Cleveland Browns pitch $1 billion stadium renovation

The Browns and Cleveland City Hall have remained tight-lipped in public about how much a renovated stadium will cost taxpayers.

But last October, in a round of meetings at Browns headquarters in Berea, the team pitched City Council on a ballpark figure: $500 million to $600 million from the public, according to two members who attended. They asked not to be identified because they were sharing details from a private meeting.

That represents half of the $1 billion to $1.2 billion that a stadium overhaul might cost, the members said. The Haslam Sports Group proposed picking up the other half.

The team wouldn’t ask the City of Cleveland to handle the public share alone. Mayor Justin Bibb has already said Cleveland would need help from Cuyahoga County and the State of Ohio.

No deal has yet been announced as the city and team negotiate a lease extension. Browns owners appear to be exploring more than one stadium location, including in the suburbs. Last week, the NFL franchise acknowledged it was “studying other potential stadium options in Northeast Ohio” in addition to the lakefront location.

Last fall, Browns representatives met with council members in small groups, meaning that the gatherings were not considered public meetings, according to the members who spoke with Signal Cleveland.

Team officials also showed off a video rendering of a refurbished stadium reachable by a land bridge that connected the grassy malls to the lakefront, one member said.

The Browns declined to offer a comment for this story, referring Signal Cleveland to the team’s earlier statement.

Comparing stadium costs

The billion-dollar renovation figure is higher than the estimated replacement cost that the city uses for insurance purposes. At a council committee meeting last week, city officials said the stadium was insured up to $800 million.

Stadium projects around the country now routinely hit the 10-figure mark. It’s estimated that the new Tennessee Titans stadium will cost a total of $2.1 billion. The price tag for Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the host of Super Bowl LVIII, was just shy of $2 billion. The Buffalo Bills’ new stadium will cost $1.5 billion, with taxpayers picking up $850 million.

The Browns Stadium project would be the most costly Cleveland sports facility overhaul in the last decade. Cuyahoga County, with help from the city, picked up half of the $140 million revamp of the Cavaliers arena in 2017. The city, county and state took on two-thirds of the $202.5 million Progressive Field renovation in 2022.

City officials haven’t said how they would pay for a stadium revamp. Currently, Cleveland pays for repairs with revenue from a countywide sin tax on alcohol and cigarettes.

But those funds are in short supply as construction costs grow and the tax reaches its 2035 expiration date. As of last year, the city had roughly $54 million in estimated sin tax proceeds left for Browns Stadium, according to figures provided by the Gateway Economic Development Corporation.

Cuyahoga County officials haven’t yet decided whether to go to the ballot for an extension or enlargement of the sin tax, a spokesperson said.

The city still owes about $40 million on the debt from building Browns Stadium in the late 1990s. Cleveland is set to retire that debt in 2028, when the current team lease expires.