Cleveland Browns reportedly want new $1 billion stadium, likely publicly funded

[Auggie]

cleveland.com/6-20-2022

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Browns are apparently eyeing a new $1 billion stadium – likely to come at significant taxpayer expense – as part of a costly lakefront redevelopment plan, at a time when the team is already mired in multimillion-dollar controversies.

NEOtrans real estate blogger Ken Prendergast reported the news in a post Friday, writing that unnamed sources close to team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam told him they want a covered stadium that could cost over $1 billion and are even open to moving the city-owned stadium to a new location near downtown to get it. And so far, the Browns have not denied it.

In a recent interview, Peter John-Baptiste, senior vice president of communications for the Browns and Haslam Sports Group, told Prendergast that he was “a little too far out in front of the story” and would not comment on specifics.

Reached by phone Sunday, John-Baptiste declined to respond to the blog post but confirmed that the team is conducting “feasibility studies on what a new stadium could look like.” The results are expected sometime in 2023 and focus “primarily on renovating the current stadium,” he said, but he could not definitively refute whether plans might eventually include rebuilding or moving the arena.

MORE: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/06/cleveland-browns-reportedly-want-new-1-billion-stadium-likely-publicly-funded.html

Story mentions redevelopment efforts of the lakefront area that houses the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- "housing, retail, parking, hospitality and recreation spaces along the harbor" along with a "land bridge linking the area to downtown ..."

Fine. Redevelopment makes sense. But include a new stadium? The current one opened in 1999.