According to NEOtrans blog, the Cleveland Browns and city of Cleveland will make major announcements next week regarding the future of Cleveland Browns Stadium.
CLEVELAND — For the better part of the past year, there has been no shortage of speculation regarding the future of the Cleveland Browns‘ home stadium.
It now appears that an answer is in sight.
On Monday, NEOtrans blog’s Ken Prendergast reported that the Browns, as well as city officials including Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, are set to announce major plans for the team’s facilities, including the recently renamed Cleveland Browns Stadium, and the surrounding downtown area. Those plans include a “rebuilding” of the stadium at its current location, as opposed to the building of a new stadium at a new site.
In addition to the upgraded stadium, Prendergast reports that the team and city will be announcing major renovations to the Browns’ CrossCountry Mortgage Campus team facility in Berea, as well as a relocated Shoreway. Per Prendergast, the announcements could come as soon as next week and “will be about changes intended to activate the downtown lakefront by the end of this decade in ways it hasn’t been since the 1930s and to create a year-round fan-friendly village around the team’s suburban headquarters and practice facility, according to two sources familiar with the developments.”
While Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who have owned the Browns since 2012, reportedly favored building a new stadium altogether, Prendergast reports that a rise in construction costs and a lack of political support left them at an impasse. Speaking at the NFL Owners Meetings last month, the Haslams said their focus remained on renovating the team’s current stadium rather than building a new one.
“Cleveland would benefit tremendously from the development of the waterfront,” Jimmy Haslam told reporters, according to The Akron Beacon Journal. “Having the stadium down there seems to be in everybody’s best interest. So we’re committed to redoing the stadium. In all likelihood, it’s not going to have a dome, but it’ll be a substantial remodel of the existing facility and we’re probably 3, 4, 5 years away from that happening.”
As for the potential timeline of all this, Prendergast reports that the rebuilding of Cleveland Browns Stadium could begin as early as 2026 and would require the team to play elsewhere for multiple seasons. Where that might be remains unclear, but Prendergast called Columbus “a likely location” considering the Haslam family’s presence as the owners of the MLS’ Columbus Crew.
Costs to rebuild the stadium are expected to exceed $1 billion. While it isn’t believed that a roof is expected to be a part of the upgrades, sources tell Prendergast that the rebuilt stadium “won’t look anything like it does now.”