CLEVELAND, Ohio — It takes 70 dump truck-loads of dirt to transform Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse into Monster Jam: special local dirt, free of rocks and debris, with the consistency of the perfect snowman-making snow.

We’re talking about how the show rents the same dirt every year on Today in Ohio.

And you can’t just dump all that dirt on top of the pristine surface of the Cavs’ shiny court. Nor can you pollute the playing surface of the Monsters’ ice.

In Cleveland, the ice floor was taken away.

Workers started preparing at 2 a.m. Thursday. Road plates and plastic were used to protect the floor and arena’s seats. Concrete barriers were also placed around the FieldHouse to protect fans.

Now, it’s ready for Monster Jam weekend, and 12,000-pound trucks with names like Grave Digger and Bigfoot.

-Laura

Monster trucks: Consistent soil is important, because the dirt track needs to hold up for multiple two-hour long events where trucks race and jump, reports Sean McDonnell.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

It’s Friday, so let’s start not with politics and Statehouse machinations. Let’s start with Monster trucks. They’re coming to Cleveland this weekend, and you wouldn’t believe what it takes to get Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse ready for the mayhem. What does reporter Sean McDonnell tell us?

JD Vance caught some ugly national attention when he basically said he’d have violated the Constitution – with fake electors – to keep Donald Trump in office. We wondered whether previous Ohio elected officials had ever said such dangerous or treasonous things. What did we find?

Third party candidate? Joe Manchin was a man on a mission in Ohio Thursday, giving talks in both Columbus and Cleveland. At the City Club, how did he handle reports he might be a 3rd-party candidate for president?

Mike DeWine introduced what he described as new technology Thursday to reduce crashes in Ohio. But is it new technology? What will it do, and where?

The last time we talked about the proposed downtown taxing district, City Council President Blaine Griffin was making the ridiculous demand that billions of dollars be diverted from it to the neighborhoods, immediately. That’s not how taxing districts work, and it appears Griffin now understands that. What did Griffin and Mayor Justin Bibb announce this week about the district?

If Cleveland police staffing wasn’t challenged enough, what’s the new bad news for Mayor Justin Bibb as he tries to fill the increasingly vacant ranks?

Cleveland has big plans to overhaul the international airport, and now the city is getting some help. How much money is coming its way, and how will it be spent?

We have some rare bad news about Cedar Fair, owner of Cedar Point.

It looks like Cuyahoga County’s microgrid plan, in which the county becomes a utility, is moving forward. What’s the latest development, and where does this project stand?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:01.497)

If it’s Friday on Today in Ohio, we must be talking about monster trucks. Okay. We don’t usually talk about monster trucks on Friday, but today we are. It’s the news discussion podcast from cleveland.com and the Plane Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Lara Johnston, and Leila Tassi. And more important than being Friday, it’s Lara’s birthday. Happy birthday, Lara.

laura (00:23.744)

Thank you very much. 44.

Chris (00:25.581)

And because it’s her birthday, she gets to go first. So let’s not start with politics and statehouse machinations, Laura. Let’s start with those monster trucks. They’re coming to Cleveland this weekend. And I don’t think people would believe what it takes to get rocket mortgage fieldhouse ready for all the mayhem. So what does reporter Sean McDonald tell us?

laura (00:47.808)

So these 12,000 pound trucks take center stage in the middle of the arena. I have to admit, I have never been to a monster truck rally. It’s usually this time of year, and this is just not what I’m aiming to do with my time, but some people love this. So to create this dirt ball, this track that they race around, they have to have 70 dump truck loads of special dirt poured into the arena. If you do this at a stadium, it actually takes 10 times that. So at…

having it in the arena is a much smaller area. But Monster Jam has to have very specific dirt. They don’t want to just have rocks and debris in it. It’s got to be the right consistency. They want it to be tacky, kind of like a snowball, if you were the perfect snowman-making consistency. That’s what they want for their dirt. So they get the same dirt every year. They rent it. They don’t own it. And they get it from a guy named Randy Spragans and Special Tea Tracks.

