After news broke earlier on Thursday that the Browns were set to focus their efforts on building a domed stadium near the Cleveland airport instead of renovating the current stadium on the lakefront, team owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam have issued a lengthy statement making that official.
“We pursued many possibilities, with our initial focus on renovating the current stadium and engaged design, construction and engineering experts to develop a plan to do so,” the statement reads, in part. “We also explored building a new stadium on multiple sites, both within and outside of Cleveland. We’ve learned through our exhaustive work that renovating our current stadium will simply not solve many operational issues and would be a short-term approach.
“With more time to reflect, we have also realized that without a dome, we will not attract the type of large-scale events and year-round activity to justify the magnitude of this public-private partnership. The transformational economic opportunities created by a dome far outweigh what a renovated stadium could produce with around 10 events per year.”
The statement goes on to note that the potential site of Burke Lakefront Airport — which is just down the street from the team’s current Huntington Bank Field — “is cost prohibitive and not feasible, especially with no certainty regarding potential timing of closure of the airport.”
“A solution like [the Brook Park dome] will be transformative not only for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, but also the entire state of Ohio from the resulting events, tourism, and job creation,” the statement reads. “Additionally, moving the current stadium will allow the city and region’s collective vision for the Cleveland lakefront to be optimally realized, and downtown will benefit from the major events the Brook Park dome brings to the region.
“…As we have previously said, we understand this is a complex process with more questions still to be answered and we will continue to communicate openly as our process evolves. We recognize our season on the field has not had the start we all hoped for and are working hard to improve each week to make our fans proud. At the same time, it is critical that we remain committed to the best long-term, sustainable solution for our stadium and to providing the world-class dome experience our fans deserve. We are confident that the Brook Park project will significantly benefit the Northeast Ohio region for generations to come.”
