CLEVELAND, Ohio — The long-running standoff between the city of Cleveland and Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam is officially over.
Mayor Justin Bibb and the Haslams jointly announced Monday afternoon an agreement that clears the way for a new $2.4 billion stadium in Brook Park — and ends months of legal and political wrangling over the team’s plan to leave the downtown lakefront.
“I went over to Jimmy’s house on Friday,” Bibb said. “We had two Cokes and struck a deal.”
A city spokesperson said the final settlement will have to be approved by Cleveland City Council, where legislators initially told cleveland.com they were “disappointed” with the final deal.
Under the agreement, the Haslams will move forward with a covered stadium near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. In return, they’ve agreed to give the city $100 million to help demolish the current lakefront stadium, prepare the site for future development and fund other city projects. The demolition is expected to cost about $30 million.
The Haslams will pay the city $25 million by Dec. 1, followed by annual payments of $5 million from 2029 through 2033, after the stadium lease ends, Bibb said. Starting in 2034, the city will receive $2 million a year for 10 years for what Bibb described as “mutually agreed community benefits” — suggesting the Haslams will have a say in how the money is spent.
The city and the Haslams will also collaborate on a new road network designed to serve both the Brook Park stadium and the nearby airport.
“It’s not in our interest to have a bad traffic situation,” Haslam said.
As part of the settlement, Cleveland will drop all pending litigation against the team and its ownership, including its objections to the stadium’s height and its proximity to airport flight paths.
The deal closes the books on a complex legal fight that stretched across both state and federal courts. The Browns sued the city and the state of Ohio late last year in federal court, arguing that the Modell Law — a statute enacted after Art Modell moved the original Browns to Baltimore — was unconstitutional. The law required tax-supported professional sports teams to give their host cities a chance to buy the franchise before moving.
City attorneys and the Ohio attorney general’s office had asked a federal judge last month to dismiss the Browns’ suit. The attorney general argued the case was moot because the state legislature had since rewritten the Modell Law to apply only to teams moving out of Ohio — a change included in the same state budget bill that earmarked $600 million in public funding for the new stadium. Cleveland’s lawyers, meanwhile, maintained that the law was never unconstitutional and that the team’s dispute belonged in state court, not federal court.
The city also had filed its own lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, arguing that the Browns violated their lease at the lakefront stadium and that the old version of the Modell Law still applied because taxpayers had invested more than $500 million in the facility. And the city filed notice in court earlier this month, announcing its plans to appeal the state’s approval for the stadium height of 221 feet near the airport.
Monday’s agreement, if approved by council, effectively ends these cases.
Council President Blaine Griffin told cleveland.com he was “disappointed” by the deal, saying he learned of it only about 15 minutes before Bibb’s news conference. Afterward, council members and their staff were still scrambling in their offices to find out the details.
Griffin said Cleveland has sacrificed a lot to host the Browns, and he’s not sure taxpayers are getting a good return on their investment. He said council members will push the mayor and Law Director Mark Griffin to see if Cleveland can get a better deal.
Griffin said council attorneys will also determine whether Bibb made his best effort to enforce the Modell Law, noting that council passed legislation requiring the mayor to do so.
The council president said he is waiting for more details before he takes a strong position.
Councilman Mike Polensek, however, is not. Polensek said Cleveland invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the Browns and the lakefront stadium, while the city has struggled with high poverty rates and population loss.
“We had tremendous leverage” Polensek said. “I just don’t understand why we settled for so little.”
Bibb cast the agreement as good for city taxpayers. He also thanked council for pushing him to make sure Cleveland wasn’t left empty-handed.
“As we write this new chapter, I know we all have fond memories of the stadium being downtown on our lakefront,” Bibb said. “But today starts a new chapter where we’re going to have a world-class lakefront that we can use every single day of the year.”
The city earlier this year issued a request for developers to dream up the best use of the lakefront property and get to work on formulating plans.
Bibb didn’t directly explain how the city’s earlier concerns about the stadium’s height and its potential impact on air traffic would be resolved under the settlement.
“We’ll continue to work with the Browns, HSG (Haslam Sports Group), the FAA and our leadership team at the airport to ensure that not only will we have the best-in-class dome stadium in Brook Park, but that our nearly $2 billion modernization on the airport won’t be in jeopardy.”
The Haslams have pitched the new stadium as a year-round entertainment destination and centerpiece of a larger redevelopment effort that is to include $1 billion worth of hotels, retail, restaurants and housing.
“When we embarked on the journey to Brook Park, or really just to build a new stadium or enhance our current stadium, we said we had two goals in mind,” Jimmy Haslam said. “One was to take care of our fans, and the second one was to do what was best for Northeast Ohio. And we think we fulfilled those goals.”
The stadium will be demolished at the end of the Browns’ lease following the 2028 football season, and the Browns will prepare the lakefront land for redevelopment. The Browns’ goal is to begin play in the new stadium at the start of the 2029 football season.
The team plans to break ground early next year.
The team’s financing plan includes $600 million committed by the state of Ohio, and a proposal being worked out with Brook Park covering $300 million through site-generated taxes – mostly admissions taxes. The team has committed to spending $1.5 billion, plus cover any cost overruns. County Executive Chris Ronayne previously rejected help sought from the club.
Haslam said the private financing has been lined up “in the event there is no more public money.”
“We’re betting big on Northeast Ohio,” Haslam said.
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