He’s a Uniontown based company. He supplies dirt for rodeos, bull riding, and motor sports across the United States, so much so that he is known as Mr. Dirt or Dr. Dirt if you Google him. He did not want to tell us where his dirt is because he doesn’t want anyone stealing this dirt because it’s very special dirt. But just so you know, it’s about a mile away down in industrial area. It’s kept outside in a pile all year and then…

Chris (01:58.425)

Hahahaha

laura (02:09.888)

trucked back because it’s got to be pretty close. The most expensive part of this is trucking it to the arena. They start doing that. They start getting ready about 2 a.m. on Thursday because you can’t just pour dirt on top of a basketball court or an ice rink, which is what the monsters and the calves use, obviously. So they’ve got to get it all the way down to the bottom before they start putting this all in. They start at 8 a.m. Thursday. By last night, they were getting ready for practice. The dirt is about 6 to 8 inches thick.

It’s 70% clay and 30% sand.

Chris (02:41.445)

Yeah, what sparked this was the New Yorker magazine did a terrific article about the industry of monster trucks last summer. And one of the facts in it was the storage of local dirt, which just blew my mind. And I thought, OK, when it comes here next time, we’ve got to find out where our dirt is. But but it’s the reason the dirt is so special is they have these things are very carefully orchestrated. And it’s gigantic machinery going at decent speed. And it has to have the right traction. It has. They have to be able to rely.

laura (03:02.326)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (03:11.001)

on things happening as they orchestrated or people could get hurt. So across the country, you’ve got these big dirt piles that they use for this. And congratulations to Sean McDonald for finding out the secret location of Cleveland’s dirt pile.

laura (03:27.56)

Yeah, if you look at it, there are a lot of people that don’t want to say where these dirt are, but if you look at Syracuse, they use it like in a field by, I think it’s by the university. In Tampa, they use it in a parking lot sometimes. So like every place that these monster trucks go, they have their own dirt. But you’re right, they do the same moves orchestrated and they have to be able to rely on it being the same everywhere. So because these trucks take their toll, it’s three days of shows, the track gets watered throughout the event to keep the dust down.

They rebuild the track every show. And the final event is Sunday. Once they finish that, they have eight to 10 hours to undo all their work, peel back the layers of dirt, clean the area, haul it out, and save it for next year.

Chris (04:08.785)

So if you want to know where that dirt is, go follow the dump trucks. I cannot imagine. I, you know, you say you’ve never been to one. I can’t imagine ever going to one. The noise of those things inside the arena would, I’m sure, drive me off the deep end. I, there’s nothing about this that appeals to me. The only thing that appealed to me was the story about the dirt, which I think is just interesting. But it’ll

laura (04:31.592)

I’m sure a lot of people will be wearing those. Oh, you did?

Leila (04:31.602)

I have been to one. I did go to one. You guys, because our company had tickets and nobody else wanted them. So I thought here’s a chance for a cultural experience that I’ll never get otherwise because I’d never want to pay for those tickets. Oh, super loud, obnoxious. I mean, exciting at first when you see the trucks kind of jumping off the big mounds of dirt, but you know, you see it once, you’re good.

laura (04:39.393)

Ha ha!

laura (04:47.584)

Did you take your kids?

Chris (04:48.049)

And…

Chris (05:01.438)

Yeah, I just, it’s not something that I feel like I need that cultural experience. I did have some people write me saying, you know, Mr. Quinn, if you really want to be multicultural, you should attend this thing. It’s like, you know, I really don’t need to. I’m good.

laura (05:13.26)

I have been to a tractor pull, if that helps at all, but it was outside.

Chris (05:18.162)

Okay, Lisa, you a monster truck enthusiast?

Lisa (05:21.149)

No, I mean, I like watching it on TV, but you know, I’ve never been to a show. I’ve been to a demolition derby a couple of times because I dated a fellow who had a car.

