Officials stumped by concert mess at Browns Stadium
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Michael Sangiacomo
Plain Dealer Reporter
Maybe it was all that Texas chili.
For the second time at Browns Stadium, water was flowing everywhere but where it was supposed to -- in the toilets.
And once again the water problems happened during a country music concert.
On Saturday night, many of the more than 50,000 fans of country singer Kenny Chesney had to hold their water during the final three hours of a nine-hour music festival.
Cleveland officials said Monday that they are still trying to determine what caused an 8-inch freshwater pipe to burst, pumping out about 50,000 gallons of water into the 8-year-old stadium.
The last time something like this happened, the toilets backed up during the George Strait Country Music Festival in May 2000, forcing stadium workers to close many of the restrooms.
Strangely enough, the toilets started working properly once that concert was over.
On Monday, Cleveland Chief Operating Officer Darrell Brown said workers have not yet located the broken pipe and have no idea how long it will take to repair.
Lew Merletti, senior vice president of the Browns, said the three locker rooms used by the home and visiting teams sustained significant damage. He declined to estimate the amount of damage caused by the water, which leaked into many parts of the stadium.
Because of the waterline break, many of the toilets in the stadium's 83 rest rooms were not usable, though Merletti said more than half were functioning somewhat. Many of the toilets would not flush, but that did not stop people from using them.
Country music fans had plenty of details to offer.
"The event was a health and safety disaster," according to an e-mail from Cynthia L. Janosko of Parma Heights. "More attention was clearly paid to keeping the beer flowing to guests . . . than to providing the most basic of public facilities."
Brown denied there was water all over the stadium, but
people at the show said that water poured down from the ceilings and flooded walkways. Some described puddles 6 inches deep of something wet.
Al Rindfleisch of Avon Lake said he and his wife, Mary Jo, are not likely to go to a concert at the stadium again.
"Around 8:30, my wife went looking for a bathroom and none were open," he said. "They were all flooded. Attendants were keeping people from entering the women's bathrooms.
Rindfleisch said women were using the men's bathrooms.
"It was pretty uncomfortable, especially for kids, to have women in the men's bathroom," he said. "Add to that a lot of people who had been drinking and you can imagine how uncomfortable it got."
The stadium has housed only five concerts since it opened in 1999. There were major water problems at two of the shows that featured country music.
Hmmmm. Could there be a connection between bad plumbing and twangy guitars?
"No, the pipe was going to break at some point," said Brown. "It just happened to break during the concert."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
msangiacomo@plaind.com, 216-999-4890
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