CLEVELAND, June 6 (UPI) -- Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald proposed Thursday that the 20 percent of the county's sin tax dedicated to the upkeep of the city's sports stadiums be contingent on wins.
The county recently approved a 20-year extension of the sin tax -- it taxes alcohol and cigarettes -- which is expected to raise $260 million to pay for the maintenance for the stadiums for the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers, and Indians.
The teams are not known for their winning records and FitzGerald thinks this is the answer to that problem.
"We love these teams, we're loyal to these teams and we're committed to maintaining these facilities. But we can also try to demand to get something a little bit better than we've gotten over the past 50 years," said FitzGerald.
Deadspin pointed out many of the plan's pitfalls. The article claims winning can't be correlated to economic benefit for the public.
FitzGerald hasn't suggested any method of calculating the payout in relation to performance. He mentioned a "fan council" who would decide the distribution. This might make the Cleveland teams put an extra kick in their practices.
