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RNC puts workers on tight deadline By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
Lonnie Coleman is happy the Republican National Committee is bringing its 2016 presidential nominating convention to Cleveland. So he was all smiles when he said he will do whatever it takes to meet the tight, convention-related deadlines that he and other subcontractors working on the 600-room Hilton Downtown Cleveland hotel have been given to complete their work on what is expected to be a key center of convention activity. His firm is Coleman Spohn Corp., a mechanical contractor. The convention center hotel, owned by Cuyahoga County, is expected to open June 1, 2016, in time for the Republican conventioneers, who are expected to arrive in mid-July. But, said the smiling Coleman, “I have to be out by March 1, 2016. There’s a very, very big penalty if I miss it.” In conversations in every corner of downtown Cleveland, business people and public officials are talking about the convention — as well as the plans that are being accelerated or the perks that are being extended to make sure everything will run smoothly for the Republicans, whose convention still is 21 months or more away. Of course, this hospitality and generosity on the part of the Cleveland community aren’t expected to go unrewarded. The convention is bringing 40,000 people to town — convention-goers, party officials and media personnel — each of whom is likely to spend anywhere from $200 to $1,000 a day, money that will pump up the regional economy. County public works director Bonnie Teeuwen acknowledged to Crain’s Cleveland Business that the RNC expects that no major downtown construction or renovation work will get underway unless it can be completed by June 1, 2016. The RNC has not set the dates in stone yet, though the party appears to be leaning toward a July18-21, 2016, timeframe, rather
A LEAGUE DEFLATED How recent controversies and PR mishaps have altered NFL’s image By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com
Barbara Paynter has a simple message for organizations that are involved in public relations quagmires. “Tell the truth. Tell it all,” said Paynter, a partner at Hennes Paynter Communications in Cleveland. “If you have done something wrong, admit it and figure out how to fix it.” Paynter believes the NFL has made plenty of mistakes with its handling of the domestic violence case involving Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, and the subsequent controversy stemming from child abuse charges leveled against Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson. Now, with the National Organization for Women calling for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to resign and the league undergoing possibly the most tumultuous period in its history, the most powerful organization in professional sports has one of the worst types of controversies on its hands. The NFL has “a credibility problem,” Paynter said, and it starts with Goodell, the commissioner who was paid a combined $105 million from 2008 to 2012, including a $44 million salary in 2012, the most recent year in which the league’s financials were reported. “I think they have a real trust issue with their fans,” said Paynter, whose firm specializes in crisis communications, media training and media re-
lations. “As a consumer, you want to believe the franchise or the league is going to do the right thing. The perception is they seem to put the game and money ahead of personal safety.” The NFL — and pro sports, for that matter — has never been an all-saints club, but the recent controversies, which reached a boiling point when TMZ released a video from an Atlantic City elevator of Rice beating up his then-fiancée (and current wife), have resulted in some of the largest outcries the league has ever experienced. “The shield took a bunch of hits,” said ESPN Cleveland personality Jerod Cherry, who played nine seasons in the NFL and was a member of three Super Bowl championship teams in New England. “It was one of the worst weeks I’ve witnessed from a PR standpoint. It was bad news because you got the impression guys were not civil.”
‘Proof will be in the pudding’ Rice initially was suspended for two games in late July — more than five months after the assault of Janay Palmer. On Sept. 8, See NFL, page 6
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