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INVESTING IN OUR SPORTS AND TOURISM WORKFORCE

Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Contact:
Tyler Lowry, Franklin County Commissioners, 614/525-6630
Robin Ross, Franklin County Commissioners, 614/525-2392

This week, the commissioners approved a $3 million grant to Franklin County Stadium Inc., a non-profit organization that owns and operates the Columbus Clippers and Huntington Park baseball stadium on behalf of Franklin County.  Sports and tourism are a significant source of jobs and taxes for our community, bringing 43 million visitors to Franklin County in a typical year and accounting for nearly 80,000 jobs.  The pandemic shut the Clippers down in 2020, but the team and stadium are back up and running, and this investment will help them continue to bring visitors to our Arena District and keep the thousands of employees who work there busy.
 
Franklin is the only county in the country that owns a baseball team and the stadium in which it plays, having bought the team in the late 1970s for $25,000.  Today, the team is valued at more than $30 million and brings in more than $12 million in revenue each year.
 
This grant is being made from funds available via the American Rescue Plan.  You can read the full text of the resolution here and learn more about how the commissioners are using American Rescue Plan funding to help our community recover at Recovery.FranklinCountyOhio.gov.