Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb confirmed Thursday the Cleveland Browns plan to leave the city for neighboring Brook Park, Ohio.
“Last night, I had a meeting with Jimmy and Dee Haslam, principals of the Haslam Sports Group (HSG), in which they expressed their intent to relocate the Cleveland Browns to Brook Park,” Bibb said in a statement.
In August, the Browns released renderings of the domed stadium they envision for the site in Brook Park:
Bibb said he and other local officials presented the Haslams with stadium plans that would’ve kept the Browns in Cleveland.
“We put forth a fiscally responsible yet aggressive financial package—larger than any other financial package offered for a sports facility in Cleveland to renovate the existing stadium,” he said.
The city of Cleveland was also prepared to sign off on the construction of a new venue on a portion of Burke Lakefront Airport, which is just to the east of the site of the current stadium.
Despite Bibb’s announcement, the Browns’ relocation isn’t a fait accompli.
The Chicago Bears explored a similar proposal when they laid out their vision for a new stadium in Arlington Heights, Illinois, going so far as to purchase the old Arlington Park race track for $197.2 million in February 2023. This March, the Bears backtracked and focused on building a new domed stadium along Chicago’s lakefront.
When unveiling their Brook Park idea, the Browns set the total cost at $2.4 billion, and around $1.2 billion of that would be covered by private funding. That leaves municipalities with a sizable bill.
Officials in Cuyahoga County, of which Brook Park is a part, said in August they preferred keeping the Browns in Cleveland and wouldn’t commit county money to the Brook Park venture. Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens expressed his own reservations about putting state money toward the cause.
For state officials such as Stephens, there’s also the fact the Cincinnati Bengals are looking to renovate Paycor Stadium. Were Ohio to commit public funds to the Browns, they’d pretty much have to do the same for the Bengals as well.The Browns’ current lease expires in 2028, so their exit from Cleveland isn’t imminent even if everything goes according to plan. But there are still plenty of questions to be resolved before the Brook Park stadium becomes a reality.