Chris (05:30.617)

Wow. And that’s noisy too, right? Okay. Well, it’s there if you want to see it and take a look at that dirt. Cause it took a lot to get it there. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. JD Vance caught some ugly national attention when he basically said he’d have broken the constitution with fake electors to keep Donald Trump in office. We wondered whether previous Ohio elected officials had ever said some dangerous or even treasonous things. Laila, what did we find?

Lisa (05:32.634)

Mm-hmm, and fun.

Leila (05:59.574)

Really good story here by Sabrina Eaton. Of course, as one professor pointed out to her, all Congress members vote regularly on bills that some people say are unconstitutional. But US Senate historian emeritus Don Ritchie says, no US senators from Ohio have openly advocated violating the Constitution. So this is a first. And that said, there are some interesting tales from history of other American politicians who challenged democracy.

Chris (06:20.144)

Yeah

Leila (06:29.154)

One is Democratic Republican Party member John Smith, who was one of the first two senators to represent Ohio after it became a state in 1803. He was forced to resign in 1808 after becoming involved in a treason scandal with ex-vice president Aaron Burr. And I’m sure this will all be covered in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton sequel when that comes out. But Burr was tried for treason after an alleged plot to invade Mexico and form an independent government there. But he was ultimately acquitted.

Chris (06:49.49)

Haha.

Leila (06:58.426)

Smith had provided Burr with financial support and he was charged in the case, but those charges were dropped after Burr was acquitted. Smith ended up resigning from the Senate after an unsuccessful Senate vote to expel him. And then Case Western Reserve constitutional law expert Jonathan Enten describes other past cases where Ohio legislators took unprecedented steps that were questionably legal to secure the victory of their preferred candidate in…

The hotly contested presidential election of 1876, there was quite a bit of congressional wheeling and dealing to get GOP Ohio Governor Ruth B. Hayes into the White House. In those days, 185 electoral votes were needed to win. After the initial count, Democratic candidate New York Governor Samuel Tilden had 184 electoral votes and Hayes had 166. So electoral votes from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, which had 19 votes between them were contested.

A deal was eventually reached that handed all the disputed votes to Hayes, along with the election in exchange for removing all remaining federal troops from the South. And that troop removal led to many Southern states passing laws that restricted black civil and political rights for decades. And Tim says there were multiple Ohio Congress members involved in that deal, including James Garfield, the House Republican leader who succeeded Hayes as president in 1801.

Congress passed the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to help resolve any future election ambiguities. And that was updated in 2022 to clarify that the vice president’s role in counting electoral votes is just ministerial and that he or she does not have any power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate disputes over electors. J.D. Vance.

Chris (08:48.385)

I still, I mean, we have a U.S. Senator, most exclusive club in America, who is openly saying he would trash the Constitution, and there’s no accountability for that. Ohioans apparently are okay with a leader who would say, I don’t care about the Constitution, I don’t care about the history, it’s all about installing a dictator, and I am his guy. I just, it’s striking to me that in my lifetime, we’ve reached a point.

Leila (09:01.07)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (09:17.701)

where Americans accept that.

Leila (09:20.67)

Yeah, it’s stunning that there’s been very little blowback for him except from us.

Chris (09:27.085)

This is terrible. And he’s a US Senator. He is sworn in oath to uphold the constitution, but openly says, yeah, I don’t care, I toss it because I’m Donald Trump’s guy and I want him in charge for life. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Joe Manchin was a man on a mission in Ohio Thursday, giving talks in both Columbus and Cleveland. Lisa at the City Club, how did he handle reports he might be a third party candidate for president this year?

Lisa (09:55.265)

Yeah, Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator, outgoing Democratic senator from West Virginia, was in Ohio to promote his new Americans Together organization, which is trying to raise $100 million for moderate candidates. But when he was talking both during the forum and with reporters afterwards, he didn’t exactly rule out running for president as a third party candidate. He said, quote, everything is on the table. He still

evaluating everything leading up to Super Tuesday, which is March 5th, when several states have their primary elections. And then he was asked who he would tap for vice president by the forum moderator. He said he would consider the Utah Republican Mitt Romney or former Ohio Senator Rob Portman. And then he said, guys, I’m not running for anything. He said third party is a hard road.

but he’s still leaving that door cracked open, I think a little bit. He did talk a bit about President Biden. He said he was a good man who got pulled to the left after the election and has a bad border policy, but he was even worse on Trump. He said that Trump is cozying up to Vladimir Putin’s plans for East Europe expansion, and he blames, you know, Trump for tanking the bipartisan border security bill. He said that’s actually worse than Biden did.

