In mid-November, Cleveland State University released a $650 million plan that called for — among other things — demolishing the Wolstein Center and building a new arena on Payne Avenue at the northeastern edge of the campus.
The plan was endorsed by the board of trustees in January and I’m thrilled to bring you this wild, crazy, super-exciting Wolstein-related update, courtesy of CSU athletic director Scott Garrett:
“We’ve been assessing the potential market support for a multi-purpose arena and really been trying to narrowly define the size and scope and mission of that project,” he said.
But wait. There’s more.
“We’re preparing to get into a phase where we would solicit responses from developers or potential operating partners,” he said.
OK, so it’s not that exciting. CSU is still trying to figure out what the arena project is going to look like, “so that we can go to market and ask for whatever level of financial or operating support might exist,” Garrett said. In the meantime, CSU still needs the 32-year-old Wolstein Center to, you know, hold athletic events, which means spending a decent chunk of change on updating the scoreboards.
“We’re trying to be thoughtful and not pour money into a facility without understanding what its future is, but there’s also some typical maintenance you have to perform on a facility that’s 32 years old,” he said. “We’ve had a scoreboard malfunction two years in a row during the postseason, and it can’t be fixed without replacing much of that equipment.
“We’re not spending $1 million on a video board or anything, but spending $150,000 or $200,000 on refreshing the scoring equipment is something we really have to do if we want to hold Division I basketball games.”
As for the Vikings’ other plans? Read on. For the second year in a row, I’ve compiled a list of which Northeast Ohio colleges and universities made upgrades to their athletic facilities during the 2022-23 school year, and which ones have projects planned for 2023-24: