The-News-Leader.com - Officials say soccer stadium plans 'dead'

by Jeff Saunders

Reporter

Nordonia Hills -- Voters rejected a bond issue to improve the high school's athletic facilities for the second straight time last week, and school officials say they are not counting on a once-promised windfall from the developers of a proposed soccer stadium to soften the blow.

"As far as we know, that is dead," said Superintendent Wayne Blankenship at a Feb. 27 town hall meeting, referring to the soccer stadium project.

Those sentiments were echoed Feb. 29 by Chris Burnham, president of the Summit County Port Authority, which had attempted for the past two years to arrange a financing plan for the stadium that would have brought the school district up to $8.5 million up front and up to $200,000 per year for 30 years for its own athletic facilities.

"The whole thing was a moving target," said Burnham. "It was just too unwieldy. I think it just collapsed under its own weight."

Paul Garofolo, president of the Wolstein Sports and Entertainment Group, said March 6 that the developer is still pursuing a soccer stadium, but not necessarily in Nordonia Hills.

"We're looking at four other sites, one in Summit County," said Garofolo, adding that he would still like to build in Nordonia Hills.

"That's far and away my favorite site," he said.

Burnham said he felt a major part of the problem was that the Wolstein Group seemed to be too dependent on public financing of one type or another, including a countywide "sin" tax on alcohol and tobacco that the firm had proposed for the March 4 ballot.

"I really don't think [the project] will come back unless it's financed privately," said Burnham.

Garofolo said Wolstein needs the "sin" tax, which had been estimated to provide $5 million a year for 30 years. He said that in exchange, the stadium and retail development would have provided 3,000 jobs and $12 billion in economic activity. However, he said, Summit County Council balked at placing it on the ballot.

"We can't even go on the ballot to give people a chance to vote on it," he said.

Board of Education President Carl Ebner said that even if the Wolstein Group returned with another offer, he does not see the district entering into negotiations until details, including financing, are nailed down.

"We would enter into discussions once we knew it was a done deal," he said. "They have to have all the regulatory approvals and have a project that is moving forward."

In early 2006, the School Board suspended plans to place a bond issue on the ballot to rebuild the high school athletic facilities when the Wolstein Group offered a cash windfall to the district in exchange for permission to use school property tax revenue to build a sports-retail complex on about 450 acres east of Route 8 in Macedonia and Northfield Center.

Within a few months, the district entered into a tax increment financing agreement with Wolstein. The agreement, however, expired at the end of 2006 and was never renewed.

The district placed a 0.5-mill bond issue on the ballot in the November 2007 general election and again in the March 4 primary election, only to see it defeated both times.

The issue would have raised $7.5 million for the facilities, payable with a 0.5-mill, 22-year property tax levy. The money would have been added to $1.8 million the district has already earmarked for the project.

While school officials plan to discuss how to pay for the athletic field upgrades in coming weeks, local government officials are trying to figure out what is the best use of the Wolstein Group's proposed stadium site.

Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta announced last September that he was ending his support of the stadium project with a call for an economic and environmental impact study of the property.

That study should be completed by the end of March, according to Macedonia Finance Director Steve Brunot, who represents the city on a committee that arranged for the $40,000 study to be performed.

E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169