BREAKING NEWS? HOF TO ANNOUNCE C. DAVID BAKER NON-RENEWAL BY END OF OCTOBER

UPDATE:  SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28TH AT 2:30 PM

EXTRACT

REPOSITORY'S TODD PORTER ARTICLE OF JUNE 27, 2016 (LINK)

The Stark County Political Report i(SCPR) is being told by what has turned out in the past to be a "highly credible" source  that C. David Baker's days as president/CEO of the National Football Museum, Inc [dba as the Professional Football Hall of Fame; PFHOF) are numbered.

If in fact Baker vacates his PFHOF dual position, it could be because since April 16th, there appears to have been "no" major developments regarding the completion of the $1 billion or so Professional Hall of Fame. 

The last press release issued by the HOF's Pete Firele was April 16, 2018 regarding the naming of a Centennial Committee and Repository publisher Jim Porter (April 12th)  as the committee's chairman, to wit:

Actually, the last "concrete?" announcement was the hoopla press release on April 25, 2017 of the ground breaking for the supposedly multi-starred HOF Hotel.

As of October 28, 2018 so far as the SCPR knows, not much if anything has been made on the building of the hotel.

LOL in Pete Fierle who once told the SCPR (via e-mail) that the HOF does not comment on "rumors," which, was not The Report asked him as spokesperson for the HOF to comment upon.

With the passage of so much time, would it be fair to say that the April, 2017 celebration was of a rumor?

A couple of years ago the HOF brass was promising that the project would be done by the Spring of 2018.

But maybe the bigs at the HOF-VP are pinning their hopes on a bailout by state Senate candidate Kirk Schuring (now a combined (the House/Senate back and forth with Oelslager) continuous 25 years in the Ohio General Assembly.

Schuring held a fundraiser on September 12th and there was a substantial presence (including C. David Baker himself) of HOF folks (some of whom have indirect connections as noted) at the candidate for the 29th Senate District in the November, 2018.

Undoubtedly, all the crontributers contributed to Schuring in order to support "good" government.

And Schuring has produced "good" goverment in spades if you are a proponent for government support for chiefly "private enterprise project" in which the private sector does not have to account for how it spends the public's money.

Schurhing produced:

•  a $10 million "no payback" grant for the HOF-VP, 
• was behind mutltiple legislative proposals that empowered local governments to "invest" money in the project (at the expense of Stark County schood districts), and
• at one stage of working hard to bolster the HOF-VP is said to have been working on legislation to authorize the county commissioners to put in place a "economic development 'sales' tax to be administered by the likes of a "Strengthening Stark" entity.

Again, perhaps, because of the HOF-VP making progress, Baker said to be going to work for Industrial Realty Group (IRG) owner SBatuart Lichter (master developer of the HOF-VP) as president of  the Lichter majority owned HOF Village LLC as its president.

The report of  Baker's transition seems to make sense in light of Porter's June, 2016 story on how close "transcends business" the two men apparently are.

From what the SCPR is hearing, Lichter is being ganged up upon by Stark County's "bullish for the HOF-VP" leadership group (e.g. Jim Porter) as being the blame for the stall on the project.

Readers of this blog should pause and read Porter's June 27, 216 article.  (LINK)

A person who is in a position to hear about moves like that conjectured by the SCPR, when asked by The Report for confirmation had this to say:

I haven't necessarily heard that one...but...it wouldn't surprise me.  

I would think under that position with the Village...he would be able to have some equity/"skin in the game" (aka make more money) on the project, which I'm not sure he could have done as President of the HOF. 

It all may be moot, if (as I've heard) Stu Lichter is holding the project hostage, by not signing the management agreement with M Klein (after almost 6 months)...and allowing M Klein to officially move forward with control of the Village project.    

For as long as this thing has drug on...I would think there has to be some "drop dead" date (soon) for construction of the hotel to be complete by the 2020 NFL Centennial Celebration.  Sounds like Mr. Lichter is playing a high dollar game of chicken...to me.  But only my opinion and observation from the cheap seats.

In "handwriting on the wall" fashion, Baker, in recent months, has been telling various group that his contract with the PFHOF is expiring on December 31st implying (the SCPR thinks) that he might not be continuing as the PFHOF's chief executive.

The Report hears that the PFHOF Board of Trustees has already acted on Baker's departure and that an announcement is to be made by the end of October.

If these reports are accurate, there are many unanswered questions that HOF officials need to deal with.

To name a few:

What is the status of the completion of the HOF Village Project (HOF-VP) as is on the drawing board currently at upwards of $1 billion?

Who is to take over for Baker?

What is the new executive's mandate re:  the future of the HOF-VP?

What will the HOF Village LLC role be moving forward?

How/when is the bridge loan (upwards of $100 million) to be repaid.

What are prospects for alternative "private sector" financing, if as speculated that Micheal Klein is out-of-the-picture.

The SCPR has heard numerous reports that many local leaders (e.g. The Repository bigs) who are still bullish about the HOF-VP privately blame Lichter for the project being in a state of limbo.

One Repository official volunteered to The Report:  "It's October and nothing is going on at the HOF."

Hmm!

interesting.