Nearly two dozen Ohio sports teams and operations want a share of the $1 billion fund set aside for sports and cultural facilities in the state budget, according to information obtained by the Statehouse News Bureau. The money in that fund comes from transfers from the state’s unclaimed funds, which is still in a court battle.
The list compiled by the Office of Budget and Management includes 22 sports operations requesting some of the $400 million in the fund. They include the Cleveland Cavaliers and Guardians, FC Cincinnati soccer, and the Columbus Clippers, the Toledo Mud Hens and the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball teams. Cleveland Soccer Group, which secured a Division II women's soccer team in 2025 and an MLS Next Pro pre-professional men's team in 2022, also requested funds.
The list also includes local governments such as Hamilton County, the city of Obetz and the village of New London, as well as the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority and the Clark County Convention Facilities Authority. Also submitting requests are the operators of minor league sports operations such as the Akron Rubber Ducks, the Lake County Captains and the Mahoning Scrappers baseball teams, as well as the Toledo Villa FC, a pre-professional soccer team. The Atomic Speedway Foundation, operators of a motor racing track in Chillicothe, also put in a request.
The list didn’t indicate how much each sports operation asked for.
As the budget was finished in June, House Finance Chair Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) explained the fund, created with $1.7 billion from the state's unclaimed funds account.
"$600 million of that will be earmarked directly for the Brook Park development project that we've been talking about for six months. We have another $400 million that's going to go into that same culture and sports facilities fund," Stewart said. "It's not going to be earmarked, approved for any other purpose but it is going to be there for all these other type of projects that we may want to consider."
Stewart added that this move would create "some kind of dedicated source of funding that can we can look at. Nobody's automatically approved, but at least gives us the ability to continue that conversation, doing so in a way that doesn't divert money from any other priority that we have way to raise taxes on Ohioans."
There have been no transfers from the state's unclaimed funds into the Sports and Cultural Facilities Fund because of a lawsuit claiming the action is unconstitutional. A Franklin County judge blocked the transfer in December. There's also a lawsuit in federal court.
It's unclear what the next step in the process is, and when the operations receiving funds will be announced.
