Dawgs By Nature
Team officials announce they will focus their stadium efforts on a dome in Brook Park.
The Cleveland Browns made the inevitable official on Thursday.
The club is pulling up stakes and leaving downtown Cleveland to play in a domed stadium in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park.
The announcement ends months of speculation over whether the Browns would work out a deal with the Cleveland officials to renovate Huntington Bank Field, the team’s home since 1999, or depart for 176 acres near Cleveland Hopkins Airport that can accommodate not only a domed stadium, but also a “lifestyle and entertainment district with retail, residential space, and hotels.
There has been speculation in recent days that the Browns were planning to announce their intentions but were waiting for the right time to do so. That time arrived earlier in the day when Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb let the cat out of the bag by releasing a statement saying the team was leaving in a decision he called “frustrating and profoundly disheartening”:
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. Their decision comes 48 hours after the Cavs and Cleveland Clinic broke ground on a project which brings the Cavs practice facility back into Cleveland, 24 hours after the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded $60 million dollars to advance our lakefront plans, and just before a historic weekend of rock and roll and playoff baseball in downtown Cleveland.
We can see and feel that our downtown is thriving, our vision for redeveloping the lakefront is becoming reality, and more and more businesses are choosing to invest in our city. The Haslams’ choice to move the team away from this progress is frustrating and profoundly disheartening.
As mayor, I will always prioritize the needs of our residents and businesses. The Haslam Sports Group may want a roof over their heads, but my responsibility is to ensure that Cleveland residents have a roof over theirs.
As such, I am deeply disappointed that, despite our exhaustive efforts, the Haslam Sports Group is choosing to pursue a move to Brook Park. This is a deliberate choice—one driven by a desire to maximize profits rather than positive impact. 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. Unfortunately, that was not enough.
Bibb went on to say that the decision will “damage the city, county and region in a multitude of ways,” including harming downtown businesses, undermining public investments, negatively impacting recovery efforts in downtown, and exposing state taxpayers without a clear return on investment.
The Browns followed up with a statement from owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam reiterating that while their initial desire was to find a way to renovate the...
