It’s hard to imagine how a $27 million renovation can turn into a $899 million project billed as the “Disney World of football,” but that is exactly what has happened.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio is currently in the thick of building the Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village. The project was originally meant to be a simple renovation of the then-53-year old Pro Football Hall of Fame Stadium.
The stadium has hosted the Hall of Fame Game every year since 1971. The game, usually consisting of one AAFC and one NFC team, marks the beginning of the NFL preseason.
However, the stadium and Hall of Fame rarely host events together. The Hall of Fame host banquets, guests, and the enshrinement ceremony, while the stadium was typically used for high school sporting events and occasional concerts the rest of the year. It is home to two local high school football teams.
“You had a stadium that was right next to the hall but not really connected,” Hall of Fame Chief of Staff and Vice President of Communications Pete Fierle said. “The idea was to sort of take these things that were already there and turn it into a sort of ‘Disney World’.”
What if the Museum, which was already the second most visited professional sports hall of fame in the country, became more than a simple one-day trip for tourists and attendees?
Fast forward to 2015 and the Hall of Fame revealed an expanded plan to build a $476 million Hall of Fame Village with a projected completion date in 2019. The idea was first put forth by Hall of Fame president David Baker, “although he would humbly say it was a group effort,” said Fierle.
The village would include an updated stadium and museum, the Black College Football Hall of Fame, a youth sports complex with eight turf fields for football, soccer, lacrosse and track and field events, a football-themed four-star hotel, a shopping promenade, a center for excellence dedicated to the education of coaches, players and game officials, an indoor sports facility with a football field, basketball arena and convention center, an assisted living facility for retired Hall of Famers and an indoor amusement park with an companion water park.
Don’t worry. I had to catch my breath, too.
The current village plans are expected to take up 100 acres, but the zoning around the Hall of Fame includes 500 additional acres of land that can be used to further expand the village once it is completed.
The many different components are planned to be integrated into a “smart city” that is cost efficient and energy efficient.
“You’re not creating ten different systems,” said Fierle. “You’re creating one that can keep it all integrated together and that’s what makes it unique.”
The idea behind the village is that both the Hall of Fame and the city of Canton will mutually benefit from the project. With the city’s cooperation, the Hall of Fame hopes to become the premier sports destination and a multi-day tourist attraction that can compete with New York’s Cooperstown, the home of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame and a prominent skiing destination for the eastern United States, recreational lakes and a summer Opera series.
The city of Canton hopes to gain jobs, tax revenue, and a huge boost in tourism for the once great industrial center in Northeast Ohio that has had a declining population over the last half century.
With an increase in tourism, the city would see increased spending at restaurants, stores, gas stations and hotels from visitors when they are not on the village grounds. It can only be assumed that the cost of staying at a four-star hotel may be a little too pricey for some tourists.
Chuck Duplain, the owner of Escape Downtown, and escape room business, is optimistic about the village construction.
“Sure, there is not a lot done at the moment,” said Duplain. “But if it becomes what they are saying it will, I would hope that it would mean a boost to business for myself.”
Duplain added that Escape Room businesses tend to do very well in tourism areas because people from out of town want to have fun when they travel.
The huge project has a completion date goal set in 2020. That will be the year of pro football’s centennial celebration and the Hall of Fame has plans for a week-long celebration of all things football that Fierle hopes will rival the economic impact of a Super Bowl being hosted in Canton.
Jeff Clark, a North Canton resident who lives within throwing distance of the Village construction site, doesn’t expect that 2020 goal to be met.
“Just look at that pile of dirt,” Clark said motioning down his street to the chain link fence surrounding the village grounds. “If a few of the fields and the stadium is all they can do in [three] years, how do [they] expect to finish the whole thing in the next two?”
Clark said the project has been a nuisance from the start. He had heard rumors that the Hall of Fame would be buying up homes on his road, but wasn’t notified until a year after construction started that there were no plans for the village to expand to his property.
“The lack of communication is what sucked the most,” Clark said. “Now I’m going to be stuck next to an amusement park and concerts that are as loud as who knows what.”
Clark added that he isn’t sure if he will move, but he doesn’t expect to get back the money he paid for his house when he bought it six years ago.
“Would you want to live here,” Clark asked while pointing out the backed-up traffic on his small side street caused by a track meet taking place at one of the new youth complex fields.
The Hall of Fame originally was working on the project with developer Industrial Realty Group alone. Baker had conceded early on that the village would require outside capital to come to fruition. The capital took some time to find, however and construction stalled in Spring of 2016 due to finance issues.
At the time, only three youth fields had been built and part of the stadium renovation completed. Ground had been broken on the hotel, but very little had been done beyond grading of the earth.
In November of 2016, Baker finally found a partner in Johnson Control, a company specializing in infrastructure with assets exceeding $4 billion. Johnson Controls agreed to pay $100 million for naming rights of the now-Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village for naming rights over the next 18 years.
The company, which has been primarily business-to-business up to this point and not a household name, hopes to get its name out as a serious player in the infrastructure industry.
The village plans continued to grow after the partnership was announced and was already nearing an expected cost of $600 million by the end of 2016.
Construction picked back up, and the Stadium renovations were nearly completed before its unveiling for the Hall of Fame Game in August of 2017. The stadium was dedicated to New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson shortly before the game. Another two youth fields would be completed, the foundation would be laid for the hotel and the estimated costs would increase to $899 million before the next finance issues arose.
