The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
For-sale SPIRE must remain area resource
It’s not uncommon to pass exits nearing a state border that have nothing immediately there to make anyone stop.
Those of us of a certain age locally can recall a time not that long ago when the Route 534 exit in Ashtabula County was mostly a conduit to get to Geneva or Geneva-on-the-Lake to the north or to the vineyards or a quieter part of the county to the south.
Then — as well it should have — SPIRE changed everything.
We cannot imagine sports anymore without SPIRE as an integral part of the equation.
As news surfaced recently about SPIRE being up for sale, it’s worth stopping to remember what that world-class multisport facility means to its surrounding community.
And as minimal as the chances of such a scenario may be, we don’t need SPIRE to exit our landscape.
It was reported last week SPIRE is for sale via real estate company Colliers International. My old friend and former News-Herald assistant sports editor Kevin Kleps covered the financial end of the SPIRE situation in detail for Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Profit margin and taxes have been a topic of chatter for years with SPIRE. It is no secret locally there have been challenges in both facets.
The numbers, as Kleps laid out well in his reporting, are concerning. The Ashtabula County Board of Revisions set SPIRE’s value this past October at $11.5 million, a $42.5 million decrease from a 2014 estimate by the county auditor’s office. It was also reported by the Ashtabula Star Beacon facility owner Ron Clutter
had agreed to pay $3.9 million in back and future taxes through 2026. That agreement will transfer over to a new owner.
It would be irresponsible of me to deliberate over the rumors that have swirled about SPIRE’s future if it ever were to meet its demise because of those financial challenges. And the business end of SPIRE and potential commercial development on the property is way beyond the sports realm. So I won’t go there. But what is important to note, as a new owner for SPIRE is sought, is to consider what it has done for youth, high school and college athletes.
Perhaps one of the biggest ironies of business is corporations are adept at determining and finding value for inanimate objects and property. But that skill does not always and necessarily translate to placing value on people and community worth.
SPIRE needs to generate revenue like any business.
But that indoor track and facility. That football stadium and outdoor track and field complex. That 10-lane Olympic-size pool as part of a larger natatorium. Those indoor fields for soccer.
It has been a life-changer
for local athletes and for Olympic stars and hopefuls alike. National-level track and field and swimming have been brought right to our own backyard.
To provide quality context for the pool, as an example, when the 2012 London Olympics wrapped up, I argued Northeast Ohio should take a shot at a future Olympics with its facilities and an eye for legacy to revitalize the region even further than it already has been. When I mentioned a new pool would have to be built for swimming, a couple readers expressed SPIRE could host it. They didn’t quite consider the part about needing seating for 10,000 and masses from all over the world converging on one exit in Ashtabula County. But it was cool — and understood — how passionate they were about the pool’s quality.
It truly is world class, and area swimmers get to compete in that pool every winter during the regular season and in Divisions I and II for sectional.
Track and field athletes can grace the same facility as Olympic and Paralympic gold medalists, indoors at the only eight-lane indoor track in Ohio or outdoors at a similar outstanding venue.
Generally speaking, our athletes’ caliber is better on the biggest stages because they get to train and compete on a big stage in the first place.
In the end, it’s not really about the Olympic gold medalist. And with all due respect to his bombastic father, it’s not really about LaMelo Ball, either.
SPIRE’s broader legacy passes through quietly, without much fanfare, every day.
It’s about the distance runner getting in warmup or cooldown miles in the driveway before a high school or college track and field invitational.
It’s about the youth and high school soccer players who work on technical skill in the heart of winter on the indoor turf and show improvement when they step on the pitch outside in the fall.
It’s about the swimmers who are markedly faster by dropping time at SPIRE and then showing that individual and program improvement in Canton at the state high school meet.
It’s about the Geneva student-athletes who can call a crown jewel home.
It’s about the athletes who cross paths in the hallways who may not compete in the same sports but are equally fortunate
to have a worldclass training and refinement opportunity.
It is the epitome of a community resource.
There is no telling what the future may hold for SPIRE from an ownership standpoint. This is pure speculation, but maybe the United States Olympic Committee will have to get involved. Maybe Nike or Under Armour.
Yes, SPIRE has to make money. Yes, it has to be reliant on its academy in some form. Yes, it is a haul to get there.
Yes, it will take an owner with the business model and vision for and beyond sports to make SPIRE more viable in the long term than it is currently.
But what’s certain is we can’t take a step backward as a region.
Minimal as that chance may be, losing SPIRE would be a step backward.
It’s not just an exit along the way, like the conduit it once may have been.
It is a path toward success, one whose value cannot be measured strictly by a dollar figure.