The home of the Cleveland Browns will bear the name of Huntington Bank, whether that home is on the lakefront or in Brook Park.
The team announced a 20-year naming rights deal Tuesday that will rechristen the stadium as Huntington Bank Field. At a news presentation at the stadium, team leaders and bank officials pressed a large green button and set off pyrotechnics to ring in the field’s new name.
Officially, the city-owned facility won’t get its new name until City Hall signs off. Cleveland City Council has scheduled a special meeting tomorrow to approve the change.
Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam said their company and Huntington had similar values and interests – such as their philanthropic work on education.
“Our partnership is not just about the name on the stadium,” Dee Haslam said Tuesday. “It’s about what we can do together to make an impact on Northeast Ohio.”
The deal will also give the Huntington name greater exposure on game days, both at the field and on television. The speakers at Tuesday’s event did not disclose how much Huntington paid. Under Cleveland’s lease with the Browns, naming rights proceeds flow to the team, not the city.
“To be associated with the Browns – what an iconic, iconic sports team,” Huntington CEO Stephen Steinour said Tuesday. “Nationally, internationally, the Browns are recognized and appreciated.”
The Huntington name will follow the stadium wherever it ends up. The Browns are weighing a move to Brook Park, where the team would build a new roofed facility. Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb has publicized a $461 million proposal to keep the team on the lakefront.
Huntington, which is headquartered in Columbus, also holds the naming rights for Cleveland’s downtown convention center. The financial institution paid for those rights in 2016 when it acquired the previous rights holder, FirstMerit Corporation.
Last year, the Browns scrubbed the stadium of the name of its previous sponsor, First Energy. The Akron-based utility, which spent $107 million on stadium naming rights, has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to avoid state and federal charges tied to what’s been called one of Ohio’s largest public corruption cases.
