Despite an ongoing legal battle to keep the Browns in Cleveland, Mayor Justin Bibb is asking for ideas for the lakefront without Huntington Bank Field.
The city is seeking proposals from developers for up to 50 acres of publicly owned property, which includes a chunk of land currently occupied by the Browns. In the city-owned stadium's absence, lakefront property available for development would more than double than what's currently available for Bibb’s sweeping multi-billion dollar plan.
As the Haslam Sports Group's $2.4 billion domed stadium plan in Brook Park firms up, now backed by $600 million from the state, Bibb has strongly condemned the move and attempted to block it by invoking a state law.
Early in the fight, Bibb indicated his priority was on developing a lakefront for Clevelanders "with or without" the team.
In a news conference Tuesday, he confirmed it now meant "without."
“The vision will consider developing 50 acres of development on the lakefront without the Cleveland Browns," Bibb said. "I’ll be very crystal clear about that."
How much would it cost to demolish the Browns stadium?
Bibb wants the Browns’ owners to help with demolition costs.
This is not the first time Cleveland has been threatened with an out-of-city move by the Browns. In 1995, then-owner Art Modell announced he was moving the team to Baltimore for the 1996 football season. Al Lerner brought a new team to Cleveland in 1999.
Part of the relocation deal to return included the construction of a new stadium on the site of the Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Demco Inc. won a $2.9 million bid to demolish the stadium and began teardown in the fall of 1996.
That same demolition bid would cost more than $6 million today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator.
But demolition experts say there are many other factors that would make the teardown more costly now.
“Pricing was very stable and predictable before the pandemic. Since the pandemic, everything has gone up,” Albert Robinson, a project manager for the residential and commercial demolition company Cleveland Demolition, told Ideastream last year.
Prices have risen at least 20% since the pandemic due to material and labor costs, as well as unpredictability in the industry, Robinson said. He estimated a 2% to 3% hike in costs every 90 days.
“A lot of people stopped working during the pandemic, so a lot of the workforce [was gone] and they didn’t come back to work, so labor has gone up,” he said.
How have other cities repurposed stadiums?
Bibb's request for proposal also invites developers to dream up a different purpose the Downtown Stadium stadium.
Other cities have done so. The Great American Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee, a 60% scale replica of the Egyptian pyramids that now houses the world’s largest Bass Pro Shop, was once a 20,000-seat arena for the University of Memphis basketball team.
In Houston, Texas, the Summit Arena built for the Rockets was ultimately purchased by televangelist Joel Osteen, who spent $95 million to convert the space into a 16,000-seat worship center.
Closer to home, Columbus City Council is looking to potentially redevelop Cooper Stadium, which has sat abandoned since the Columbus Clippers’ move to Huntington Park, into mixed residential and retail space.
Bibb’s own waterfront plans include mixed residential and retail space on both lake and riverfronts.
What’s next?
The current lease on the city-owned Cleveland Browns stadium is set to expire after the 2028 season. It appears the Haslams, now flush with $600 million from Ohioans' unclaimed funds, have their sights set on the Brook Park move.
But the future lies with the courts. Bibb's invocation of the Modell Law, named after the previous Browns' owner who moved the team to Baltimore, has been contested by the team's owners, who claim the law is unconstitutional. They sued the city over the law.
Both cases are pending. A Cuyahoga County judge last week denied the Haslams' motion to dismiss the city's suit.