Chris (11:12.921)

The weird thing about it, he says he’s not running, but he was like a bat out of hell trying to have Ohio audiences. He even reached out to us to see if we would do an event with him somehow. We don’t do that. The City Club is the much more appropriate venue for that, and he did the same thing in the Columbus version. So okay, he says he’s not running, but he is really working to get his face and his message out there. And maybe it’s…

to get a sense of where America is. And I imagine he’s doing this in other states, but if he enters the race, that would greatly change the whole dynamic of this election.

Lisa (11:53.229)

It certainly would. And of course, you know, he’s been called a Democrat in name only by a lot of people because sometimes he did side with the Republicans in the House on certain things. So and when he’s saying he’s raising money for moderate candidates, I’m interested to know what kind of moderate candidates he’s looking for Democrats, Republicans, both.

Chris (12:11.341)

Yeah, I know. I know. It’s it’s odd. And I get why he doesn’t want to say yet, because if he’s not going to run, he doesn’t want to look like he committed and then pulled back. But he is running out of time. It’s the middle of February. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Mike DeWine introduced what he described as new technology Thursday to reduce crashes in Ohio. But is it new technology? Or what will it do? And where are they putting it?

laura (12:35.636)

I mean, do you consider a camera new technology or maybe a message board? Because these to me, this sounds pretty basic, but apparently we didn’t have it in Ohio. What it will do is hopefully cut crashes, rear end crashes by 16%. But this is basically sensors and cameras that work with the digital signs so that it can monitor congestion and stop traffic far from where you are right now and let you know that it’s coming. So that…

on places like Interstate 90 westbound between East 55th and the Ohio 2 split, so basically all of Cleveland, and Ohio 176 northbound, which goes from 480 to 90. In between there, if there’s congestion, you’re going to know about it based on a message board miles before that. I know where it gets congested on 176. It’s right where it branches off, either going downtown or going toward Toledo on 90. It can come up fast right by.

Steelyard Commons, but also, I mean, you can see that with your eyes.

Chris (13:39.337)

Yeah, I, when this story came out, I thought this is odd because anytime I drive, I do know where there’s congestion and I do know what the cause of it is. But it’s not there in their states that have these signs, but it’s, it’s the software on your car that most of the mapping software now and Google maps have very clear visuals on what you’re going to hit. And it allows you to take detours and plan.

This seems like it’s really kind of backwards. It’s great to do it because maybe for people that don’t have access to those kinds of things that’ll give them a heads up, I just, it does not feel like this is new technology at all. It sounds like stuff that we should have had 20 years ago.

laura (14:24.788)

The thing is, and I don’t know about you guys all, I don’t use Waze ever, but I don’t use Google Maps unless I don’t know where I’m going. So if I’m driving the same place, I go the same way every time, I wouldn’t know there’s congestion because I’m not using those map features. That said, I mean, it’s always nice to have warning. And apparently, the distracted driving law where you’re not allowed to be talking on your cell phone unless it’s hands-free has really cut down on crashes and they hope this will continue that. Because what they’re saying is these rear-end crashes are happening.

because people are not paying attention to the road in front of them. All of a sudden, they can’t go 70 miles an hour because traffic has stopped and they’re slamming into the people in front of them. So that these warning systems work in concert with the law, which apparently has cut down on crashes by 50% according to the highway patrol, at least distracted driving crashes. I don’t know how they classify that. So hopefully, it’ll do some good.

