AKRON, Ohio - Efforts to revitalize Akron's iconic Rubber Bowl as a live music and entertainment venue have come to an end.

Team 1 Marketing Group, the Rubber Bowl's recent owners, posted this message on the stadium's Facebook page on Tuesday.

Thanks to all who supported us in our efforts to bring the Rubber Bowl back to life. We just couldn't get the city and derby on board. Summit County Land Bank is the owner of the property now. We hope they will find a group they will let finish our dream of bring this great venue back to life.

Since it bought the stadium, Team 1 has had trouble getting responses from the city, said attorney Bill Corgan.

"The city basically doesn't want to work with Team 1," he said. "Without getting any kind of cooperation from the city, they aren't getting funding to move forward."

Team 1 has agreed to turn the deed to the property over to the Summit County Land Bank to avoid foreclosure proceedings.

"We are in discussions with them about signing over the property," land bank Executive Director Patrick Bravo said. "It's still a couple weeks away."

Both the city and the land bank have received numerous complaints about vandalism and the condition of the Rubber Bowl, where the University of Akron football team used to play.

Recently, when land bank staff was inspecting the stadium as part of the tax foreclosure process, kids were running around the site, with one kid dangling off the side of the press box.

"It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt," Bravo said.

The back story

In its former life, the Rubber Bowl was the home of the University of Akron Zips, while big music acts from Simon & Garfunkel to the Rolling Stones to the Pretenders drew thousands of music lovers to the stadium.

But when the Zips moved to InfoCision Stadium in 2008, the bowl went dark. In 2013, the University of Akron sold the stadium for $38,000 to Canton-based Team 1. Team 1 owners, Bill Dunn and Sean Mason, had plans to make the venue the home of a United States Football League franchise. But embezzlement charges against the football league's top management forced them to consider a different use.

With the stadium's 32,000-seat capacity, Team 1 has fought for the past couple years to turn the Rubber Bowl into a music, sports and theater venue. The company was hopeful Akron's Black Keys would headline the venue's first concert, and the site would become the home of two large music festivals each year.

Team 1 also envisioned the stadium working in tandem with the nearby skate park to attract other recreation-based entities. But, from the start, Team 1 has faced a stream of set backs.

Safety

A hip-hop concert planned in 2015 was cancelled when the city of Akron determined the site was unsafe. Then, vandals began breaking into the property at night, damaging the property further. The city ordered the company to secure the site. Team 1 repeatedly installed fencing and secured entrances only to have them knocked down, and often completely destroyed, overnight,

Zoning

Unbeknownst to Team 1, the bowl's zoning changed once it was sold to private buyers. Prior to its purchase, the Rubber Bowl was owned by the state and zoned for public recreation. However, once the stadium was bought by private entity Team 1 the zoning reverted to residential, which means it couldn't be used for public recreation. To have the zoning changed, Team 1 had to go through Akron's conditional use process.

That required Akron Planning Commission approval, with a public hearing before Akron City Council for resident input before a City Council vote.

Financing

As part of the rezoning process, the city wanted more detailed plans on renovating the facility than Team 1 could afford to have created. In the meantime, AEL Capital Partners in Colorado, Team 1's investor, wanted assurance from the city the project would go forward, before sinking money into the plans.

Taxes

An unexpected tax bill also caused problems. When the project was launched, Dunn and Mason spoke with Summit County's late Executive Russ Pry about receiving a tax abatement. They expected to receive the abatement, based on a verbal agreement. But Pry died unexpectedly in 2016 and Summit County assessed taxes on the Rubber Bowl based on a value of $2.3 million. Team 1's tax bill rose to nearly $200,000.

Foreclosure

For now, the future of the Rubber Bowl is unclear.

"We've been in discussion with city of Akron regarding the future of the property," Bravo said. "The city may have possible interest in acquiring the property from us but nothing formal has been presented."

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