CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne is resigned to seeing the Cleveland Browns leave the lakefront, now that Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Haslam Sports Group have worked out a deal to settle their legal battle over the team's looming move to Brook Park.
"Didn't think this had to happen. Wish it hadn't happened," Ronayne said during an interview on Tuesday.
"But Mayor Justin Bibb made a decision," he added. "He negotiated a deal with Haslam Sports Group. That's a deal we all now live by, and we'll work to make the most of it and mitigate the downside of it."
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But Ronayne won't budge on his opposition to playing a role in funding the new, enclosed stadium.
A quick refresher on that: Haslam Sports Group originally asked the county to issue $600 million in bonds for a new stadium, tied to future tax revenues from the 176-acre Brook Park stadium district, a countywide lodging-tax increase and a proposed fee on rental cars.
Ronayne has consistently rejected that request, saying it’s risky and could hurt the county’s credit rating.
And Haslam Sports Group has repeatedly said it can move forward anyway, with a $600 million grant from the state and an anticipated commitment of $300 million in future stadium-district tax revenues from Brook Park. The rest of the money for the $2.4 billion enclosed stadium would come from private sources.
News 5's Michelle Jarboe sat down with Ronayne to talk about his reaction to the stadium-fight settlement – and what comes next. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michelle Jarboe: The settlement agreement between the city of Cleveland and Haslam Sports Group. When and how did you find out about that?
Chris Ronayne: I got a call from the mayor just before his press conference, about 4 o'clock before his 4:30 press conference.
Jarboe: And what was your reaction?
Ronayne: Well, I told him I was disappointed. Look, this is an era we are now going into without Cleveland Browns football Downtown. That's a lot for Clevelanders to take in. We've been playing football down on the lakefront for 80 years. And you know, from the beginning, I've been fighting for our downtown stakeholders, our restaurants, our bars, our hoteliers, all who've made investments on the promise of a vibrant Downtown. Sports is a big driver in the entertainment economy the Downtown feeds off of nowadays. And we've seen, over and over again, cities take a page out of the Cleveland playbook. A Cleveland playbook that had three major sports facilities within walking distance Downtown. This takes one of those major assets out of the Downtown.
Jarboe: Over the last year, as you've talked about your concerns about this project in Brook Park, you've talked not only as the county executive, but also as a fan. I wonder how you're feeling today, as a fan.
Ronayne: I've said over and over, as a public official, it's bad economic policy to invest in this domed stadium as if it's economic development. It's not. And in this case, it's actually extraction from a base that was downtown. But for me as a fan, for me as a Clevelander, me as a Cleveland resident, yeah, it's a tough day. I mean, I think the energy downtown on any given game day is spectacular. You know, people walking block to block, between bars and restaurants, down to the stadium, people walking from their tailgating in random places that they've picked over the decades and generations. I was down for the Green Bay Packers. Rode my bike, visited many tailgating events. Saw a dad walking with his son – from Green Bay – out to the water. And heard the son say, ‘hey, is that Lake Erie?’ That's something you're probably going to miss.
Jarboe: What do you think about the settlement deal? $100 million over time?
Ronayne: Because of the payout over time, it is probably true that it's less than $100 million in terms of the actual time value of money. You have to back out the amount of money that's going to go for the demolition. And then you look at what else is left. I think there was more we could do. I think that there was more that could be negotiated. We had the ball, you know, and we were running down the field. I think we turned over the ball on this one. My guess is Haslam Sports (Group) thinks they got a pretty good deal out of this. And for the rest of us, I mean, we're going to have to live with the terms of this. But we will do everything we can to support Cleveland with a vibrant waterfront. This new space that will come of the vacated Browns stadium should be an active space. It should be something that brings people to a place. But I think that there's a broader picture. And I have already reached out to the mayor to say, let's work together on the vacation of Burke Lakefront Airport. That will give you an expansive opportunity to do something really dramatic with the lake.
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Jarboe: When did you reach out to the mayor about that?
