toledoblade.com --

Building a new sports arena on the 'downtown' side of the river would be a slap in the face of every East Side resident

WHO could blame the good folks on the East Side if one day they decided to just pull out of the city and incorporate as a new community? No, we're not serious, but as Toledo's newest suburb, they would at least get an occasional glance from across the river.

That's certainly more than the back of the hand they are getting now as the Marina District project stumbles along, inert and nearly invisible. In addition it's increasingly evident that pressure is mounting to put a new sports arena downtown, on the west side of the river, presumably not far from Fifth Third Field.

We keep hearing the word "synergy" a lot. Building a new arena for hockey and other events near the new ballpark, the argument goes, would create a synergistic sports/entertainment district.

However, even if there is some merit in the notion, that doesn't make it right.

When the Marina District plan was first unveiled by Columbus developer Frank Kass in August 2000 - yes, it really has been almost five years - a new arena built on or near the site of the old dilapidated Sports Arena was a centerpiece of the project.

So impressive was the massive $175 million project - most of which would be generated with private money, not public - that Toledo voters agreed in 2001 to waive a provision of the city charter, Section 79, which prohibits the investment of city financial resources in a stadium or arena project.

But Mr. Kass is long gone, frustrated by the city's inability to move forward at a reasonable pace, and we see no evidence that the new project developer of choice, Pizzuti Cos. of Columbus, shares the same commitment to an arena on the East Side.

A new project model unveiled in March offered a mix of restaurants, boat slips, high-end condominiums, and a lot of retail space on the east bank of the Maumee River, but left unanswered just where a new arena would go.

This is puzzling and disappointing because the 2001 vote to waive Section 79 was site-specific. Voters agreed to the waiver for a new arena on the East Side. If the City and Pizzuti move forward with an arena downtown, they most certainly would have to go back to the voters again and ask for yet another waiver, and if they do, they can count on our opposition.

Frankly we're not exactly sure just where Mayor Jack Ford is on a new arena. Publicly he sticks to his contention that his preferred site is in the Marina District.

However, the project model discussed in March included the prospect of a major retail anchor, a huge store on the order of 200,000 square feet, and we continue to hear rumbles that the arena might in fact give way to a big-box store in the "outdoors" business, perhaps a competitor of the giant Cabela's store in Monroe County.

That would be a ridiculous use of valuable riverfront property, all the more so if the retailer decides after a few years that it's not making enough money and leaves its big box behind - empty.

It is a continuing source of dismay to us that the East Side is so lightly regarded and taken for granted on the other side of the Maumee.

The City should resist those who would sacrifice the overall good of the community for their own myopic, self-centered interests, and move ahead to put a new Sports Arena where it belongs, in the heart of the Marina District.

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