have Hunt/Kraft money. And until he can get financing done for a SSS, he can have the team play in his pre-existing field. The Lerner family has done a lot in the Cleveland metro area and I believe their past investments into institutions like the Cleveland Clinic would hold more weight in an eventual public/private stadium deal.
I've now seen two "Hectors" on BigSoccer... and they're both extremely obnoxious. Is it something to do with the name?
Re: Sure I didn't know Randy sold out. Didn't Al Lerner actually found MBNA? Then again, Bart Wolstein died too, so both businesses ended up passing to the second generation. Of course, Scott Wolstein isn't going to sell. He's up to his ears in the Cleveland Flats redevelopment, among other things. And there are those in the area - a couple of them even post on BigSoccer, who are still pissed over the whole Cleveland Crunch/Force fiasco. To this day they're angry about Bart Wolstein selling them down the river. In NE Ohio, old grudges die hard. However that may be, the Wolstein bid is in a very advanced stage. Bart Wolstein started the process before he died, fought the fights with the City of Cleveland, etc. Bottom line is that even if Randy Lerner was interested - and I seriously doubt that he is - Cleveland and Cuyahoga County won't give him dime one. They just laid off 250 policemen, 200 firemen and 1000 other muny employees. If he's seriously entertaining the notion that any politician will support spending millions of dollars on a soccer stadium he's crazy. If Wolstein can't get it done, it won't get done. Certainly not by Randy Lerner.
Re: Sure Charlie Cawley founded the company in 1982 but Al Lerner invested a significant amount of money to enable the company to go public. My understanding is that once Randy was able to, he sold his controlling interest in MBNA. But, Randy does have the luxury of already having a stadium - something Wolstein doesn't. Randy could view this as an opportunity to fill empty dates in the stadium and if done right, make this sharing agreement work well. I wouldn't put anything past him, business sense runs pretty strong in the family. I hope he would improve on the Kraft model.
Breakdown Drew Carey's role is to bring to the table about 8 to 10 million dollars funding provided by( himself, his production company, an outside group of financiers most likely called the "Carey Group") Randy Lerner's role is bring about 15 million dollars to the table, providing a managing ownership of the new team. Also using his and land development group's extensive city pull to get a bond measure on the ballot for a new 18-25 thousand seat SSS stadium in the next 5 years. The team in the mean time will play in Cleveland Browns Stadium, with a very good possibility of a high interest and attendance outlook, over 17 thousand per game. Cleveland will take over as Ohio's flagship team when the Columbus becomes contracted within the next few years for low attendance, and poor performance. Ultimately, the league is very interested in tapping into this market of nearly 3.5 million potential fans within 40 miles and having a very strong name in professional sports involved like the Cleveland Browns. With Drew Carey championing the cause there is a very good chance that Cleveland will be named the other expansion team for next year. The May 26th US Nats game in Cleveland is going to probably draw over 25k and be a great example of soccer viability in the area.
Re: Breakdown Oh good. I thought there might be a chance that your rumor would be true, but fortunately somebody's pulling things out of their ass (either you or whomever informed you of said non-Wolstein plans) so I can pretty much put my mind at ease... EDIT: Actually, that Lerner would want to spend any money, time, and political clout on an SSS, when an MLS team would do nicely to fill dates at the Brown's stadium also makes no sense whatsoever, was a pretty good sign that you're posting nonsense. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier...
So let me get this straight: MLS will award a team (not a "franchise" - MLS has no such thing) to Randy Lerner because "in the next five years" he will be able to "get a bond issue on the ballot" for a soccer stadium. Gosh, be stll my heart. An actual BALLOT????? WOW! Talk about pull! I don't know why Garber isn't down in Public Square right now, standing in the shade of the Moses Cleaveland statue and sucking Randy Lerner's schwantzstucker.
What the hell do you mean he "doesn't need an SSS"? Toronto needed an SSS. Philly needs an SSS. St Louis, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Portland, Seattle, Miami, EVERYBODY has been told the price of entry is an SSS. Unless, apparently, you're Randy Lerner. In that case, screw having an SSS. Screw even the prospect of one. And the day that Randy Lerner, or anybody else, builds a $150 million soccer stadium without public assistance I will give Greg Andrulis a ************** in Macy;s window and give you 20 minutes to draw a crowd. This is geting sillier by the minute.
This will be one of the few times that I am completely supportive of Bill coming into the Galaxy forums and telling you all to pull your heads out of your asses. This is a really stupid thread, top to bottom, and has only the thinnest of connections to the G's.
Bill, need I remind you this is BigSoccer, where silliness only happens on good day. I could give you the minutes from my meetings at work and people wouldn't believe a word, but as soon as someone pulls a whopper out of their a$$, all of a sudden its credible news. me, I'll believe there is a franchise in Cleveland the day Garber announces it on ESPN live with the mayor by his side. Until then just sit back and enjoy the lunacy. Besides, what the else am I going to do for laugh on a Friday after lunch at the office? Work?! BTW, nice use of "schwantzstucker" in your earlier post. "Where are the white women at?"
Re: Breakdown There is no way the league is going to contract in Columbus if they are going to expand into Cleveland. Why would they let a natural superclasico or derby die before it gets started? The rivalry alone would drive up attendance at both venues. Also, Lamar has too much invested in Columbus as a model for the future to toss it out. Give Sigi time, and the team will be entertaining again and will have good crowds. The crowning achievement would be for Brian McBride to come back after the World Cup under the mythical Beckham rule. Columbus would then simply need to spend some real dollars on promoting the product and sprucing up a very plain vanilla stadium. The model is right; it just needs to be tweeked. Remember, Columbus was the guinea pig, and the biggest problem they have is that there is no naming rights deal in place on the stadium.
Re: Breakdown You sound just like all the geniuses that said that the Real Salt Lake deal must be a joke. Try a little humility, unless you think the poster is intentionally trying to mislead us.