CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – We should have a decision on where the Cleveland Browns plan to play football in 2029 soon, and all roads seem to lead to Brook Park.
After nearly 18 months of stadium negotiations, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb set an August 12 deadline last week for the Browns to tell him and the city if they will renovate on the lakefront or build new in Brook Park.
Deadlines spur action.
In a letter sent to the Browns last Thursday, the city of Cleveland promised up to $461 million in financing along with a new 30-year lease extension, unfortunately that offer is woefully insufficient on multiple fronts.
First, the proposed $1.2 billion renovation will not extend the life of Cleveland Browns Stadium for 30 more years. Maybe 20, if they are lucky, and even then there will be significant additional costs to maintain the building until then.
Second, $120 million of the proposed funding comes from the Cuyahoga County sin tax, which expires in 2034 and would require voters to approve another extension – this one 25 years – to 2058.
Third, Cleveland also promised parking revenue, which is expected to generate $94 million over 30 years according to the city, from the Willard garage and Muni lot on game and event days to go towards the stadium financing package.
The problem for Bibb is that the Browns have been seeking parking as an additional revenue stream for them – not only to put more money in their coffers but also to sweeten the pot when recruiting major events to the stadium – not as a finance mechanism for construction.
Fourth, the balance of $221 million comes from admissions taxes, a number that potentially could be inflated because an open-air stadium cannot and will not attract the volume of major events required to generate such a significant volume of tax revenue.
All along the Browns have maintained that either project – renovation or dome – would be sufficient, but that simply is not the case.
Through no fault of their own, the reality is that Cleveland simply cannot compete with Brook Park. Cleveland Browns Stadium just can’t compete with a new dome. The new lakefront plan can’t compete with the mixed used development on 176 acres of open land the Browns envision around their stadium either.
Once the Browns top brass saw Minnesota’s US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis when the team visited the Vikings in October 2021, their eyes were opened and the thoughts of building their own dome began roaming through their heads.
The Haslam Sports Group, led by Jimmy and Dee Haslam, are willing to invest up to $2.8 billion in northeast Ohio – $1.2 billion, or half the cost of the dome, plus $1.4 billion for the mixed use development and another $200 million for the CrossCountry Mortgage Campus expansion in Berea that includes a hotel, dorms for Baldwin Wallace, a 7,500 seat multipurpose community field, a rec center, University Hospitals sports medicine facility as well as parking.
The infrastructure cost to accommodate a new 65,000 seat dome and development next to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport came in much lower than anticipated following the completion of a transportation study this summer.
As far as the $1.2 billion public cost, the team has proposed bonding the future tax revenues from the complex to cover those costs to avoid additional tax burdens on the region.
The state of Ohio is waiting on a final plan before jumping on board with any financing.
The county seems to be waiting on Bibb to back a Browns build in Brook Park.
Brook Park is ready to go.
For the traditionalists that bemoan the thought of the Browns leaving the lakefront – or city limits – understand that the Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, Texas not Dallas. The Giants and Jets don’t even play in New York state, let alone New York City. The 49ers play nearly an hour south of San Francisco. The Patriots play closer to Providence, Rhode Island than they do Boston.
The Browns would play across the railroad tracks from Hopkins International Airport, which is about to get a $3 billion upgrade. The Haslam Sports Group would like to coordinate with the Port Authority on tying in access to the Brook Park development, which would include hotels to service the airport, with that project.
With two interstates – I-71 and I-480 and two state routes – 237 and 291 – Brook Park is much more accessible than the lakefront will ever be – with or without the construction of a $250-plus million land bridge.
Once the 2028 football season ends, the Browns will have fulfilled the terms of the 1999 lease and are free to play wherever they want in northeast Ohio.
Both sides have played nice publicly, neither wanting to make the other out to be the bad guy, but when it’s all said and done, the Browns are headed to Brook Park.
It makes too much sense for this not to end that way.