Gateway Economic Development Corp.'s Board of Directors
approved a formal agreement yesterday in which the Cavs
would pay $7M in "disputed construction costs," plus another
$1M in costs incurred through arena improvements requested
by the team since the arena opened two years ago, according
to David Adams of the AKRON BEACON JOURNAL. Gateway Board
Chair Craig Miller also said he was "optimistic" that an
agreement over a rental payment dispute with the Indians was
"imminent." The Indians want to build an $800,000, 629-seat
addition to the bleacher sections of Jacobs Field.
SIGN THEM UP: The Cavs wanted formal permission to put
up signs declaring the facility as Gund Arena. It is
"unofficially" named for team Owner Gordon Gund, but no
formal agreement was ever signed. Under the deal with the
Cavs, naming rights formally go to the Gunds and the team
agreed to forgo $7M of a $9M advance made by the team two
years ago. The remaining $2M of the advance also will stay
with Gateway, "which considers it advance payment on the
agreed-upon, but never signed, naming rights pact." Cavs VP
Richard Watson said there was no "connection" between the
signing of the construction cost agreement and formalizing
the previously unsigned naming rights agreement. But Adams
notes that Gateway, "previously without much leverage, made
it clear that permission for the Indians' bleacher addition
and the Cavaliers' naming rights agreement might both be in
jeopardy if the team's couldn't help Gateway dig itself out
of its financial hole [Gateway has an outstanding debt of
$1.4M]" (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 12/10).
