CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland’s preliminary vision for redeveloping its downtown lakefront includes a feature that has become increasingly common in big cities across the Great Lakes: a waterfront music venue.
Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit and Toronto are among the cities where amphitheaters are incorporated into shoreline projects. Add to the list Cincinnati, which did much the same with an indoor/outdoor facility as part of its recent multi-purpose development along the Ohio River.
The idea for a 10,000-seat indoor/outdoor venue for ticketed concerts and public events is one element of a vision released in December for redeveloping city-owned land at and around the current Cleveland Browns stadium.
The plan, advanced by the city-created nonprofit North Coast Waterfront Development Corp., also includes restaurants, hotels, housing, and acres of public space. But just the exploration of a potential music venue has some people in the local music scene questioning the idea.
“Right now, what we have is really hard enough for the market to bear,” said John Gorman, the former longtime program director at WMMS who has followed Cleveland’s music scene since the 1970s. “I don’t think just plopping down another venue, especially along the lakefront, is going to be healthy for anybody.”
Among the existing facilities are Rocket Arena, the Blossom Music Center and Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica, which has operated nearby along the Cuyahoga River in the Flats since 1987. And the new Browns indoor stadium slated to open in 2029 in Brook Park could also compete for concerts.
If business is drawn from Blossom in Summit County, that could be a repeat of sorts of what occurred in the early 1990s. Once the Cavs agreed to be part of the downtown Gateway sports complex, they closed and eventually demolished their Richfield Coliseum in Summit County, saying the market wasn’t large enough for two like facilities.
But, clearly, waterfront music venues have become a staple elsewhere as part of park and public space developments. Examples regionally include:
- Buffalo – The Terminal B Event Center opened in 2024 in a park along the Lake Erie shoreline known as the Outer Harbor. The open-air center has capacity for concerts of about 6,000. The $13 million project was led by a subsidiary of the state of New York’s economic development agency.
- Cincinnati – The city’s multi-use riverfront development called The Banks includes the J Brady Music Center, which opened in 2021 at a cost of $27 million. Owned and operated by a subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the center seats 4,500 indoors and has a separate outdoor stage for concerts in an adjoining park with capacity of up to 8,000.
- Chicago – The city’s Northerly Island Park along Lake Michigan, built on the site of the former Meigs Field airport, includes the Huntington Bank Pavilion with seating for 14,000, plus room for another 22,000 on a lawn that doubles as park space. It opened in 2005.
- Detroit – A 4-mile riverwalk developed in recent years in Detroit links multiple parks, and passes close by the 6,000-seat waterfront Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, which opened in 1985.
- Toronto – The RBC Amphitheatre at Ontario Place, built on man-made islands in Lake Ontario, seats about 16,000, roughly 5,500 under cover and 7,000 on the lawn. The outdoor venue opened in 1995. Plans are in the works to transform it into a year-round center by 2030.
While those projects illustrate how music venues can complement public waterfronts, Cleveland’s proposal remains in an early stage. No final design has been completed, and market studies are still ahead.
Scott Skinner, executive director of the Waterfront Development Corp., said the uses identified so far are intended to show possibilities rather than firm commitments.
“We still need to put together a master plan and lay out the site,” Skinner said. Yet he added, “We think the uses we have proposed are feasible and we are excited to continue to explore how to turn those into reality.”
As envisioned, the Cleveland venue would be designed to function in multiple seasons, hosting outdoor shows in warm weather while allowing indoor events when temperatures drop or rain moves in — a flexibility planners say could extend activity along the lakefront beyond the summer months.
Still, the proposal has stirred debate among people involved in Cleveland’s music and entertainment industry, some of whom question whether the region can support another mid- to large-size concert space.
Gorman said he supports redeveloping the waterfront, calling it “a perfect move for Cleveland,” but he wonders whether other attractions might better complement the area. “I think a Ferris wheel or something else would be far more of an attraction. We have enough music destinations in the city.”
Mike Miller, vice president of Music Box Supper Club in the Flats, said the lakefront venue proposal has been a frequent topic of conversation among independent operators of smaller music venues in the area since it surfaced publicly.
“I never want to discourage anyone if they have a vision,” Miller said. “But when public dollars are being used, that raises questions.
“I really hope they think through those questions. Are they using public dollars that will hurt other businesses? It needs to be asked. It needs to be considered how doing it fits into what exists.”
Another issue raised by local venue operators involves who would control bookings if a new amphitheater is built.
Sean Watterson, owner of the Happy Dog on Cleveland’s West Side and a board member of the National Independent Venue Association, said the answer could shape how the project affects the broader music ecosystem.
“What we’ve seen is these larger companies squeezing out independents across the country. We don’t have someone here locally, an independent who is competing in the 6,000- to 10,000-seat market,” Watterson said.
He said concerns become sharper if public subsidies are involved in building or operating the facility.
“When you’re talking about the development, you’re talking about some public dollars as a way to make those things happen,” he said. “If you are talking about public subsidies to help AEG or Live Nation to bring that size of a venue into the market” without considering independents, “that raises issues.”
Watterson said he would like to see any large publicly assisted venue structured in a way that benefits smaller spaces, perhaps by dedicating a small share of ticket revenue to support independent clubs — an approach used in the United Kingdom.
“I would put my focus on what is going to be the overall impact on the music ecosystem,” Watterson said. “Let’s make the investment from a holistic perspective.”
That ecosystem has shown signs of strain. A 2025 National Independent Venue Association study found that 64% of independent venues nationwide lost money last year, including 75% in Cuyahoga County and 80% statewide. Declining alcohol consumption, long a major revenue source for clubs, has added to financial pressures.
The study mainly involved smaller venues, often for shows of a few hundred. Average attendance for the venues studied was just under 1,200.
The larger venues are often controlled by Live Nation and AEG. Cleveland.com reached out to the companies for comment.
Representatives for the Cavs company, which operates the Rocket Arena, and the Cleveland Orchestra, owner of Blossom, declined to weigh in on the topic.
The same response came from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, located a few hundred feet from the lakefront development site. The Rock Hall hosts outdoor events of up to about 3,000 people and is wrapping up construction of an expansion that will include a 1,000-plus capacity indoor venue for concerts and other events.
Skinner said questions are to be expected at this stage. Upcoming market studies and continued public input will help determine what ultimately makes sense for the site, he said.
He also said no special subsidies or incentives would be given to private developers on the lakefront other than the tools already used for projects elsewhere in the city.
Over the coming months, the city, the Waterfront Development Corp. and development partners plan to work with a master-planning consultant to refine the vision for the lakefront. The goal is to present an updated plan to the public by summer.