Ohio is handing Browns ownership $600 million.
The National Football League’s Cleveland Browns franchise owners, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, are getting money from Ohio taxpayers for their planned Browns football venue in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park. But the Ohio lawmakers who make those decisions are not showing the same type of love for the owners of the National Football League’s Cincinnati Bengals franchise. There is no money available that would go into the planned renovation of the Bengals’ football facility. The Bengals ownership wanted $350 million for the stadium renovation project. The Haslams lobbied lawmakers while Bengals’ ownership did not try to woo state elected officials until it was too late in the budget process. The lawyers who write the bills also threw in a nasty little curve ball at the Bengals ownership.
The budget bill limits outsized state investments in pro sports to a “transformational major sports facility mixed-use project” in a county with at least one million people. Cuyahoga County in the Cleveland area has the sufficient population while Hamilton County in the Cincinnato market does not. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine told Cincinnati radio station WCPO that he is reluctant to have the state pay for the Cincinnati stadium renovations, adding that the money could be better spent elsewhere. The Bengals ownership lease with local entities that own the stadium ends in 2026. The Haslams want to build a Browns stadium-village in Brook Park, which is about 14 miles from Cleveland. The Haslams’ Cleveland stadium deal ends in 2028 The Haslams purchased a 176-acre parcel in Brook Park that could easily house a stadium-village. The stadium would have a dome and could host a Super Bowl or a Men’s College Basketball Final Four weekend, events that are now given to areas as a reward to politicians who allocate taxpayers’ money for a venue.
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