What will happen to Cleveland Browns Stadium?

Justin Dennis
·2 min read
4

CLEVELAND (WJW) — An ordinance set to go before Cleveland city councilmembers on Monday will address “the future of the municipally owned, taxpayer-funded” Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Amid reports that team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam are considering moving the team out of downtown Cleveland, Ward 16 councilperson Brian Kazy said he plans to introduce a measure requiring them to go before council to ask to move the team, or to give six months notice of their intent to leave and offer the team up for sale locally.

Here’s where the Browns’ owners may move the team

The measure invokes Ohio Revised Code Section 9.67:

No owner of a professional sports team that uses a tax-supported facility for most of its home games and receives financial assistance from the state or a political subdivision thereof shall cease playing most of its home games at the facility and begin playing most of its home games elsewhere unless the owner either:

(A) Enters into an agreement with the political subdivision permitting the team to play most of its home games elsewhere;

(B) Gives the political subdivision in which the facility is located not less than six months’ advance notice of the owner’s intention to cease playing most of its home games at the facility and, during the six months after such notice, gives the political subdivision or any individual or group of individuals who reside in the area the opportunity to purchase the team.

Ohio Revised Code Section 9.67

The statute became law in June 1996, a year after former Browns owner Art Modell announced the city’s football team would move to Baltimore. It was also used in 2018 to keep the Columbus Crew soccer team in that city, Kazy said Monday.

“What this basically does … is ensures that the Cleveland Browns have to go through the legal process of leaving the city of Cleveland,” he said. “They have to go before the city, Cleveland City Council, ask for permission to move the team, or they have to give us six months notice and offer to put the team up for sale.

“We’re hoping that the latter does not happen. However, this is going to ensure that the Cleveland Browns are going to be a part of the legislative process and that Cleveland City Council’s going to have a say-so in that.”

How fans are reacting to potential Browns stadium move

The Haslams are now considering whether to renovate the 25-year-old Cleveland Browns Stadium or build new, moving the team to a new domed stadium that could be built in Brook Park, they said in an interview last week with ESPN Cleveland.

Kazy, in a Monday news release, said he’s “committed to keeping the public informed about the stadium” and that he “recognizes the importance of transparency and public engagement in shaping the future of our city and our professional sports teams.”

The Haslams’ lease on the stadium expires in 2028, but they suggested that could be extended as development plans take shape.

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