ballpeen

We have a course in Ooltewah, just north of town where using a caddy is mandatory. The Honors Course. It's a little steep for my blood to be a member...$35,000 to join. Never asked my friends about the monthly. One did let out he was buying lunch because he was behind on his $4500 a year club dining fee. Each member has to spend $4500 a year in the dining room. Not just buying beers and things in the mens lounge. They maintain a good chef and staff. If they don't spend it, they get a bill for the unused portion. I do have several friends who are members so I get to play out there maybe 10 times a year. The recommended minimum tip to the caddy is $80 per bag.

Got to go...9am tee time.

I get. The person living in Avon Lake might say the same if it was developed in Stark County. As a season ticket holder who lives in Hamilton county, Tennessee., on the Georgia border, I don't care where they build it. I already drive 600+ miles to go to 6-7 games a year.. What's a few more? For me, build it between Columbus and Cleveland. Mansfield would work for me.

We have to face facts. The days of stadiums, unless they are iconic, don't last 60 years anymore. Even if iconic they get torn down. Old Tiger stadium...Yankee stadium was as iconic as it gets. Stadiums these days have a 30 year shelf life if they were built on the cheap like ours.. Ours, which is far from iconic, is what, 21-22 years old? It's time to start thinking about it. From planning to development takes 5 years. If you build a really nice development, you might be able to go 50 years,

Why? Avon Lake is Lorain county. That is maybe a 15-20 drive from downtown on I90

I agree. To make it viable as a development for a owner financed deal, you are looking at 80 or so. You have to understand that is you move out to a somewhat remote location, you will need parking spots available.

Is the Akron Zoo all that viable? It's a pretty good parcel ..50 acres. I am sure you could buy up 20 more. I don't like evoking immanent domain laws, but I am sure Akron would like the business and would do what is best over the long haul. Medina county has several locations. Avon in Lorain country is pretty wide open in spots. The Atlanta Braves have a beautiful complex north of Atlanta. That is the script teams want to follow. Own the land, lease to those wanting to be near by. Sure Mr. Marriott, I can land lease you 5 acres for 20 years with 5 year options after that to build a beautiful hotel. That is how you pay for the thing as a private development. A owner isn't going to simply build a stadium unless he or she has a way to make money on the deal. You guys aren't children or stupid. None of you are going to build a house that you aren't going to get your money plus some back. At least knowingly. They want it to be a gathering spot above the 8 crappy home gams a year. Make it the place people want to go year round. Akron isn't the best example....Avon in Lorain county is where I would look. I see lots of land on 90 just past the Westlake line.

I think it more a poster ranking needs as they see them. No doubt you have to see who is available. If Simmons is there when we pick, it would be hard to pass on him to take the 3rd or 4th best LT. That is why scouting and the FO have to have 2nd tier and 3rd tier guys laid out on the horizontal draft board. One also has to consider what happened in free agency. That is where you address needs. At least to me, the 2nd round pick is where you might lean on your horizontal board a bit more, but even then, if you have to drop more than 2-3-4 slots on the vertical board, you are probably making a mistake. The only real exceptions are early if you need a QB and late if you need a kicker of some sort or a long snapper.

I don't think we release Hurt or OBJ. We will tag Hunt. If he gets a offer we don't like, we will take the pick. OBJ is at most trade bait. We will listen to offers, but I don't think Stefanski wants him to go. Vernon is the interesting question. We might release him. $15.5 is a lot for a guy who hasn't played much the last 2-3 years. That doesn't mean he won't be able to this year. That is the tough decision of the off-season. We don't have anybody behind him unless you are related the Chad Thomas.

I hope so. The guy is becoming a fat ass like me. He is a professional QB and about 40-45 years younger than I am. I have an excuse. Age tends to do that to people. Lazy tends to do that to a 25 year old. As for Grossi, I don't find anything wrong with saying Midget.

Like I first brought up, you have to think about the footprint you need. Then you need to think about parking options. You can't have available parking two miles away. You need 30,000 spots inside a mile or so.. Baseball and basketball need half of that or less. The majority of fans go to games with 1-2 with them, no matter the sport. You usually go with the spouse, or a kid, or kids. a friend or two. I go to games single a lot, but am far from the norm, being 600 miles away.. I usually see 2-3-4 people in cars

Fair enough. College season are largely over around Thanksgiving The weather hasn't turned all that bad in late Nov, early Dec.

I considered that. I was just going with proposal in the article. I clearly don't have all the details. I am sure there are other tracts of land that could be used. Even county wide. Nothing says it would have to be smack downtown. More and more teams are doing that because you just don't have the space in downtown areas.

Could be. Attendance figures keep dropping. During the Thome, Lofton days we would pack in over 3 mil a season. Now it is nearing half of that at 1.7 mil. People can blame owners all they want, the team still needs support from the public. The greater Cleveland population is a tick above 2 million people. You have to toss out kids who can't go without parents taking them, and some old folks who can't get out. You can also toss out half a mil for people who couldn't care less about baseball or sports, but their is still half a million people who can go. I don't think it unreasonable to get to 4-5 games out of 81 played. That would push attendance over 2 mil. Baseball is still fairly inexpensive to attend.

You would have been better to say the second poorest city, but hey, you prove my point.

