Cleveland City Council has approved a name change for the Cleveland Browns’ stadium. The emergency meeting Wednesday morning came a day after the team announced that it had agreed to a 20-year naming rights deal with Huntington Bank.
Only one council member voted against the name change to Huntington Bank Field, Mike Polensek, who said that the Browns should have come to the council first.
“They should have come to us prior to their grand announcement because it's clearly stated that they have to get the approval of city council before they name anything and they didn't do that,” he said.
Polensek said that he wants the Browns to be more transparent.
“"This is going to be tens and tens of millions of dollars and nobody can tell us what the naming rights are,” Polensek said. “Can we get any for our neighborhoods? Can we get anything, can we get a commitment from Huntington Bank?"
Council president Blane Griffin said he knew about the renaming before the announcement but could not disclose anything.
“It was made clear that if this got out before it was formally announced, the deal could potentially fall off the table,” Griffin said.
Griffin said that the Brown’s stadium lease says that they are not required to release the naming rights deal. He said that the team needed the money after First Energy’s name was removed last year due to the bribery scandal involving the company and state officials.
“"In order for the Browns to make the income that they need in order to make sure that they pay the debt and pay the things they owe the city,” Griffin said. “They need revenue that they were missing from that. They want to have it in place by this weekend."
The announcement on the naming rights came as the Browns consider a move from Downtown to Brook Park. At Tuesday's announcement, Huntington Bank’s CEO Stephen D. Steinour said the deal will transfer to whichever site the team ultimately chooses when their lease on the city-owned stadium ends in 2028. Jimmy Haslam would not address questions about where that would be, only that the team "would answer those questions in the coming days."
