Greg Cielec's Blog

 You are Cordially Invited to the 25th Anniversary of the Publication of

My Cleveland Story

by Greg Cielec

at Corleone's Restaurant and Bar in Parma

5669 Broadview Road

June 2 at 6:30

Besides the company of many old friends thew night includes dinner, house wine and beer, 

plus a new copy of the novel.

$65 includes all of the above plus a small donation will be given to the Cleveland Food Bank 

for each person in attendance.

Spots are limited

Call 216.741.0220 for reservations

 Isn’t it time to stop this stupid idea of building a domed stadium in Brook Park? There are so many reasons why it just shouldn’t happen.

Let’s start with the location. I grew up in the southwest suburbs, stretching west to east from the airport to the Cuyahoga River, from Old Brooklyn to the north and Medina County to the south. I know the Ford sight in Brook Park, there just isn’t enough room for all they are promising. There is the airport to the west and south, Interstate 480 along with a major train corridor to the north, and to the east are several small neighborhoods and Holy Cross Cemetery. Are we going to build new hotels between the runways at Hopkins? Put sports bars between the gravestones at the cemetery?

 The Haslems did not know what downtown was like before it came back. The saving of the theaters, building of Gateway, the transformation of the Cleveland State campus, and, of course, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Downtown is the epicenter of the region. And they must realize that Cleveland isn’t Dallas or Los Angeles. Anything built in Brook Park as far as hotels and restaurants would just replace the same type of business downtown. 

Northern Ohio is a downtown centered urban area. The Cavs and Indians play there. Playhouse Square is there. Our major public university is there. The hub for our mass transit is there. Major hotels are located there. Downtown is the reason we are able to attract events like NCAA basketball early rounds for men and the finals for women. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is there.

Many people choose to stay downtown and walk to the games, whether they are at Progressive Field, Rocket Arena, or First Energy Stadium. Many of us have a favorite place to tailgate and, again, walk to the game. That is especially true for Browns games. Many of us meet friends at various sites and take public transportation downtown for games, again especially true for the Browns games. 

In 1990 there was less than a thousand full time residents downtown, in 2023 there was over 21,000. Many of those people are living downtown so they can walk to Progressive Field to see the Guardians play; walk to Play House Square to see plays and concerts; and to walk to lakefront to see the Browns play. Many of those people spent good money to live downtown, in a walking community. How many people are going to be able to walk to games from home, or from a hotel for that matter, if the Browns move to Brook Park?

Making the Brook Park stadium for the fans is a myth. Making it as a money maker for the owners is more like it. They want to b e like Jerry Jones. They want to control everything from tickets, to parking, to everything in and out of the stadium. But again, this isn’t Dallas. My Dawg Pound seats cost $45 a piece in 2012 when the Haslems came on board. This season they will be $165 a piece. Two tickets to every game comes out to over $3300 for the season. And mine are the cheap seats!  What are seats going to cost in the new stadium? Are fans going to have to pay for yet another PSL? 

The Browns currently sell out each game in the current stadium. Does that warrant billions of dollars being spent on a new one?  The Browns talk attracting Super Bowls and Final Fours. If those ever happen, it will be only once. The NFL favors warm weather for the Super Bowl, and every covered football and baseball stadium in the country bids on the Final Four. We would have to wait our turn with thirty other sights. Are we going to spend three billion dollars on two events that might happen once over the next thirty years?

Another myth is about concerts. Stadium size tours happen during the summer, when more venues, covered or uncovered, are available. During the winter established artists now do residencies at arena size or smaller venues, such as Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, or the Eagles and U2 in Las Vegas. 

We have two very functional convention centers, the Huntington downtown and the IX Center near the airport. Between the two of them Greater Cleveland can accommodate almost any show or convention possible, from the Republican Convention to a major car show every year. We don’t need a domed stadium for conventions or trade shows.

Does the supposed cost of the project include infrastructure? How are we going to get there? I480 and the Brook Park rapid station are not even slightly able to accommodate a Browns crowd. And who is going to pay for the construction over runs to upgrade those things? Those of us of a certain age will remember the traffic hassles of getting to and from the Coliseum in Richfield, and that seated a little under 20,000. What about the traffic that will be caused by a crowd of over 70,000? What a mess that will be. Can you imagine trying to catch a flight at the airport on a Browns game day?

So many Cleveland traditions will be eliminated. Tailgating in the Muny Lots. Tailgating where my crowd does, in one of the lots in the Flats. Taking busses and the rapid downtown on game day. Staying in a downtown hotel the night before Sunday games, or the night after Monday and Thursday night games. Bar hopping in the Warehouse District or on East 4th Street before and after games. What about the bars in Tremont, Ohio City, and the Flats who run shuttles on Sunday to Browns games? They are not going to run shuttles to Brook Park.

