CURBSTONE COACHES Meshel is convinced arena concept will work

It just needs a chance to succeed, the former state senator said.
By JOHN BASSETTI
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- Harry Meshel has a link to sports as board member of the International Boxing Council, but he didn't say too much about boxing during his speech to the Curbstone Coaches Association Monday at the Lockwood House.
Instead, the former state senator chose to recite the genesis of the idea of a convocation center downtown.
His reason: It's timely.
Besides, the area has missed the boat more than once before; he doesn't want it happening again.
Meshel has been working with businessman Bruce Zoldan the last three years and he's upset that nay-sayers -- in the media and elsewhere -- want the place closed before it opens.
Viable: "They're predicting doom and gloom before someone has an opportunity to do a lot of things there," Meshel said. "They will have to be shown that. I'm saying I predict that it can work. It's most important to get community support and the central leadership required and that will help bring people together. If you do that, then everyone is helping to promote it."
His logic is that, if someone is willing to spend $3 million to have an ice hockey or arena football team, the ownership groups should have 70 or 80 dates set. The center would also be ideal if YSU expands its facilities.
"It's cheaper to lease a place than build a new facility," Meshel said. "It's harder because both state funding and private funds are hard to come by. Leasing should end up being, economically, more feasible. No one builds these facilities with the idea that it can't work. If you get enough people involved and support from the community, it will sell. What you can't afford is nay-sayers who think of changing the rules of the game before it's built."
Suggestions that money for the project should be put into a high-tech operation in conjunction with YSU is easier said than done.
Possible: "It's not impossible, but it's very, very, very unlikely, that you can take money that's been appropriated for one use and get the institution that's giving that money to change the purpose of those funds," he said. "The longer it takes to play out, the more likely it is that the money will not be there when you want it. That hasn't fully sunk in to a lot of people."
He stressed that Zoldan and his partners could use existing acreage in Boardman to expand the Ice Zone facility.
"It wouldn't do [anything] for the city of Youngstown; Boardman's doing very well, thank you," Meshel said. "The important thing there was to try to do something to energize the downtown. That's what Bruce Zoldan was committed to and so was Jim Traficant. That was the reason sites were sought in and around the downtown area. Now people are asking, 'How do you know they'll come?' Believe me, if you build it right and have the right kind of attraction, it will come.
"If it wasn't for the rest of northeast Ohio, Cleveland wouldn't have benefited as much as they have with the Browns and Indians -- thousands of cars going there from the area that surround greater Cleveland." He also lambasted a depression-era mentality.
"Think how far people from here drive to go to Ladbroke's or Mountaineer Park," Meshel said. "They drive that 30 to 40 miles all the time. Studies have shown people will come, if you have the right entertainment. The longer the struggle over control, the more public support you lose."