Kaulig Companies Championship Tees Off Today: CLE Daily

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🏟️ Dome Sweet Dome: Brook Park City Council advanced legislation creating a "community authority" that would own the Browns' $2.6 billion stadium and lease it back to the team, with a public hearing and final vote set for July 15.

👑 Decision Watch: Yesterday marked 16 years since "The Decision," and LeBron James is still weighing his options in free agency — with the Cavaliers still in the conversation.

⚡ Power Struggle: Lakewood Mayor Meghan George is demanding accountability from FirstEnergy after last week's outages left tens of thousands of Northeast Ohioans without power during some of the hottest days of the year — some for up to four days.

ICYMI: Cleveland hip-hop legends Bone Thugs-N-Harmony receive their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, and Krayzie Bone joins The CLE Connection podcast to talk about the honor, the group's Cleveland roots and his nonprofit work back home

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Today's Trivia

What Hall of Fame goalie acquired his nickname, “The China Wall,” while playing for the Cleveland Barons in the 1950s?

Firestone Country Club hosts Kaulig Companies Championship this weekend.

Sports | By Vince Guerrieri

When the Kaulig Companies Championship tees off at 10:15 a.m. today in Akron, it will mark the end of an era. The four-day PGA Tour Champions event is the final PGA tournament — at least for the foreseeable future — at Firestone Country Club, which has hosted them since the 1950s.

• Deep Roots: Firestone joined the PGA Tour in 1954 with the Rubber City Open and hosted an event nearly every year through 2018 — known variously as the American Golf Classic, the World Series of Golf and the Bridgestone Invitational — plus three PGA Championships. Since 2019, it's been home to this PGA Tour Champions stop, sponsored by Kaulig since 2022.

• The Field: The 78-man, no-cut field includes defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, who rallied over the final two holes last year before beating Steven Alker in a sudden-death playoff; former world No. 1 Vijay Singh; two-time major winners Angel Cabrera and Ernie Els; and John Daly, who will be honored Thursday as Ambassador of Golf.

• Beyond the Course: The Infinity Zone fan space offers food trucks and free-with-admission entertainment, including Thursday's World's Greatest Outdoor Comedy Show (at a Golf Tournament) with Mike Polk Jr., Bill Squire, Mary Santora, Elijah Nevels and DJ Mattitude, plus Saturday's Rockin' on the Green military appreciation concert headlined by Red Wanting Blue.

What's Next: Country artist Bailey Zimmerman performs Friday with Akron's The Shootouts opening — that show requires a separate ticket.

GCRTA punts its levy decision to September — and eyes a May 2027 ballot.

Transportation | By Ken Prendergast

The transit agency's board voted unanimously Tuesday on a compromise that could put a sales tax levy before Cuyahoga County voters in May 2027 — splitting the difference between trustees who wanted this November and those who wanted November 2027. The board will finalize the timing and the amount in September.

• The Options: A quarter-percent sales tax would raise $70 million a year and buy about a decade of fiscal stability. A half-percent would raise $140 million, stabilize GCRTA for 40 years and fund a "transformative" expansion. Which would include buses or trains every 10 minutes on 10 routes, Blue and Green Line trains extended to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and restored park-and-ride buses from Westlake and North Olmsted.

• The Risk of May: A special-election spot will cost GCRTA more than $100,000, and low turnout can favor organized opposition. CEO India Birdsong Terry knows firsthand — Nashville voters crushed a transit levy she backed on a May 2018 ballot before approving one in November 2024.

• Birdsong Terry: "We have one shot at this, and we have to make sure it's right. ... Our system will degrade over time, the longer that we wait between bites at the apple."

• The Stakes: If a levy fails before 2029, GCRTA says it will be forced to cut service on two-thirds of its routes. Trustee Shanelle Smith Whigham didn't mince words: "This conversation should have happened 18 months ago, and we are well behind the eight ball."

Worth Noting: Trustee Jeffrey Weston Sleasman made the economic case — every dollar invested in transit returns five times the growth in economic output, meaning a half-percent levy could add $750 million to Greater Cleveland's GDP. 

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

A police chase ended on the fairways. An attempted murder suspect led officers on a multijurisdictional pursuit that made its way through a Stow golf course before he was arrested.

Cuyahoga County voters could face a crowded ballot. Beyond the transit levy, the county is weighing a health and human services tax increase, and the Board of Developmental Disabilities is seeking a new 2.25-mill levy this November.

A Bezos-backed boost for the East Side. Cleveland is receiving $10 million from the Bezos Earth Fund to clean up vacant East Side lots.

Cash to keep babies healthy. Cleveland families will receive direct cash payments under a new program aimed at reducing the city's infant mortality rate.

Ohio schools have a new required lesson. Gov. Mike DeWine signed 13 bills this week, including one requiring schools to teach the "Success Sequence" — finish school, get a job then marry before having children. 

"The Lion King" is back at Playhouse Square, opening a July 8–Aug. 2 run — the sixth time Cleveland has hosted the musical.

Nominations are open for Cleveland Magazine's Best of Cleveland 2026.

Give the local style scene some love by submitting your favorite shopping spot as a nominee for Cleveland Magazine's Best of Cleveland. Fashion boutiques, spas, hair salons, gift shops, farmers markets and more are taking the stage.

Nominations are open now through July 15. Check back to see which people and places made the cut when final voting commences from July 20-31. 

Cast your ballot, here.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer 

Finish this jingle, initially sung by former Indians broadcaster Jimmy Dudley and embedded in the minds of generations of Clevelanders: Garfield 1… 2-3-2-3

From the Editor

It will be sad to see pro golf leave Akron after this weekend's Kaulig tournament at Firestone Country Club.

I moved to Ohio in 2000 and heard about two things during my first week on the job at the Akron Beacon Journal. One, there was this freshman basketball player at St. Vincent-St. Mary who could be really, really good. That came from Brian Windhorst, who was covering Kent State and high schools at the time. Two, Tiger Woods loves to play at Firestone. That was my boss, sports editor Larry Pantages.

Both were right. LeBron James more than lived up to the assessment. And Tiger absolutely loved Firestone, winning there eight times over the years.

As a kid, the World Series of Golf always seemed to be on my TV, with the best of the best in the field. I can still picture the water tower near the clubhouse. Now I drive past it all the time on my way to hikes in the nearby parks.

That pro golf is leaving Akron after 72 years is just another sign of a world trading longevity and fortitude for a quick hit of cash or streaming numbers.

Have a story idea? Tell us what we should cover at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

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