CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns are going public with their request for the state to issue $600 million in bonds to help pay for a new enclosed stadium in Brook Park.
The team’s general counsel is scheduled to testify about the project in front of an Ohio House committee late Tuesday afternoon. A presentation and written testimony submitted to that committee include new details about the Brook Park plans and the team’s approach.
From those documents, it’s clear that Haslam Sports Group isn’t buying into Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposal to double the tax rate on sports-gaming companies to gradually fund major investments in professional athletic facilities.
Instead, the owners of the Browns are still urging the state to issue bonds tied to tax revenues from a new 176-acre suburban sports and entertainment district.
They’re asking the General Assembly to change a law that caps the state’s contribution to stadiums and other sports venues at 15% of total construction costs. And in return for an unprecedented amount of public support, the Browns are offering to put some cash in the bank at the start – a cushion that can be used to cover debt payments if the team’s financial projections don’t pan out.
The dollar amount of that potential up-front payment isn’t included in written testimony submitted to the House Arts, Athletics and Tourism Committee by Ted Tywang, Haslam Sports Group’s chief administrative officer and general counsel.
But a spreadsheet included in his presentation shows that it would be $38 million, a payment the Browns are describing as pre-paid rent.
“This unique up-front payment structure would further hedge state risk and would be the most conservative state funding construct of any major sports-related development in the country,” Tywang wrote. “Our proposed funding construct is also a replicable model for Ohio that could be utilized by other professional sports teams in the state who are planning to invest at least $1 billion in private capital in a facility and related development plan and are not asking for existing state revenue sources.”
The Browns say a new suburban stadium would cost $2.4 billion. They’re looking to split that price evenly with taxpayers, with $600 million from local sources and $600 million from the state. The team says it would cover any cost overruns on the project.
Separately, Haslam Sports Group is proposing approximately $1 billion worth of private development around the stadium, including hotels, apartments, offices and retail.
A site plan submitted with Tywang’s testimony offers an overview of the project, which also would include 12,000 to 14,000 surface parking spaces. The property, off Snow Road near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, is a former automotive plant site that’s been cleared and cleaned up by a group of industrial real estate developers has cleared and cleaned up.
The Browns want various government entities to issue bonds to help finance stadium construction. That debt would be paid off over 25 years using some of the tax revenues from the broader development, from parking taxes to admissions taxes to state and local income taxes.
Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam outlined the broad strokes of their proposal last month, during a meeting with reporters at the team’s headquarters in Berea. Now they’re pushing to get buy-in from public officials before the state’s biennial budget gets finalized in late June.
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Tuesday’s committee hearing will be the first chance for a public back-and-forth about the project with lawmakers, after months of behind-the-scenes lobbying by the Browns.
“We do not take lightly the magnitude of the $600 million we are requesting from the state towards the stadium’s construction,” Tywang wrote in his submitted testimony, “but it is important to emphasize the context and judicious nature of our ask. Unlike investments of other states in recent NFL stadium projects around the country, this is not a grant request.”
At the local level, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne has balked at the team’s proposal, saying the risk to taxpayers is too high and the Browns’ math is overly optimistic. For months, he’s been urging the Haslams to recommit to Downtown Cleveland, where the team’s lease on city-owned Huntington Bank Field ends after the 2028 NFL season.
Officials in Brook Park, meanwhile, are sorting through the numbers with their lawyers. Mayor Edward Orcutt has told News 5 the project could bring new businesses and residents to the suburb of about 18,000 people. But he wants to make sure the benefits outweigh the costs.
RELATED: Brook Park mayor all in on Browns stadium as long as it's a financial win for the city
The Browns are on a tight timeline, with the goal of opening the new stadium and a first wave of mixed-use development in time for the 2029 football season. They need to close on the land purchase and start construction in early 2026.
“The opportunity here is real, and the stakes are high,” Tywang wrote in his testimony to state legislators. “Michigan, Indiana and Minnesota have all created world-class dome venues that have catalyzed enormous economic activity in those states, activity that we can bring to Ohio.”
The House committee hearing is scheduled to start at 4:15 p.m.
