(Bloomberg) -- Cleveland is at risk of losing its longtime National Football League team over competing visions for a stadium.
The Haslam Sports Group — the Cleveland Browns ownership entity of Jimmy and Dee Haslam — have pitched playing in a brand new, $2.4 billion stadium in the nearby suburbs when their lease expires after the 2028 season. Meanwhile, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb says he’s trying to balance the need to keep the Browns in the city with trying to mitigate the costs for taxpayers — his office has instead proposed a renovation to the existing facility built in 1999.
This week, the team made its preference clear. In a public letter addressed to fans, Browns’ and HSG Chief Operating Officer Dave Jenkins advocated building a new domed stadium in Brook Park, Ohio, a suburb roughly 15 miles from downtown Cleveland.
“While significant work remains, the more we have explored the Brook Park option, the more attractive it has become,” the letter read. At the same time, he said a renovation to the existing facility is “a complex and challenging proposition.”
The debate in Cleveland underscores a growing rift between cities and billionaire-owned professional sports teams. Like the Browns’ stadium, many NFL arenas were built roughly three decades ago and the teams’ leases are set to expire, marking a race to secure funding for upgrades or a new home entirely. The Carolina Panthers secured $650 million of public funds for a $1.3 billion renovation of Bank of America Stadium. And the city of Jacksonville, Florida, is splitting the cost of a $1.4 billion renovation for the Jaguars.
Local governments are cautious about allocating too much for a team, given other spending needs and a cap on taxpayers willingness for increased levies. However, teams have a powerful bargaining chip — they can leave and relocate to a locale willing to shell out the cash.
If the team moves out of Cleveland, it would hurt the city’s downtown, city officials have warned. “Lower spending downtown would negatively affect tax revenues that provide essential services for a city in need,” the mayor said in a statement this month. “It would close businesses, cost jobs, empty out storefronts, and make our downtown feel less alive.”
It’s not the first time the Browns have gotten into relocation fight over stadium renovations. Former team owner Art Modell enraged fans when he moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in the 1990s, where the team became the Ravens. An agreement in 1996 allowed the move while keeping the Browns name in Cleveland for a new team, which resumed play three years later.
Public Funding
Mayor Bibb this month released renderings of Cleveland’s planned redevelopment of the area surrounding Cleveland Browns Stadium and reaffirmed the city’s pledge to contribute $461 million to a renovation of the current facility. The proposed development is scheduled to proceed regardless of whether the Browns stay downtown, and it includes a new public beach, a hotel, and retail space.
“Our proposal balances both the need to preserve this economic and recreational asset for Northeast Ohio with fiscal responsibility as our guiding principle,” said Sarah Johnson, the City of Cleveland’s chief communications officer in a statement.
Team officials seem resistant to the city’s plan in part because they want a dome added, but a nearby airport makes that challenging because of height regulations. Without a dome, it would be harder to host events in the winter months.
The new suburban stadium would allow the region to “compete for some of the biggest events in the world 365 days a year,” the Haslam Sports Group says in a letter.
The Browns are asking local, county, and state officials for $1.2 billion to help finance the proposed Brook Park project. The team says they’ll be responsible for cost overruns. However, neither the team or the public officials involved in negotiations know how they would generate the public funding yet.
“We are not looking to tap into existing taxpayer-funded streams, which could divert resources from other pressing needs,” said the Haslam Sports Group.
--With assistance from Heather Smith and Sam Hall.
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