CLEVELAND — The City of Cleveland ended months of speculation about where the Cleveland Browns will play in the future, announcing that the franchise has made the decision to leave Downtown Cleveland, the team’s home since 1946. Browns ownership informed Mayor Justin Bibb of the decision last night.
The city held a news conference Thursday afternoon to announce the team's departure. You can watch the full news conference below:
Bibb expressed frustration with the Haslams as he broke the news to the city.
“We can see and feel that our Downtown is thriving. Our vision of redeveloping the lakefront is becoming a reality. And more and more businesses are choosing to invest in our great city," Bibb said. "The Haslams' choice to move the team away from this progress is frustrating and profoundly disheartening.”
While Bibb made the announcement, owner Jimmy Haslam attended practice, where he was seen checking his phone.
Bibb said he is willing to return to the table if the Haslams' deal in Brook Park falls apart.
"If the Browns don't see a viable path to ink the deal in Brook Park we stand ready with open arms to find a way to get the deal done in Cleveland—but in a competitive and responsible way for our residents and taxpayers," said Bibb.
Bibb said the city's offer — a 50/50 split — was fiscally responsible yet aggressive, larger than any other financial package for a sports facility in Cleveland, to renovate the existing stadium.
Bibb then revealed that when the Haslams declined a renovation option, the city also offered options for a new domed stadium plus some adjacent development in a deal that would have granted a portion of Burke Lakefront Airport to the team. Bibb said the alternate deal fell through because the Haslams asked for too much public money upfront.
"I am deeply, deeply disappointed that the Haslam Sports Group has chosen to pursue a move to Brook Park," Bibb said.
The mayor said the Browns did not express a desire for a new domed stadium when they began meeting in 2022, and the team's desire for the type of dome the team is pursuing in Brook Park was a surprise.
When asked about the possibility of the Browns using "sin tax" money in Brook Park, Bibb said it belongs in the City of Cleveland, a belief shared by County Executive Chris Ronayne.
As for whether the city will invoke the Modell Law, which requires Ohio team owners to seek permission to move, the mayor said that's a question for city council.
What the Haslams had to say
Dee and Jimmy Haslam said stadium planning started in 2017 and initially focused on renovating the current stadium. However, as time passed, it changed to the possibility of building a new stadium at an alternative location.
Read their full statement below:
“Our stadium planning process started in 2017 and as Mayor 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 ten 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 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.”
Officials react to the move
Destination Cleveland’s president and CEO, David Gilbert, made the following statement about the team's departure from Downtown to the suburbs:
“Destination Cleveland promotes Greater Cleveland as a place to visit; that means our job is to help attract people to Cleveland for Browns games – no matter where the stadium is located.”
Cleveland Ward 16 Councilman Brian Kazy wasn't pleased with the announcement, issuing the following statement:
"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."
The Cuyahoga County Executive’s Office said, “Executive Ronayne has made his position clear: the Browns stadium should remain Downtown. Today he is focused on the business of Cuyahoga County and cheering for a Guardians win tonight.”
Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), who represents the entire Downtown area, said, "I'm not ready for the Brook Park Browns, nor should anyone else be."
Gov. Mike DeWine's Office said it was "monitoring the developments in Cleveland and Brook Park," but didn't have a new comment regarding the move.
Downtown Cleveland President and CEO Michael Deemer said, "While we are disappointed to hear of the Cleveland Browns' decision to relocate to Brook Park, Downtown Cleveland, Inc. remains committed to the continued growth and development of our city center. This departure presents both challenges and opportunities, and we are not the first city to find ourselves in this position. The future is yet to be determined. We will continue to work closely with Mayor Justin Bibb, the City of Cleveland, local businesses, and community leaders to transform downtown into a vibrant 18-hour, 15-minute neighborhood that seamlessly connects and integrates surrounding districts.”
Scott Skinner, the executive director of the North Coast Waterfront Development Corp., said the agency's goal is to continue to turn the city's lakefront into a "world-class destination," and the Browns move hasn't changed that goal. Read his full statement below:
"The North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation's goal is to develop Cleveland's lakefront into a world class destination that provides equitable access to our lakefront for Clevelanders in every neighborhood while catalyzing economic development in our region. This goal does not change, and is equally important, regardless of whether there is a stadium on the downtown lakefront.
We understand the Haslam Sports Group's decision to focus their new stadium development efforts elsewhere, and their decision to move to Brook Park at the end of the 2028 season.
The City of Cleveland, as well as the greater region, deserve a world class and connected waterfront. The NCWDC and Bibb administration are determined to achieve that goal - our work is not slowing down.The North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation - along with all of our partners in the public, private, and civic sector - will continue to advance our work to transform Cleveland's lakefront. While our lakefront is already home to world class destinations, there is more that needs to be done to unlock our regional potential.
We are excited for what is to come and look forward to sharing some significant updates on our progress over the next few months."
Fans react
Some fans were for the move, others weren't pleased.
“It’s actually a pain to get to the stadium in town,” fan Tom Schrader said. “You can’t park anywhere. It’s hard to get in and out. Hopefully, it will be a little less congested near the airport.”
“It’s taking away from the fact that when you come to Cleveland, you think of the Cleveland Browns, not the Brook Park Browns,” said fan Ruth Bubba of Warren. “The whole idea of coming to a game in Northeastern Ohio is the fact you know you’re going to be sitting in crappy weather. It’s called a home field advantage, not a domed field advantage.”
How we got here
Talks about the future of the stadium – stay or go, renovate or build new – have been taking place behind closed doors for months.
In early August, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb released a letter outlining his proposal to help finance a makeover of the city-owned stadium near Lake Erie.
RELATED: City of Cleveland pitches $461 million deal to keep Browns stadium on lakefront
Days later, Cuyahoga County’s top two officials said they were not willing to invest in a proposal to build a new stadium in the suburbs.
They wanted the Browns to recommit to Downtown, where a revamped stadium could anchor lakefront development.
But the team has been leaning in the direction of a dome for months.
In August, the Browns sent out renderings and a video of their Brook Park proposal, along with a letter making the case for new construction to season ticket holders.
RELATED: Cleveland Browns release first renderings, details of Brook Park stadium proposal
The Browns and Haslam Sports Group haven’t said much publicly about the details of their financing plans. But they’re focused on using future tax dollars – revenues created by the new stadium and surrounding development in Brook Park – to help pay for construction.
