You will also bring up all those rank basement odors into the house and your wife may tell you no. Also keep any opening in a basement return out of the furnace room and at least 10' or more away from the furnace so no wayward flue gas and DEADLY CARBON MONOXIDE from the furnace and hot water heater can get sucked into your air ducts in your house. The return air can cause a negative pressure to pull down flue gas out of the flue pipe. People have died from this before. Have an HVAC pro look at your system.