NATIONAL FOOTBALL MUSEUM, iNC: "LEGAL QUAGMIRE ON TOP OF FINANCIAL QUAGMIRE?"

"It's not Welty's fault but it is Welty's fault?"

Confused?

Join the crowd of the rational!

Before the August 7, 2016 incident in which, according one online commenter, the paint on the field at Tom Benson Stadium was like a tar-esque goo which resulted in cancelation of the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts as they readied themselves to play the first professional football game of the 2016 season (i.e. the exhibition season) this is what Professional Football Hall of Fame  (HOF, formally:  National Museum, Inc.) president/CEO C. David Baker was reportedly saying about the company that was in charge of installing the playing surface:

After reviewing five nationally respected providers of synthetic turf, we selected UBU Sports for having the highest quality and safest product.

But as evidenced by a lawsuit filed against UBU (among other defendants), do you think Baker might be singing different tune today?

Maybe not.  Maybe he thinks it was one of the other defendants which was at fault.

Or maybe it was the HOF itself and its propensity to be up against a deadline in nearly everything it does (according to multiple sources) on the HOF-VP may have played a part on the "for that game" catastrophe?

Readers should take the few minutes it takes to read the actual complaint filed in Stark County Court of Common Pleas (John Haas, the assigned judge).  Reading it will not take long, it only goes on for 17 pages.

Here is the complaint:

On the one hand, lawyers of one Canton's most prestigious law firms (Krugliak Wilkins) say that Welty Building Company dropped-the-ball in a legal liability sense of the cliche phrase in ensuring that all was right with the playing field.

On the other hand, HOF public relations officials say that it has a "strong" relations with Welty and the two entities share similar values.

Having it every which way seems to be the order of the day these days starting with the executive branch of the United States government.

The Stark County Political Report's take is that when it comes to millions of dollars in losses allegedly sustained by the HOF;  "strong" can become "hostile"  and "similar" can become "different) "hostile" in nanoseconds.

It appears that Pro Football Hall of Fame public relations officials need to consult with the HOF lawyers in order to get the HOF's story straight, no?

The passage of time will tell the tale what the HOF/Welty relationship will be going forward.

The debacle of August 7, 2016 is nearly two years old and one would think that if the HOF/Welty relationship was "strong" and in accord "value-wise" a settlement on the damages the HOF says it sustained would have been worked out in the meantime.

It is interesting that in local media coverage the obvious contradiction in filing of the suit and the characterization of the HOF/Welty relationship does not get drilled down with some incisive Q&As.

But what does one expect of a publication which is the "official newspaper of the Professional Football Hall of Fame?"

The Repository managers could have chosen to include a copy of the HOF complaint.  But they didn't.

Hmm?

Maybe just maybe Repository readers who actually have the opportunity to read the complaint with the SCPR's thoroughgoing work might raise an eyebrow or two to see the detailed and specific finger pointing at Welty language of the complaint in view of the pollyanna stuff coming out of the HOF public relations machine which, as pointed out above, apparently went unchallenged with a:  "wait a minute, something is not squaring up here" follow up.

Repository publisher James Porter and his apparently close, close, close relationship with HOF officials would not abide "drilling down" on the aforementioned glaring contradictions any more than do the bigs at Fox News with a "select" group of  national political/government figures that Fox covers.

Undoubtedly, Porter loves to have his newspaper compared to Fox News in terms of playing favorites because he and his fellows at the top of Repository management pretty much ape HOF coverage a la what Fox News does with the Trump administration.

It has just been reported that Bill Shine (a former Fox executive) has signed on to become communications director at the White House.

Following that example, when will we see an announcement from Porter that The Repository is providing space at 500 Market Avenue, South to a HOF communications official so that the two can coordinate more closely The Rep's fawning of everything HOF-VP and ignoring as much as possible anything negative in the management of the project.

Even The Rep's unionized employees worried when it was announced that the newspaper and the HOF had formed a contractual relationship:

Accordingly, the SCPR points the finger at the management at The Rep (not individual reporters) when it appears that HOF reporting is:

• unduly laudatory of how HOF officials are handling the building of the HOF-VP,
• not thorough enough on the matter of  transparency when it comes to accountability for how federal/Ohio/Stark County taxpayer is being spent, and
• lacking follow through with documents return on investment to the taxpaying public

It should be very good news to Stark Countians who want to know "what really went before, during and after the debacle"  that there is a lawsuit (originated in federal district court in central California) now transferred to the Northern Ohio Federal District Court filed by none other than "the thorn in Donald Trump's side" on the Stormy Daniels lawsuit and Michael Avenatti.

Here is some indicated of the activity going on right now as the court decides whether or not to certify the case as "a class action:"

CLICK ON GRAPHIC TO ENLARGE

And look at the list of those deposed:

CLICK ON GRAPHIC TO UNLOAD

On March 16, 2018 an "amended complaint was filed in the Ohio case, to wit:

What an interesting read this is and is a mere 10 pages long.

The deposition of HOF president/CEO C. David Baker is "sealed" of course.  One wonders if we will ever get to see it.  Let's hope so! For the SCPR thinks it will reveal a lot about Baker that not many Stark Countians get to see.

While all the legal stuff is going on, the HOF is desperately seeking to get its financing for the HOF-VP in order.

It appears that it won't be that long until the HOF has to pay off its "up-to-$100 million" bridge loan with a permanent financing arrangement and the last the SCPR heard the HOF has not even been able to nail down a contract with supposed savior of the full HOF VP; namely, Michael Klein of The M. Klein Company.

What a quagmire err double quagmire that C. David Baker and his National Football Museum is in, no?