CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The political posturing over the future of Cleveland Browns Stadium is underway.
Speaking Wednesday night at the State of the City address, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb was asked by a resident about the Browns desire for a new or renovated stadium during the post speech question and answer session.
"My vision right now is making sure we finally, over the last a hundred years, finally see real inclusive development on the lakefront and while we begin early conversations with the Haslams about the stadium," Bibb said. "For me it's simple. Number one, we want to be creative with how we address this issue because I'm no longer going to risk general revenue fund dollars for maintenance of a privately owned football franchise.
"So we got to be creative. We got to think differently about financing, but I think it's important that we think differently about how this fits into a larger piece of making us have one of the best lakefronts in the world. And that's my vision to get done as mayor."
In June 2022, Cleveland city council approved over $10.5 million, including $500,000 for the stadium audit required every five years as part of the lease agreement, for emergency capital repairs for the city owned stadium which are being completed this year.
The Haslam Sports Group, which owns and operates the Browns, put forth a vision for lakefront development in May 2021, including architectural renderings of what that could look like. Their proposal included the construction of office towers, residential and public spaces as well as a land bridge to connect the mall downtown to the lakefront over State Route 2.
There are really four components to lakefront development – the land bridge; Route 2; office, residential and retail development as well as the stadium which will involve city, county state and potentially federal government grants and funds.
Earlier this week, the Ohio legislature includes $62 million in state funding towards the land bridge project in an omnibus spending amendment attached to the state budget which requires passage in the house and senate before landing on Governor Mike DeWine's desk for signature.
Although it has been rumored the Haslams desire a brand-new stadium to replace the existing one that opened in 1999, ownership has been lobbying hard at the local and state level for lakefront development in and around the current stadium as well as for funds to overhaul the existing building.
Cost of the stadium project is a major factor.
A new open-air stadium is expected to exceed $2 billion and a dome stadium could easily top $3 billion whereas renovating Cleveland Browns Stadium would likely come in at around $1 billion.
While conversations between Bibb, the city and the Haslams continue behind closed doors, the public political posturing is now underway.
