On Oct. 17, local NFL team the Cleveland Browns announced their intention to vacate their current lakefront stadium and build a new domed stadium in Brook Park, Ohio. This move will be completed by 2028, when the lease on the Browns’ current stadium ends. First announced by Fox8 and then confirmed by an Instagram post and Online statement from Mayor Justin Bibb, this move has been marred in controversy from local and statewide leaders, further complicating the city’s relationship with major league sports teams.
Bibb noted that he is “deeply, deeply disappointed that [despite] our exhaustive efforts, the Haslam Sports Group has chosen a move to Brook Park. [The Haslam Sports Group] had the opportunity to reinvest in Cleveland, transform the current stadium into a world-class facility, enhance the fan experience and remain highly profitable. We put those options on the table in good faith. But unfortunately, that was not enough.”
At a press conference hosted at City Hall, Bibb argued that the relocation would lose the city “$30 million annually” while also “disproportionately affecting communities of color and low-income residents” and “weaken[ing] public assets.”
Edward Orcutt, mayor of Brook Park, said in an interview with News5, “I feel that we’ll be fine in the end, when we all sit down at the table and we are able to work together on putting something in Brook Park that will help the entire region when it comes to revenue.”
The stadium is estimated to cost $2.4 billion, with the Browns’ owners, the Haslam family, looking for half of that cost to be covered by public money, a quarter from the state and a quarter from local governments. Governor Mike DeWine has yet to explicitly comment on the new stadium, but Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne has already expressed opposition to the move.
“Executive Ronayne has made his position clear: the Browns stadium should remain Downtown,” reads his brief public statement. This follows previous public statements where he claimed the potential move to Brook Park “does not make fiscal sense.”
The current 1999 stadium, Huntington Bank Field, cost $285 million, of which 75% came from public sources. It is estimated that the stadium has cost Cleveland taxpayers $350 million in ongoing funding and maintenance, and the city is still paying off this debt.
The potential move of the stadium started in 2022, with the team supposedly considering two other sites in downtown Cleveland. Arrangements to purchase the Brook Park location, the site of a former Ford factory, started in February 2023, with the team releasing a rendering of what this facility would look like in August.
Then, the City of Cleveland announced a proposal to cover $461 million to renovate and repair the existing stadium. With the September announcement of the city’s intent to close Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport, they also pitched the idea of building a new stadium on the land once the airport closes.
The Browns claimed that the latter choice “is cost prohibitive and not feasible, especially with no certainty regarding potential timing of closure of the Airport,” while Bibb’s office instead claims that the team asked for too much public money.
The team claims that “[t]he transformational economic opportunities created by a dome far outweigh what a renovated stadium could produce with around ten events per year.” Regarding the dome covering, the mayor said, “The Haslam Sports Group may want a roof over their heads, but my responsibility is to ensure Cleveland residents have a roof over theirs.”
In August, the Browns said, “We acknowledge that a move to Brook Park may have a near-term impact on downtown, but we believe that the year-round activity of a domed stadium can still positively impact the downtown economy, particularly when coupled with the possibilities of a reimagined lakefront absent the stadium.” This statement echoes a recent plan to revamp the current lakeshore.
More than just local leaders spoke out against the move. Senator Sherrod Brown, who is up for re-election this month, said, “The Cleveland Browns should be in Cleveland.” Councilman Brian Kazy, whose district represents Downtown Cleveland, said, “The Haslams are looking to pit City against City to fleece taxpayers out of money to build a shiny new fortress.”
The new location in Brook Park is located directly opposite the airport terminal of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, which is located within Cleveland city limits. For Case Western Reserve University community members, this will mean crossing into the west side of the city to catch a Browns game. Though, for fans without a car, the new site is located in between two RTA Red Line stations—the ones for the airport and Brook Park respectively. As of now, there is no good way to get from either of the stations to the new site, but various developers note that the current plan calls for a sprawl of surface level parking lots.
2028 will be the first time since 1946—minus a four-year stint in the 1990s—when the City of Cleveland will not have a football team. The city will also lose its status as a city with three major sports leagues, which it has held since 1994 when the Cavaliers moved to a stadium in Downtown Cleveland.
The Ohio Legislature passed what became known as the “Art Modell Law” in 1996, which required tax-supported sports teams to get permission from their original area to move or give a six-month notice to allow for the city or someone else to buy the team from the area.
Some in Cleveland’s political circles are calling for the city to frustrate the move to Brook Park by suing the move under the Modell Law. Former Mayor, former Congressional Representative and 2008 Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich notes that if the Cleveland City Council does not evoke the law, he will.
Even if the impact of the future stadium move is small for the CWRU community—minus more traffic to and from the airport on game day—it is set to have both economic and cultural consequences for the city we call home.