Indians’ New Owners Look to Possibility of New Domed Stadium

The sale of the Cleveland Indians to local real-estate developers has shifted the interest of the city’s sports establishment to the future of Municipal Stadium and the possible construction of a domed facility.

Mike Poplar, vice president of the Stadium Corp., which manages Municipal Stadium, said that the baseball team’s new owners, Richard and David Jacobs, have yet to discuss the fate of the Depression-era facility that sits next to Lake Erie.

“We don’t know which way the dome bodes,” said Poplar, who is also vice president of finance for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, another user of the 80,000-seat stadium.

“The Jacobses haven’t had any conversations with us at all,” he said. “I guess that’s the next thing.”

Technically, the Indians’ one-year lease is up for renewal this month, and Poplar said he is awaiting the paperwork on the lease. The Indians open the 1987 baseball season April 10 against the Baltimore Orioles.

The Jacobs brothers’ purchase of the Indians for $35 million from the estate of F.J. O’Neill was approved Tuesday by American League and National League owners during their winter meetings in Hollywood, Fla.

Richard Jacobs said later that he would soon discuss the matter of a domed stadium with representatives of the Greater Cleveland Domed Stadium Corp., the non-profit group of community leaders behind the effort to build a stadium downtown.

“I’m not that familiar with domes,” he said. “My brother and I watched the All-Star Game in Houston this year, and that’s the only domed stadium I’ve seen. I’m still collecting information on it.”

Dennis Lafferty, executive director of the domed stadium committee, said his group last August gave the Jacobses a full briefing on the committee’s plans for a $150 million stadium that would house 42,000 fans for baseball and 72,000 for football.

“They know we are going to be as flexible as possible with the lease,” Lafferty said.

Once the committee has finished making lease arrangements with the Indians and the Browns, he said, it would go to the Cuyahoga County Commission to ask to have a bond issue placed on the ballot that, if passed, would mean taxpayers would pay for one-third of the stadium’s cost, with the rest coming from private funds.

Lafferty said his group’s goal is to begin construction in 1988 and have a stadium ready by 1990 or 1991.

County Commissioner Timothy Hagan said, however, that any plan to put a stadium tax question on the ballot would be secondary to the county commission’s top priority: making sure county government functions.