The owners of the Cleveland Browns says the team is proceeding with the domed stadium development they want to build in Brook Park, with $600 million in bonds approved by Republicans in the state budget and without Cuyahoga County on board. But the county executive is firing back.
Haslam Sports Group Chief Operating Officer Dave Jenkins tells Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne in a letter that Ronayne has been sharing "misleading information" about the project. He lists 10 points that the team has brought up before about the project and the county's economy. Jenkins writes that it’s "disheartening" that Ronayne is actively working against the bond package in the budget and “these are the types of inexplicable decisions that keep the Greater Cleveland region from thriving”. Jenkins says the team will no longer rely on the county’s participation to build the domed stadium project.
The letter refers to "the many additional events in Brook Park". But a memo from the Ohio Office of Budget and Management critical of the domed stadium development said "the number of events presumed greatly exceeds the number of events held in other existing domes in Detroit, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis". And the letter states the Brook Park stadium "will be additive to, rather than destructive of, downtown". That was disputed in an analysis from the Legislative Service Commission, which noted the Haslam Sports Group's consultant projected a $10 million loss in tax revenue to Cleveland.
Ronayne said in response to the letter that the team has made "unrealistic assumptions" about its project and that his office has come to the conclusions arrived at in the analyses from LSC and OBM: "the request for $600 million in bonds from the State of Ohio and $600 million in bonds from Cuyahoga County will create an unacceptable amount of risk for taxpayers in Cuyahoga County and in Ohio."
Ronayne's statement continued: "We urge state lawmakers to consider the public and private investments throughout Northeast Ohio that stand to be negatively impacted by a stadium and entertainment district in Brook Park built with an unprecedented level of public subsidy. Instead, we ask them to invest in our existing assets on the lakefront and help us leverage them for the continued growth and success in our region."
Ronayne has asked for $350 million for that, but House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) has said that won’t happen.
Huffman said he answered Ronayne's request with "the same answer that I gave the Browns two years ago when I was president of the Senate is I'm not in favor of just here's some cash, and we hope it works out. And so, you know, so the Browns come up with a plan that holds taxpayers harmless. I think they've done that. And more importantly, I think the state is going to make money off of the deal."
