The National Football League (NFL) team Cleveland Browns are one step closer to a new stadium in Brook Park, Ohio, suburb of Cleveland (US).
‘Sportico’ stated that the Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed the State’s $60 billion biannual operating budget beginning with the 2025-2026 fiscal year on June 30th which includes a $600 million funding pool for a new $2.4 billion domed stadium just 12 miles Southeast of downtown Cleveland.
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland (US). The Browns compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference North Division.
The 67,431-capacity Huntington Bank Field is a stadium in Cleveland, Ohio (US). It is the home field of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) and serves as a venue for other events such as college and high school football, soccer, hockey, and concerts.
‘Sportico’ further stated that the $600 million will come from a portion of the $3.7 billion the State has in unclaimed funds forming the ‘Sports and Culture Facilities Fund’. The Browns will repay the State through tax revenue generated in the development over 16 years.
On June 27th the 176-acre site where the team plans to build the stadium was officially purchased by the Haslam Sports Group (a values-driven organization focused on unifying people through sports and entertainment and is based in Berea, US) which owns the Browns, for $76 million, according to the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office. The deed was originally written in March 2024 but was signed shortly after the State House and Senate approved of the stadium funding.
The new digs will anchor a proposed $3.6 billion mixed-used development that will include retail, hotels, office space, and apartment housing. The Haslam Sports Group and their development partners stated that they will commit $2 billion in private capital toward the full mixed-used project. Brook Park, a town of just 19,000 people, is also slated to contribute $400 million in public funding for the project.
Jimmy Haslam, who owns the Haslam Sports Group along with his wife Dee, said that he wants to break ground in early 2026.
While the public funding is now available to the team the shovels won’t go into the ground just yet. The road toward a new stadium has been a bumpy one.
Stadium Funding
On April 1st, 2024 the Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb told the local media that he sent a letter to Jimmy and Dee Haslam stating that the City would commit $461 million toward a $1 billion renovation of the Huntington Bank Field but only if the offer was accepted by April 12th.
The Browns said they were weighing a decision between renovating the current building or building a domed stadium.
In May 2024, the Cleveland City Council approved an ordinance that allowed the City Hall to enforce the Ohio Revised Code 9.67, colloquially known as the Modell Law, in response to Art Modell (American businessman and entrepreneur) moving the original Browns to Baltimore in 1995.
Modell Law
In short, the Modell Law prohibits a pro sports team in Ohio that receives public subsidies from playing its home games anywhere else. A team owner can be exempted from the law by seeking permission from the local Government to sell the team with a six-month notice and giving the City or the local business people the right of first refusal (a contractual right that gives its holder the first opportunity to buy or lease an asset) to buy the team.
Last August, the Browns publicly revealed the Brook Park plans calling it “a modern, dynamic, world-class venue that would greatly enhance the fan experience and enable the State of Ohio and our region to compete for some of the biggest events in the world 365 days a year.”
Both the team and the City have sued one another over the use of the Modell Law. In their lawsuit the Browns argue that the law only applies to interstate commerce – moving out of the State versus relocating within the county – as the Browns hope to do. The City itself claims that the Browns are in breach of contract – in this case the lease of the current stadium.
Why did the Browns Move Away from Cleveland?
The stadium ordeal is rooted in the ugly divorce between the City and the original Browns team. In 1995, Modell publicly pushed for the Cuyahoga County to renew a sin tax (a tax on items such as alcohol or tobacco) that would pay for the renovation of the now-closed 81,000-capacity Cleveland Municipal Stadium which he owned and operated. Yet, he also had secret negotiations with the State legislators in Maryland to build a new stadium for a potential relocation to Baltimore.
After the now-Cleveland Guardians moved (Major League Baseball [MLB] team) out of the Municipal Stadium for their own baseball-specific venue in 1994 Modell claimed that the Browns had lost $21 million in 1994 and 1995 and believed that renewing the sin tax would not be enough to keep the Browns in Cleveland. Just days before the Cuyahoga County residents were set to vote on the sin tax renewal Modell agreed to move the Browns to Baltimore before the 1996 NFL season.
New York (US)-based the National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams it is divided equally between the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference.
The City of Cleveland sued Modell, the Browns, his Art Modell Stadium Corporation (a company formed by Art Modell, the former Owner of the Cleveland Browns, in 1973 which is no longer active) and the Maryland Stadium Authority for breach of contract believing the Browns had broken their Municipal Stadium lease. However, the NFL worked out a settlement with all the parties where it deactivated the Browns franchise for three years leaving its likeness and records in Cleveland for a 1999 “expansion” team. Modell renamed his football organization the Baltimore Ravens (NFL team).
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