The Cleveland Cavaliers confirmed to News 5 Monday that the organization will not be rehabbing gym courts in the City of Cleveland’s recreation centers and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District high schools after withdrawing from their commitment tohelpfund a $140 million Quicken Loans Arena transformation project.
As part of the deal, the Cavs said they would rehab 40 gym courts and floors in the City of Cleveland’s recreation centers and all of the CMSD high schools.
A Cavs spokesperson told News 5 in a statement Wednesday: "The refurbishing of the city’s rec courts and floors will no longer happen."
The team said Monday that the addition of a prospective referendum being placed on the ballot "will cause the groundbreaking of The Q Transformation to miss the current construction cycle, which pushes the overall price tag of the project higher due to rising construction costs."
The team also said, "a time sensitive financing package that included historically low-interest rates would be negatively impacted by further delay due to a prospective referendum exposing the project to an expected higher interest rate environment."
“To lose this is just tragic,” said Reverand Ken Chalker.
Chalker is a member of the Greater Cleveland Congregations, the organization that spearheaded the effort to get a referendum vote to approve the Q’s proposed $140 million renovation.
Chalker’s outraged that the deal is dead and blames GCC for its failure.
“This action that they have taken on the Q project is off the rails, just off the rails,” he said.
“It takes away what could’ve been a great amplification in our city schools, in our neighborhoods and that is a great loss,” he said.