Chris (15:19.565)

Everything helps. They have a system like this in Michigan and anything that warns you that, hey, you may have to hit your brakes up ahead is a good idea. I just, why is it so limited then? I mean, it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard or that expensive to put this in a bunch of areas where you’re likely to hit issues all along the turnpike, for instance.

laura (15:41.069)

There are 11 spots right now this first time, so I think they’re going to expand it. I don’t know if we have a dollar total in here, but it cannot be that expensive compared to a lot of things that we do with our state money. I do want to point out that I did see one of those ODOT signs on the weekend that said usher in some sober driving on Sunday, referring to the Super Bowl halftime show with usher. So ODOT’s still having fun with their signs.

Chris (16:06.413)

And for the record, I gave up on I-176 a long time ago because there’s never not a traffic jam on that road.

laura (16:12.197)

Well, when they closed 70, when they were doing all the opportunity corridor work and they closed the 490, you had to use it.

Chris (16:19.261)

Yeah, it was bad. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The last time we talked about the proposed downtown taxing district, City Council President Blaine Griffin was making the ridiculous demand that billions of dollars be diverted from it to neighborhoods almost immediately. And that’s not how taxing districts work. It appears Griffin now understands that. Layla, what did he and Mayor Justin Bibb announce jointly this week about that district?

Leila (16:45.87)

So it appears that they’ve finally gotten on the same page about how this tax increment financing deal should work and why it’s important to let the TIF do its thing for a while before pulling money out for neighborhoods. And the backstory here is that the TIF district could generate between $3.3 billion and $7.5 billion over the next 42 years. That’s according to Justin Bibb’s estimates. Bibb has said from the start that his intention is to use a portion of those

But he has been hesitant to be more specific than that and say publicly how long it would take before the neighborhoods begin to see that money. So last week, I assume in a fit of frustration, Griffin put out a statement saying that he wants half of all the proceeds for the neighborhoods starting immediately pretty much. And the problem with that is that it really undermines the mechanics of the TIF to do that. And it dramatically diminishes the power of this tool.

to be a catalytic driver of economic development downtown. The early money really does need to be reinvested in the TIF district so we see that precipitous growth that theoretically would grow the pie, then there would be more to share with neighborhoods on an ongoing basis. So it seems more conversations have been happening between the mayor and council president because in this joint statement that Bib and Griffin released yesterday, they said they acknowledge that the city’s neighborhoods have needs and when the time is right,

As much as 35% of the excess revenue that comes in on account of the TIF district could be directed to the neighborhoods. But for the early years of the TIF, there now seems to be consensus between Griffin and Bibb that the money needs to stay with the TIF district.

Chris (18:26.573)

Yeah, it was good to see it. I suspect that a whole lot of people who care about the downtown district got in touch with Griffin after he made the statement he made and said, it doesn’t work that way. You’re causing a problem. I think they probably heard from people who have said what Lisa has said, that we always seem to kill these kinds of things with nickel and diming. So it’s great to see that he got it together and that they are going to do the right thing now.

Leila (18:53.738)

Yeah. I think one thing that has likely pacified Blaine Griffin on this issue is the promise of community benefits. I kind of read that in the story too. The city has committed to negotiating community benefits packages with developers that would bring some kind of neighborhood support before the point at which the TIF starts to kick revenue over to the neighborhoods. Earlier this week we saw this happen with that big food manufacturing plant that’s bringing a couple hundred jobs to Central.

It’s bringing with it all sorts of perks to the neighborhood in the form of community benefits and kudos to Councilman Richard Starr who got the most for his community out of those negotiations. So when it comes to the TIF district, the neighborhoods, they don’t have to eat last it seems. There are other ways to provide support without diverting those early TIF dollars to that effort.

Chris (19:40.829)

We should say the community benefits guarantees certain numbers of jobs going to city residents and helping them share in the wealth. We should also point out that reporter Courtney Stelphie is doing a pretty big takeout explaining the timing of how these kinds of tiffs work and what makes Cleveland’s so unusual. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. If police staffing wasn’t challenged enough in Cleveland.

