Once again, I am not against an National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise coming to Columbus. My concerns are the $25 million handout and looting of public parkland.
A $25 million bond sale for this training facility takes away from selling bonds for other projects. The city can only take on so much debt. This project will further delay other much needed quality of life neighborhood bond funded projects that have been in the pipeline for years such as affordable housing, rec centers, swimming pools, sidewalks, street resurfacing, street trees, fire stations and fire equipment, bridge repairs and more. If approved, this $25 million taxpayer paid bond sale for a professional women’s soccer league team training center will take precedence over priority needs of our people and their neighborhoods. And what makes this bond sale and public-private fleecing even more laughable is that it comes at a time when you President Harding have stated, “the 2025 was the tightest budget I’ve seen in more than a decade at City Hall, but then I saw the 2026 budget. You said this year's is worse. The city has structural, long-term issues in how it's overspending and budgeting.” If giving away $25 million in taxpayer money to a billionaire sports owner isn’t an example of unnecessary irresponsible overspending, I don’t know what is.
There has been talk by our cowardly mayor that he will find nearby parkland as a tradeoff for giving away 30-acre McCoy Park to his influence peddling campaign contributing NWSL franchise group. It doesn’t matter if Ginther finds land for another park nearby. No matter how you cut it, the taking of McCoy Park is a 30-acre loss of public parkland. Giving away precious and scarce public parkland within our core city limits to a private billionaire sport team owner is public theft. Public parkland should never be handed over and utilized solely for private financial gain. Period. This pathetic deal sets a precedence allowing our corrupt city officials to giveaway even more public parkland to the highest bidder. Which I have no doubt is in the works somewhere else in our city.
In my 40 years of dealing with city hall I have never seen so many elected officials and bureaucrats sell out the good of the public for personal gain and political survival. This theft of public parkland, bootlicking, underhanded dealings and propaganda filled circus is the kind of mindless debacle that puts Columbus on the map as one of the most corrupt and unethical cities in the U.S. The profiteers and elected officials who are in favor of this deal, do so with self-serving interest while ignoring their moral consciousness and duty to serve in the best interest of Columbus taxpayers and to protect publicly owned parkland from influential wealth hoarding business owners. In this case, that includes the Haslam’s, Nationwide Insurance, and the Edwards. And coincidentally, the Haslams are represented by lobbyist and city council boss Michael Coleman. Go figure. It is reprehensible that anyone would support this theft of public parkland and a $25 million taxpayer paid corporate handout.