Where will the public funds for the stadium come from?
Jimmy and Dee Haslam, the owners of the National Football League Cleveland Browns franchise, want Ohio taxpayers’ money to help fund a Browns stadium-village in Brook Park, which is about 14 miles from Cleveland. 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 get 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 allocated taxpayers’ money for a venue The Haslams have said the project which will include a stadium, retail and residential space and will cost around $2.4 billion to complete, although with the possible trade wars taking place, that price tag will be higher. The Haslams want half of that money from Ohio taxpayers. Ohio politicians may want to help the Haslams by throwing at least $600 million at their proposed project but there is a problem. Where do the state politicians find the money? Maybe it comes from Ohio sports gambling, maybe it comes from another pot of money. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine wants to please the Haslams. Certain state elected politicians want to please the Haslams, the same probably cannot be said about local politicians in the Cleveland area. The Haslams’ stadium lease in Cleveland is up in 2028.
The Haslams’ business is not the only Ohio National Football League business that needs money for a stadium upgrade. In Cincinnati, Mike Brown’s Bengals’ business wants renovations to the business’s present home field and there is something of a deadline hanging over the negotiations between Brown, the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Brown’s stadium lease is done in two seasons. Business leaders and some politicians in Cincinnati are also looking to build an arena to replace the soon-to-be 50-year-old municipal arena. The stadium game continues.
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