Leila (19:46.535)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (20:06.621)

What’s the new bad news for Mayor Justin Bibb as he tries to fill the increasingly vacant ranks, Lisa?

Lisa (20:13.325)

Well, it appears that 255 current Cleveland police officers have 25 years with the force, so they’re eligible to retire. 200 of them are older than 55. It remains to be seen whether they will retire, but those are kind of staggering numbers. The council’s Public Safety Commission Chair, Mike Polensek, says we lost 165 officers last year, most of them to retirements, but some moved to suburban police departments.

He expects to lose about the same number of officers this year, and that would be about 14% of the current force. So this is continuing a years long downward trend. We’re down to one thousand one hundred sixty seven officers in Cleveland. That’s three hundred fewer than budgeted for last year. And that’s down from sixteen hundred only four years ago.

Last year, only 21 cadets were hired from the police academy. There are nine more expected to graduate this April, but they did get some encouraging news at the end of last year. They got about 600 applications in the final months of the year. And Bibb says that his recruiting efforts are starting to pay off. They’re offering signing bonuses to cadets. They’re offering wage hikes. They’re increasing the new officer age from 40 to 55. And he says those are starting to have an impact.

Chris (21:33.061)

I know, but with the numbers that are leaving, it feels like they’re always going to be coming from behind. That’s a lot of officers that they lost last year. It’s a lot they’re going to lose this year. And how many police academies can you run in a single year to fortify those ranks? It’s a disturbing story.

Lisa (21:50.025)

It is, and of course I always want to point out that Cleveland is far from alone in this situation. It’s just, it’s hard to hire police anywhere you go, pretty much, unless you want a cozy suburban job.

Chris (22:01.705)

All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. I’ve been mentioning for a couple of weeks now that we have a toll-free phone number that you can call and leave questions or comments. It’s 833-648-6329, 833-OH today. We did get some interesting feedback yesterday, not by phone, but by email from the Buckeye Institute about our conversation about the lawsuit over the income taxes that we paid to cities where we weren’t working. And

They offered some real interesting thoughts on why they didn’t go federal because generally federal courts won’t hear local taxing cases, but this may be an unusual enough seizure of assets that they can pry their way in and make it a Fourth Amendment case. Thoughtful, they had a very thoughtful approach and they appreciated the conversation we had and we appreciated their feedback. Cleveland has some big plans to overhaul the international airport and now the city is getting some help.

How much money is coming its way, Laura, and where are they spending it?

laura (23:05.012)

So Hopkins is getting $4.8 million. It’s to refund rehabilitation of its terminal building, including the terminal wall, ceiling, and tunnel membrane at this terminus that connects the airport with the Greater Cleveland RTA’s air train, which honestly, I’ve never taken the train from downtown to the airport. I’m glad it’s there. I wonder how many people use it on a regular basis or if it’s like the waterfront line. That’s, oh, good.

Chris (23:31.761)

No, no, people use it. No, it gets decent use.

laura (23:35.552)

Good. So what’s happening is the tunnel is 2100 feet long. It’s got reinforced concrete and structural steel framing. We’re going to rehabilitate those wall surfaces, replace the ceiling, waterproof the membrane in a tramway, perform structural repairs and install a new drainage system. So I don’t think it’s going to be anything flashy. It’s not like a new mural or something everyone’s going to notice, but obviously that kind of work needs to be done. Lake County is going to get two point six million dollars to build a terminal building at their executive airport in Lake County. Apparently.

That’s replacing a 37-year-old trailer that’s not ADA compliant and doesn’t have a repairable HVAC system. So, it sounds like they’re going to finally get a building for their terminal. And these are just part of the 114 projects in 44 states that are getting $970 million to improve their facilities.

Chris (24:24.233)

It’s a drop in the bucket of what they need, but I guess every little bit helps. They have big, big plans and I still don’t see how they’re going to get the money to pay for it, although leaders in town are confident that they will.

laura (24:26.047)

Yeah.

laura (24:37.352)

I mean, they want to get that from the airlines themselves that have to pay the rentals for using all of the gates. But you know who’s going to end up paying for that? That’s going to be the passengers who get an extra fee on their ticket.

