Ahead of tonight’s scheduled Cleveland City Council vote, city officials and the Cavaliers have announced enhancements to the financing deal to upgrade Quicken Loans Arena. Some groups have opposed spending tax dollars on Q renovations unless the same amount is spent on neighborhood projects.
The Cavs will refurbish the city’s 22 rec center basketball courts in exchange for the city’s commitment of $88 million. And City Council President Kevin Kelley says the team now guarantees that the same amount of admissions tax dollars used for upgrades will be returned to the city.
“And by the way, we’ve heard people loud and clear about concerns of how public dollars are spent, and that’s why that guarantee was so important to me. To make sure that the public knows that if there’s a dollar spent on this project, one dollar goes into our general fund which pays police officers, it pays firefighters, it pays EMS, it maintains our parks.”
The Cavaliers will also contribute all proceeds from the team’s away-game watch parties to Habitat for Humanity to renovate 100 Cleveland homes over three years. Cuyahoga County has already approved spending its share on the Q renovations. Backers says the facility must be upgraded to stay competitive with other arenas.
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