Cleveland Browns planning move to Brook Park: I-Team

CLEVELAND (WJW) — The FOX 8 I-Team has learned the Cleveland Browns have decided to move the stadium from the lakefront and build a dome in Brook Park .

Sources close to the negotiations told us the team is moving out of the city. The I-Team did reach out to the city and the Browns.

Owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam on Thursday afternoon released a statement:

Our stadium planning process started in 2017 and as Mayor [Justin] Bibb mentioned today, for the last two years, we have had positive, productive and collaborative dialogue with the mayor and his staff, working together to find the optimal long-term solution for our stadium.

We pursued many possibilities, with our initial focus on renovating the current stadium, and engaged design, construction and engineering experts to develop a plan to do so. We also explored building a new stadium on multiple sites, both within and outside of Cleveland. We’ve learned through our exhaustive work that renovating our current stadium will simply not solve many operational issues and would be a short-term approach. With more time to reflect, we have also realized that without a dome, we will not attract the type of large-scale events and year-round activity to justify the magnitude of this public-private partnership. The transformational economic opportunities created by a dome far outweigh what a renovated stadium could produce with around 10 events per year.

In the spirit of exhausting all downtown options and continuing to work in good faith with the mayor, when he announced his efforts to potentially make Burke available for development last month, we engaged in further diligence with the city and County Executive [Chris] Ronayne’s staff regarding a potential dome stadium on Burke. The significant design, construction, geotechnical and environmental challenges were again apparent. Our work reinforced that despite the city, county and our team doing their best to make the economics work, building a stadium on the Burke property is cost-prohibitive and not feasible, especially with no certainty regarding potential timing of closure of the airport.

We have communicated to the mayor and his team at every step of the process regarding our mutual efforts to keep the stadium downtown and we conveyed to them yesterday, our most impactful investment for our region is to focus on making a dome stadium and adjacent development in Brook Park a reality. With the funding mechanisms we continue to work on, this stadium will not use existing taxpayer-funded streams that would divert resources from other more pressing needs. Instead, the over $2 billion private investment, together with the public investment, will create a major economic development project that will drive the activity necessary to pay the public bond debt service through future project-generated and Browns-generated revenue.

A solution like this will be transformative not only for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, but also the entire state of Ohio from the resulting events, tourism and job creation. Additionally, moving the current stadium will allow the city and region’s collective vision for the Cleveland lakefront to be optimally realized, and downtown will benefit from the major events the Brook Park dome brings to the region.

Cleveland and Northeast Ohio are the fabric of the Browns and that will always be the case. Our community commitment to Cleveland and efforts to improve the lives of its residents will not change.

Again, our work with Mayor Bibb and city officials has been transparent and collaborative throughout. We will continue to work in earnest with city, county and state officials to work together on these transformational opportunities.

As we have previously said, we understand this is a complex process with more questions still to be answered and we will continue to communicate openly as our process evolves. We recognize our season on the field has not had the start we all hoped for and are working hard to improve each week to make our fans proud. At the same time, it is critical that we remain committed to the best long-term, sustainable solution for our stadium and to providing the world-class dome experience our fans deserve. We are confident that the Brook Park project will significantly benefit the Northeast Ohio region for generations to come.

Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb spoke about the decision Thursday afternoon, clearly saddened by the decision for the Cleveland Browns.

Bibb explained that he had a meeting with Jimmy and Dee Haslam on Wednesday night in which they expressed their intent to relocate to Brook Park.

“The Haslams’ choice to move the team away is frustrating and profoundly disheartening,” Bibb said. “In the past two years, this administration made relentless efforts to craft solutions that advance both [Haslam Sports Group’s] objectives and long-term interest of our residents and the broader community.”

Bibb continued by saying in part, “I am deeply, deeply disappointed that [with] our exhaustive efforts, the Haslam Sports Group has chosen a move to Brook Park. They 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.”

Bibb said that he and the city remain committed to keeping the Browns in Cleveland if Brook Park is not viable.

“To the residents, fans and small businesses out there that depend on those Browns games, I want you to know this: I stand with you. I’m fighting for you. We have exhausted every single option to keep the Browns in our great city,” he said.

Ward 16 Councilman Brian Kazy later released a statement about the announcement saying the Haslam’s main focus on only in their own “financial gain.”

Read Kazy’s full statement below:

“The multi-billionaire Haslams’ decision to leave Cleveland for Brook Park is disappointing and reflects a troubling mindset. With the Haslams, it’s all about feeding at the public trough. The ownership is not from Cleveland and clearly does not understand the tradition of the team they own or the needs of one of the poorest cities in America. If they did, they would not be asking this community to commit hundreds of millions, if not billions, to build a stadium when we have a functioning stadium and so many other needs. It’s disappointing that the Haslams are looking to pit City against City to fleece taxpayers out of money to build a shiny new fortress. This move demonstrates a lack of genuine commitment to Cleveland and the region. It has always been clear, and this decision further proves that the Haslams’ only focus is their financial gain. Their lack of investment in the city is frankly embarrassing. Cleveland deserves an ownership team that prioritizes the well-being of its community rather than just their profits. The city made a generous offer using non-taxpayer dollars, and I would encourage the County and State not to contribute a single taxpayer dollar to building a new stadium in Brook Park.”

We will be updating this story throughout the day.

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