Chris (24:49.433)

All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Laila, we have some rare bad news about Cedar Fair, owner of Cedar Point. What is it?

Chris (25:03.067)

Anybody here Laila?

Leila (25:04.006)

No, I’m here. I’m here. Pardon me. I’m sorry.

Leila (25:11.294)

The bad news here is that attendance is down at the parks the company owns, which includes Cedar Point, Kings Island, and more than a dozen other amusement and water parks. During a call with analysts, the Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman reported a 1% dip in attendance from 26.9 million visitors in 2022 to 26.7 million in 2023. And the company attributes that downturn to

I guess, super rainy weather in California during the first half of 2023, plus those wildfires in Canada, which affected visitation at Wonderland in Toronto. Revenue was also down 1% from a year ago, and in-park spending was down. So after that slow start to 2023, Zimmerman said he was pleased with the company’s second half performance. And in part, he says that was because they reduced admission pricing and increased advertising.

Zimmerman noted that season pass sales are up so far for the 2024 year after they dipped in 2023. And although the company doesn’t report attendance for individual parks, Zimmerman noted that demand is pretty high for Cedar Fares, Ohio parks, Cedar Point and Kings Island. Cedar Point in particular is expected to see a big surge in visitors this year because of their new ride, Top Thrill 2. That’s the one that’s going to take over where Top Thrill dragster left off.

And all of this, of course, is happening against the backdrop of Cedar Fair’s big pending merger with Six Flags that’s expected to complete in June.

Chris (26:42.129)

You went out there at least once last year, maybe a couple of times. Did you anecdotally notice any drop in the crowds?

Leila (26:44.927)

Yeah.

Leila (26:48.77)

No, I mean, we always try to go on days when we think it’ll be less crowded. So you kind of take a day to go during the week or pick your days wisely. But that was before they opened Top Thrill 2, so I expect that they probably will see huge crowds who are coming to check that out.

Chris (27:09.097)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. It looks like Cuyahoga County’s microgrid plan in which the county becomes a full-fledged utility is going to move forward. Lisa, what’s the latest development and where does this thing stand?

Lisa (27:22.753)

Yeah, I can remember Armin Budish coming to talk to the editorial board about this before the pandemic. So this has been a few years in the making. So it’s called Cuyahoga Green Energy. It’s a county microgrid utility and is being held as the first new county utility in the entire nation in at least 75 years. The director of sustainability for the county, Mike Foley, is named as the administrator of this new utility. He, of course, had a big role in developing this microgrid system.

He says it will provide reliable green energy that can operate independently of the electric grid. And it will first be offered to industrial and commercial customers, then to schools, government buildings, and then even some grocery stores. They have contracted with Los Angeles based Compass Energy Platform to operate the microgrid. And they’ll also design and finance projects.

The first three projects on the list will be in Brooklyn, Euclid, and in the Aerozone region near Hopkins Airport.

Chris (28:23.473)

Part of this is about generation, and I know they’re looking for places where they can have solar collectors, but I still feel like this is not fully formed, and I’ve been waiting for a full presentation on how it would work and be profitable and not put us all into potential for big debt. But the fact that they’ve appointed Foley, I mean, he’s a key guy in the county. If he’s taking it over, they must have full confidence this is going to happen.

Lisa (28:53.165)

And it sounded like a great idea when it was presented to us way back when, you know, they wanted to be able to, they were talking about operating government buildings in case of a massive power outage so they can still conduct business and that kind of thing. So I’m willing to, you know, see how this shakes out.

Chris (29:09.281)

Yeah, it could be a big economic development tool. And if it’s out in Brooklyn, it could actually benefit us because that’s where we are these days. You’re listening to Today in Ohio that closes out a week of news. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Leila. And thanks to everybody who listens to this podcast. We’ll be back Tuesday. We’re going to take the Banker’s Holiday on Monday. So there won’t be an episode on.

Lisa (29:14.318)

right?