CLEVELAND — As state legislators debate make-or-break funding for a new suburban Cleveland Browns stadium, Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne are pleading with Columbus to help them keep the Browns Downtown.
In a joint letter to members of the Ohio Senate this week, they asked lawmakers to help pay for a renovation of Huntington Bank Field instead of ground-up construction of an enclosed stadium in Brook Park.
“The lakefront stadium transformation plan is a far more reasonable and responsible one for Ohio taxpayers,” Bibb and Ronayne wrote.
The county released the letter Thursday, one day after Cleveland Scene published a leaked rendering of what a reimagined Downtown stadium could look like. The Browns later provided that image to News 5 and other media outlets, along with a statement casting the renovation proposal as old news – a concept they sidelined a while ago.
RELATED: After leak, Browns release image of shelved lakefront stadium renovation plans
The rendering shows a glassy exoskeleton expanding the stadium, with revamped public spaces outside. It reflects the city’s vision of turning the Shoreway into a boulevard and building a land bridge between the lakefront and the heart of Downtown. A spur off that land bridge leads directly into the stadium, on the eastern, Dawg Pound side.
“It’s nice that somehow one image found its way to the public’s eyes,” Ronayne said during an interview Thursday. “But in truth and transparency, they ought to show all their plans. We’ve seen them. It’s a handsome plan for the lakefront transformation.”
Team owner Haslam Sports Group quietly showed more detailed renovation plans to civic and business leaders last year, contrasting them with renderings and a video of the Brook Park proposal. But until this week, after the leak, the team hadn’t released any of the lakefront images to the public. Since late summer, they’ve been focused on Brook Park.
“We haven’t had substantive renovation discussions in months and have never been presented with a viable funding plan for a renovation from Cuyahoga County or the city of Cleveland to pair with our private investment,” Dave Jenkins, Haslam Sports Group’s chief operating officer, wrote in a statement Wednesday.
“We are confident that an enclosed stadium and mixed-use development in Brook Park utilized year-round is the only reasonable long-term solution for our organization and the region,” Jenkins added.
But in their letter to lawmakers, Bibb and Ronayne said there is a viable plan to keep the Browns in the central business district. They’re asking the state to kick in $350 million for $1.2 billion in renovations. They said Cleveland and Cuyahoga County will chip in, too.
The Browns want the public to cover half the cost of any project.
The city made a financial proposal to the Browns last year, offering a mix of up-front cash and subsidies that would trickle in over time. On Thursday, Ronayne wouldn’t go into details about what the county’s putting on the table.
“We do have a plan, but it involves three sports teams,” he said. “It’s not just the Cleveland Browns. It’s also the Guardians and the Cavs. We want to bring together a full Downtown package that sustains our Downtown future.”
The Browns, meanwhile, are trying to get public buy-in for the $2.4 billion suburban stadium, with hopes of breaking ground early next year and moving in time for the start of the 2029 NFL season. They’re asking taxpayers to cover $1.2 billion of the tab.
That money would come from government-issued bonds – debt that state and local governments would pay back, with interest, largely using tax revenues from a broader 176-acre Brook Park stadium district. Haslam Sports Group’s plans call for hotels, apartments, offices, restaurants, entertainment and thousands of parking spaces around the stadium.
RELATED: Browns reveal more details about Brook Park plans in a pitch to state lawmakers
The Ohio House agreed to put $600 million worth of bonds for the Brook Park project in its version of the state budget bill. The Senate is working on its version of the budget now, with the goal of passing a bill by mid-June. Then the chambers will work out any differences between their versions before sending the budget to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature.
The deadline for signing the budget is June 30.
“Local voices should matter in this conversation,” Ronayne said. “This … should not be decided from on high, from the state of Ohio.”
He believes the Browns can find a win on the lakefront, where construction on the land bridge and Shoreway revamp are scheduled to start in 2027, fueled by $150 million in federal and state grants. That infrastructure is a linchpin for the city’s vision of opening up barren waterfront land for redevelopment.
Haslam Sports Group, which endorsed the idea of the land bridge in 2021, now says the lakefront will be better off without a stadium. Ronayne disagrees, saying a stadium redo will speed up progress on lakefront development – and prevent a blow to downtown hotels, restaurants and bars.
In their letter, he and Bibb urged state lawmakers to look closely at Haslam Sports Group’s complete renovation plans. They also pointed to recent analyses from state agencies that raised red flags about the Brook Park proposal and called the Browns' financial projections "overly optimistic." The team has pushed back on those reports, saying they contain inaccuracies.
RELATED: State agencies flag Browns' stadium plans; Browns say analysis contains misinformation
The city declined an interview request Thursday but sent an emailed statement, saying the lakefront plan shown in the team’s early renderings would offer “an incredible fan experience” for half the cost of the Brook Park proposal.
“It’s a doable proposition,” Ronayne said. “We could renovate this thing. We could do it in a way that is really dramatic.”
And he didn’t rule out the prospect, down the road, of adding a roof to the open-air stadium. The Browns have said that would be too costly – and impossible as long as nearby Burke Lakefront Airport stays open, because of height restrictions.
The Bibb administration believes it’s feasible to close Burke but hasn’t announced a firm plan to do that yet. That process could take up to a decade, since it will require working with Congress or reaching an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration.
RELATED: 'Can we close Burke? We think we can.' Cleveland makes case for airport shutdown
“Haslam Sports Group has said to us in meetings that they are entertaining the possibility of dome infrastructure, which is to say, to retrofit a dome to the structure,” Ronayne said.
He argues that all of these discussions – and plans – shouldn’t be so closely held.
“We ought to have that conversation in public,” he said. “I shouldn’t be the only one to hear that. I want the public to hear that. That’s why I’m saying it to you.”