It's totally stupid....I mean stupid to have a facility that hosts 10 games a year and maybe a few soccer events and 3-4 concerts a year. Like I said, cheap non-forward thinkers rule. You are the same cheap bastards that ran our team out of town 25 years ago. You will probably do it again. Good for you. Dumb. Just keep going to Wal-mart, Get the cheap ass dress shirt than never fits right, itches, and looks as cheap as a $10 whore, but hey, it only cost $14.

You know Flug….old time football, was over in early December. Championships before Christmas. I keep seeing people say that. My stock answer is if Football was meant to be played in cold crappy weather, why are all the college bowl games played in places like Pasadena, Miami, Tampa, Mobile, Dallas, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Tempe? The answer is nobody would have gone if they were played in places like Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, NYC, Green Bay, Fargo. The Fargo Bowl obviously never took off. The Sugar Bowl in New Orleans beat them out by a large margin.

I know it a tough sell on getting neighboring counties to buy in, that is why I propose the parking tax. Lot's of those people work in Cuyahoga country. If parking seems unfeasible, non Cuyahoga country residents working in Cuyahoga pay a higher payroll tax. That might even be better. Tax them an additional 3%. They don't vote for you. Just like I don't vote for them when they hit me with an additional $3 a night room tax.

No chirping here. You have to raise taxes. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. That is why I would be more in favor of not doing anything with the Jake. Maybe a few upgrades or something like that. It is still useful. We wouldn't need 2 domed stadiums, and unlike football which is enjoyable inside" baseball in domes sucks. So if the Wolstein property can handle the stadium and parking surge, that would be where to build the new stadium. So, how to pay? First, I would bump the county room tax a few bucks a night on hotel stays. Make a lot of out of towners help pay for the thing. Then, gas tax is always a money maker. A few cents there. The property on the lakefront that is going to be developed. The county could designate it a way that all development pays a special 20 year tax for the stadium fund. After all, the stadium moving is what opened things up for the developers and business operations that will be flocking there. Get all counties who border on Cuyahoga pay something. Boost room taxes and or gasoline tax. If they don't agree, boost parking rates on all parking lots by $5 a day. The county gives all county residents a special decal for their vehicle giving them a $5 a day discount on parking in county parking lots. Neighboring counties are crazy if they don't benefit. from the Browns. I spend about half my nights up there in Medina county. Usually a night or two in Vermilion...not sure of that county...Vermilion I guess. There is probably some enhancement super fund run by the state. Boost some state wide tax by a penny and create millions more. Lot's of people trek across Ohio on the turnpike. Increase big rig fees by $8 across the state from Pennsylvania to Indiana. Get some Steelers and Colts fans chipping in. Oh,, then all the events at the new facility. Put a tax on everything but football. Got to save myself a buck or two somewhere...lol We could probably come up with a special Dayton area tax...$2 a gallon or something like that.;)

I think "if" most said no dome is because most people go on the cheap and don't think ahead. The city of Cleveland has already run the Browns out of town once because they were cheap. Build the Dome. All new stadiums get a superbowl. That would pump hundreds of millions in to the local economy. It isn't about being a wimp. It about not being a dumbass. Someone mentioned the Wolstein center....maybe we could build the Browns new stadium there. Maybe not. It would depends on the property footprint. Football stadiums need a larger footprint. You would also have to consider near by parking. If you get 30,000 to a baseball game, you might need parking for 17,000 cars or possibly less. For a football game with 65,000, you might need parking for 30,000 cars.

And maybe Monocerotis, which is about 20,000 LY away finally blew about 20,0000 years back It is a red pulsating star. Hubble documented one of the pulsations in 2008. It pulsates violently. It's solar radii in some where between 390 and 1900. At it's largest, if you put in in place of our sun, it's outer atmosphere would be out past Jupiter. The variance in it's size makes it a good candidate to put on a very spectacular light show.

Well, it may have happed 20,000 years ago and we are about to see the results. I like astronomy as well. I still have a nice 80mm Meade refractor I still pull out in cooler weather. I had a 10" Schmidt Cassigrain, but donated that to the local astronomy club maybe 5 years ago. It has full computer assist. Just set it, GPS does the rest. Plug in M-81 and you are following as long as you want. It was just heavy to lug around. I still go to Clarence Jones observatory for lectures. It is part of UTC….Tennessee Chattanooga. The observatory has a 20.5" primary mirror. It was one of the test mirrors before the 200" Hale mirror was poured. You get some pretty impressive views despite light pollution. It was out in the country when built in the 30's. Efforts are under consideration to move another 20 miles out of town. It is a magnificent telescope.

Nick, I take it with all the laughing replies, I can now call you the Joker? How about a honest conversation...you know, man to man? I assume you have had a few of those in your day.

Cool. I respect other opinions. I know we have never talked that I can recall other than lately. I am a come and go poster. I have been here a good while. I am friends with many of the Mods and others. They might disagree with some of my opinions, but they know I am a true fan and a fun guy to have at the tailgate. Any who want to vouch are welcomed. Heck, when I first met Westside Steve, the SOB reached out a kissed me on the lips. Still not sure how I feel about that. LOL

I might disagree. I might also add that with all the Picks Jon had, they weren't all that good.