If the Haslems really want to do something for their fans they could put a quality product on the field, starting with cleaning up their front office and their outside business interests. Since they took over in 2012 not only have ticket prices gone up greatly, but problems off the field keep surfacing. Since 2012 there has been seven head coaches and six general managers for the team. You wonder who will survive this season. The team has had only two winning seasons and their  first ever 0-16 season. In 2018 seventeen former employees of Haslem’s gas and oil company pleaded guilty in a fraud scheme that ripped off some of their best customers. Haslem was guilty of either being in on it or not knowing what was going on inside the higher end of his company. In 2023 Federal prosecutors investigated Haslem attempting to bribe Pilot executives to inflate the worth of the company so the final payment in the sale to Warren Buffett would be larger than what it should be. The case was settled out of court.

Most football people, including some of those on the coaching staff at the time, were not enamored with the drafting of Johnny Manziel. His drinking and partying lifestyle were no secret around the Texas A&M campus, and most scouts saw his college game skills not transferring to the NFL. The Watson trade was greeted with even more apathy. No football people throughout the NFL thought it was a good deal, including some of those who were on the Browns coaching staff at the time. The franchise will be haunted for five to eight seasons by sending three first round draft picks to Houston in the trade. One of the reasons the Browns gave up on Quarterback Baker Mayfied during the Watson fiasco was a maturity issue. I guess sexual assault doesn’t figure in the Browns definition of maturity. 

The one constant through all of this mess has been team ownership.

Greg Cielec, cielec@hotmail.com, 216.496.8286

Two articles every Browns fan should read:

Brent Larkin’s essay in the Sunday Plain Dealer on April 13, also on Cleveland.com.

Zurie Pope’s article “The Haslems gave big donations to Ohio Lawmakers, who are now deciding the fate of Browns stadium.” April 7, 2025, ohiocapitaljournal.com

A documentary every Ohioan should see:

“Ohio Confidential” The HBO original documentary series The Dark Money Game. Episode 1, Season 1.

 11/9/24

 10/11/24

10/5/24 

 On Saturday, September 21 took the drive down to Alliance and saw another great JCU at UMU game. Too bad it finished like most of them in the past with Mount winning a close one.

More to come...

 Kirkland 48 CHHS 7

Keeping up with my goal of seeing all of my former teams play I went to the Kirkland at Cuyahoga Heights game on September 20. I was excited to see Kirkland play, they have become a small school power of the last 15 years or so. And Cuyahoga Heights hasn't been a shabby team either, although they have a history of not beating Kirkland. Both teams have two of the best high school coaches in the area.

More to come...

 Last night I went down to Streetsboro to see the Rockets play Coventry. I got there 10 minutes late and the game was already over. Coventry couldn't tackle or block anyone. It was 55-0 at halftime.

Besides the game being a stinker I really enjoyed myself. Saw some of the guys I coached and taught 25 years ago, and saw some of my old teaching colleagues. It was the first time i saw a game in the new stadium and it was terrific. 

I've seen three of my former teams, six more to go!

 (Last year I posted some early chapters to my football book. Since then I've pretty much worked on a novel and have ignored the football book. But now that fall is here, football season is back.

Seeing that this is the first season in a long time I'm not coaching, One thing I want to do is get caught up on my past teams. I coached at four high schools, four colleges, plus played at another one. This fall I have a goal of seeing all nine teams play. This week was my second game.)

Week #2 this season saw me see another one of my alma maters play as the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops hosted the Otterbein Cardinals. The game had extra importance to me as former John Carroll Quarterback Jake Schaffer made his debut as Otterbein's Head Coach. Given the right support he will do a good job as the Otter's head coach.

The game had a 6:00 start so that gave me time to check out the tailgating plus any major changes on the campus or in the town of Delaware. My love and affection for both the college and the town has never changed since I first attended school there in the fall of 1976. The campus and the town never looked better.

Even with over 100,000 fans attending the Michigan game two hours north on Route 23, and over 100,000 fans attending the Ohio State game 40 minutes to the south, the crowd in Selby Stadium was impressive. The home side was over 90% filled, and that was in one of the bigger DIII stadiums in the country seating almost 10,000. Otterbein also brought a pretty good contingent of fans. Selby Stadium is still the best of the older stadiums in DIII, and possibly the best of all DIII stadiums.

Tailgating in smaller colleges has really taken off over the last 15 years or so. Last Saturday at OWU it was quite festive, with the parking lots next to the stadium and next to the science building filled with tailgaters. 

Another relatively new addition to OWU football is the marching band which now has over 60 members. The members of the band seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

It was a beautiful early fall day, and it was a great day to be on a college campus, especially the one that I attended many years ago. I stopped in Gray Chapel and said a prayer for Joe Blaha, Paul Miller, and Blair Wherthman, three old teammates and close friends who have recently passed. They would've enjoyed being at the game.