CLEVELAND — During his second State of the City address since becoming mayor, Justin Bibb spoke about his vision for a revitalized Cleveland Lakefront, which included some of his most detailed comments to date about the future of Cleveland Browns Stadium.
According to Bibb, the city is in talks with Browns ownership. There have also been internal discussions about possible renovations at the stadium.
The mayor was asked about how much public funding could be used for stadium renovations.
"My vision right now is making sure we finally, over the last hundred years, finally see real inclusive development on the lakefront. And while we begin early conversations with the Haslams about the stadium, for me, it's simple," Bibb said. "Number one, we want to be creative with how we address this issue because I'm no longer going to risk general new fund dollars for maintenance of a privately owned football franchise. So we've 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."
Bibb announced earlier this week he proposed using $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to invest in the lakefront. The proposal would increase investments in the lakefront near Beulah Park and Euclid Beach, as well as improvements to the Cuyahoga riverfront to add more infrastructure.
The mayor wants to create a Waterfront Development Authority to ensure the city will use the land properly.
"Right now, we have the ability to unleash billions of dollars of private investment and make our waterways even more accessible to everyone, which will help improve the quality of life for all Clevelanders. This will unlock growth, business development, tourism and innovation for the city and region," he said.
Who will pay for renovations?
In March, News 5 reported that Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin believes the talks needed to start this year because the FirstEnergy Stadium lease between the city and the Browns expires in 2028.
RELATED: Cleveland Browns confirm starting internal discussions on stadium renovations
“The time is now to start having these conversations," Griffin said. “We really need to make sure that the public understands why this investment is possibly needed. I think the more that we spend time on the front end educating the public on whether or not this is a good return on their investment it will go a long way.”
Griffin said it's too early to discuss how Northeast Ohio taxpayers would help pay for stadium improvements.
“I believe there’s going to have to be a lot of creativity, we’re going to have to have a lot of conversations with our adjoining counties as well as Cuyahoga County council and the county executive," Griffin said. “Everybody, the county and quite frankly the region and the state all need to look at what does this asset mean for our region.”
Griffin believes a stadium renovation or a new facility will yield city benefits, and would not take away from needed improvements in many Cleveland neighborhoods.
“I want to change that narrative, downtown represents about 50% of our economy, so when we bring in those kinds of investments we actually create more income taxpayers, we actually have more admissions tax, we have other things like the bed tax and hotel tax,” Griffin said.
However, Ward 8 Cleveland Councilman Michael Polensek was less enthusiastic about the internal discussions about a stadium renovation. Polensek was one of nine "No votes" for the 1996 funding package that helped to build the current Browns stadium at a cost of more than $280 million dollar, 75% of which was publicly funded.
“We’ve paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to support the Browns stadium and at the end of the day what did we wind up with, number one in poverty, number one in childhood poverty, 4,000 abandoned houses in the city," Polensek said. “I was here, I heard the promises, and they weren’t delivered upon and I wish I could stand here and say I was wrong, but I wasn’t wrong and I’m glad I was one of the nine that voted against it.”
Back to 'Cleveland Browns Stadium'
Renovation funding is not the only question hanging over the stadium. Last week, The Cleveland Browns and FirstEnergy announced that they are ending their stadium naming rights agreement, which will return the Browns home stadium to its former name, Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Although neither the Browns nor First Energy specifically detailed the reason for the split, the end of the naming rights deal comes about a month after former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was convicted of racketeering charges stemming from bribes that he received from FirstEnergy. The bribes were paid to Householder in exchange for the now-disgraced house speaker pushing through a taxpayer-funded bailout of the utility's nuclear power plants.
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