With this large of a project, setbacks are expected, but as news broke in February that contractors had been working for months without full payment for their services and over $8 million in liens had been filed against Industrial Realty Group by eighteen different contracting companies, eyebrows began to raise about how the project was being managed.
IRG was forced to take out an emergency $100 million short-term loan with the Los Angeles-based finance company Great American Capital Partners. The liens were paid with interest according to Stark County Port Authority.
“That’s no longer an issue,” said Fierle. “I would also add that many of [the contractors] have had maybe their best year in history because of the work that was created for them.”
While the total payments after the liens were settled may have created a large net profit for the companies, a lack of payment for six months is not something that can easily be shrugged off.
Stuart Lichter, president of IRG, got involved with another large project in nearby North Canton after the Hoover Company left the city for good in 2007. Lichter and two development partners purchased the abandoned 70-acre factory for $5 million with plans to turn it into a new industrial complex. The first phase of renovations was completed in 2013, but the second stage has been a disaster.
Lichter and his partners in the Hoover project had a lawsuit brought against them in 2016 by an investor for misuse of investment funds that were diverted to different projects of IRG. The case reached an eventual settlement out of court, but construction has still not been completed.
With Lichter at the helm of IRG, it is understandable why many are worried. North Canton mayor David Held has been critical of the IRG and Lichter’s handling of the Hoover project and the Hall of Fame Village.
“Before you put a shovel in the ground, it is just good business practice to make sure you have your short- and long-term financing in place,” Held told the Canton Repository’s Kevin Baker. “Clearly, that was not done. It was either overbuilt, underfunded, or a combination of both.”
The Hoover building still has plywood over a large portion of its windows. Whether or not funding is in place yet to complete phase 2 is unclear.
Lichter could not be reached for comment.
As far as what has been paid toward the Hall of Fame Village project so far and where exactly that money is coming from, facts are not very easy to come by. All funding for the project must go through the legal channels at the Stark County Port Authority and Development Board. Ray Hexamer, President of the Stark County Development Board said that any project of this size is naturally complicated.
“On any project like this, there are different funding sources,” said Hexamer. “Anything you see [already built] there has already been paid for, but they are currently working on funding for the next phase in construction.”
However, Hexamer and the Stark County Port Authority have yet to return requests for documents showing the different sources of funding for what has been completed. The Hall of Fame was not willing to provide any definitive numbers either.
“It is mostly a private project,” said Fierle. “I probably would not reveal that information.”
What isn’t clear at this point is whether there is enough funding to cover the nearly doubled estimated cost of $899 million to complete the project by 2020 completion date. The situation has caused local officials to consider whether a sales tax increase will be needed to help fund the project.
Canton is not a city known for having deep pockets. In fact, 25.5 percent of its residents make less than $15 thousand a year. That amount is significantly higher than the statewide 13.8 percent. The city’s $37,584 median family income is only a little more than half of the national average of $65,443.
On top of that, the city’s tax rates rank higher than national averages as well. The 6.5 percent sales tax and 5.47 percent income tax are above the national averages of 6 percent and 4.6 percent respectively.
The expected benefits to Canton citizens give those with doubts some hope, however. A year-long study completed by Conventions, Sports & Leisure International (CSL) in 2015 estimated a net new total economic output of $15.3 billion over the next 25 years. CSL is an advisory firm that specializes in providing consulting services in the convention, sports and entertainment industries.
The independent study also projected the addition of 13,375 full and part-time jobs over the same 25-year period. Those jobs are expected to provide $2.7 billion in yearly net income.
While the jobs and income created do appear to provide an optimistic return on the city’s investment, that only equates to an average yearly salary of $20,186, which falls just short of the federal poverty level for a family of three and well short of the $25,100 federal poverty level for a family of four.
The original hope was that additional taxes on goods such as admissions, food and lodging within the completed Hall of Fame Village would retroactively pay for the project. That trust in future tax revenue does little to alleviate the immediate needs for funding to have the project completed by 2020 and the anticipated Pro Football Centennial celebration.
On top of this, the project is not passing the eye test for local residents. When construction began in 2015 with the tearing down of the north stands of the stadium, it was highly visible from Interstate-77, the main highway connecting Canton to Akron and Cleveland. Some quick progress was made early on with the construction of goal post-themed power lines stretching over the highway and the completed tear down of the south stands.
Progress has been small, slow and incremental since then.
The centennial is fast approaching and more and more people are becoming doubtful the project will be completed in time. The proposed celebration is expected to be a huge boost to the city and surrounding area and would go a long way in alleviating tensions brought on by the constant stalls in construction, but the September 17th, 2020 deadline is less than 28 months away. Construction has been on and off for over three years already. Time is not on the Hall of Fame’s side.
Remember that list from earlier of all the lofty plans for the village?
Well, if we recap that list, the only project that has been completed was a separate 2013 renovation of the museum itself. The stadium has an incomplete end zone seating area, no visible construction has been done on the hotel since ground was broken two years ago and three youth fields have yet to be started. No assisted living center. No promenade. No amusement park or waterpark. No education facilities or indoor sports center.
The fences surrounding the construction site stretch through neighborhoods that have already been bought by the Hall of Fame and construction equipment remains idle most days. A large mound of dirt towers over the lonesome hotel foundation and the area that is meant to hold the amusement park is still an active parking lot. Chain link fences are plentiful with signs advertising the expected end results of construction.
As residents wait in anticipation for the village’s completion, we can only hope that the Hall of Fame and its partners can turn this dirt into a gold mine for the city.