2 weeks Ago
Thursday night’s snow-globe game was a gift for sports fans everywhere, cosmic compensation for anyone who suffered through last Friday’s boxing debacle. Everyone who loves football loved that game. With the exception of two: Jimmy and Dee Haslam.
For them, the epic Steelers-Browns game should kill any and all talk of building a dome in Cleveland. They’ve made it clear they want a covered stadium in Brook Park. The reason is obvious.
Money. Money that can come from having events in the venue without regard to weather. Given that the NFL has shifted its business model dramatically from in-person sporting event to television spectacle, it’s in the league’s best interests to have places like Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Chicago and Buffalo and Green Bay and Cincinnati and Denver and D.
C. and New York and Philadelphia and New England retain open-air football factories. The Vikings and Lions surrendered their home-field advantages when they went indoors decades ago.
They shouldn’t have done it then, and these other teams shouldn’t do it now. Especially not the Browns. Especially not in Cleveland.
Mark Cuban said it. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. If too many boss hogs decide to put a roof over their troughs, the eating will get better and better and better.
Right up until the moment they can eat no more. It’s too late to undo what’s been done for the Vikings and Lions. There’s time to take a stand as to other potential domes in places where the cold should be embraced.
And the current hot spot is Cleveland. Here’s hoping that fans, governmental officials, media, the league office, and other owners push the Haslams hard to give up their quest to prevent games like last night’s from ever happening again in Northeast Ohio..
