The impetus for Cleveland Stadium came from city manager William R. Hopkins, Cleveland Indians' president Ernest Barnard, real estate magnate and future Indians' president Alva Bradley, and the Van Sweringen brothers, who thought that the attraction of a stadium would benefit area commerce in general and their own commercial interests in downtown Cleveland in particular. However, some have incorrectly stated that it was built in a failed bid to attract the 1932 Summer Olympics, which had been awarded to Los Angeles before ground was broken on the stadium. That misconception may have contributed to some in the media calling the stadium, "The Mistake by the Lake". Another common misconception is that Cleveland Stadium, was a Works Progress Administration project; in fact, the WPA was not cre