Ronayne: This morning. I've got a good working relationship with the mayor, and we'll continue to have that. My focus will be to help him with his waterfront initiatives. It will be to help all of our mayors and all of our communities for a functional airport. It will be working with the chamber (of commerce) to appeal to the legislature to bring home not just dollars for infrastructure around the future stadium out in the southwest suburbs, but it will be also about making sure that we don't get shorted infrastructure dollars we need for other community initiatives here in this region. We have 59 communities in Cuyahoga County, and we have 2 million people in a five-county region, and they all have infrastructure needs. This shouldn't be the great sucking sound of the future.
Jarboe: Does this settlement change where you stand on the role Cuyahoga County should – or should not – play, financially, in this project?
Ronayne: No. I have been emboldened by other stories of other regions as it relates to NFL owners. Look at Denver. The ownership group there just said we will self-finance the Denver Broncos’ new facility. This has been us leaning back in, not just on the Browns but to the NFL, and saying our regions have lots of needs. This is a situation where a sports-ownership group has decided to make a move, and we have said to them, if you're going to make that move, pay for that move. Pay for it yourselves.
Jarboe: Do you feel like the pressure on you to consider participating is going to change now that you're kind of the last man standing?
Ronayne: There is always pressure on us to fund this project. I have said, continually, I think it's a fool's errand. Back in May of this year, the (president) of the Cleveland Browns said this project will proceed with or without county support. Good. Jimmy Haslam, yesterday in the press conference, intimated that with their own money, if there isn't further public money, they can privately finance this. So why would we, as public officials, put the precious treasury of the public into a deal that they have said we don't need you for? We have held the line. And I'm proud to say, on behalf of the taxpayers, we've saved you money.
Jarboe: So the fight over the location is over, but you're standing firm on financing.
Ronayne: Yeah. We fought the good fight. And continue to fight the good fight for taxpayers. And I think we'll continue to fight the good fight for the airport and making sure that we can do the best we can to mitigate congestion. We really need the state, ODOT, the legislature and others to step up and help us with Ohio's busiest airport – and making sure that people can get to and from this region who aren't going to a football game and who aren't going to a special event. This is the major intersection of Cleveland's highways at I-480 and I-71, and this happens to be where the stadium is located, right across from the airport. Right now, it looks like a mess, and we're going to have to undo that mess. But again, I didn't make the decision to move them out there. I've opposed the decision to move them out there. I've defended taxpayers against financing this folly, but at the end of the day, the decision has been made, and so we will do our best to mitigate the impacts.
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Jarboe: You've also talked about the fact that the county has a lot of other things on its plate.
Ronayne: I think I'm not the only one to say that football is not the only thing going on in this town. We've got two other major sports teams. Three with the WNBA. We've got lots of needs. We have people who are losing Medicaid benefits. We have kids who are losing supplemental nutrition benefits. We've got a lot of other things to be focused on. We also have some really neat opportunities. This is not the only game in town, even though it's been the dominant narrative out in the media.
Jarboe: This whole stadium drama has revealed some fractures in our public, private and civic landscape. Do you think we can mend those?
Ronayne: I think we ought to all take this as the moment of reckoning that there has been a bit of a tussle in town as it relates to the chamber, the public sector. It's something we should look back on and pull lessons from. But you know, I sleep at night. I feel good about the fact that we've held our ground.
Jarboe: Do you think you'll go to games at a Brook Park stadium?
Ronayne: Don't know, but I certainly have enjoyed the two games I've been at this year Downtown and enjoyed the camaraderie of everybody down there. Another factor is the price of that fan experience. I would hope that the Haslams take a real look around this town and really understand who can even go to a game. And whatever they can do in the future to make it more accessible to Cleveland fans, the better.
Jarboe: What haven't I asked you that you think I should know?
Ronayne: We need to take a broad view of the priorities of this region. And football, a domed stadium, is one very small thing in the macro of what Northeast Ohio can be and should be. So my hope is that, as this decision has been made and this deal has been struck, we begin to pivot our attention toward other things that perhaps have got lost in the discussion that's been dominated by the Cleveland Browns the last two or three years.
