Finishing more than a year of conflict, the city of Cleveland and Haslam Sports Group (HSG), the owners of the Cleveland Browns, have reached a $ 100 million agreement that is expected to be given the dismissal of duel demands related to the National Football League Plan to leave their center on the border in favor of the creation of a new $ 2.4 million stadium The Ohio, Ohio.
HSG will pay the settlement in the city, which will use the funds to promote the redevelopment of the current Huntington Bank Field
The stadium site overlooking Lake Erie, according to the city.
Settlement details require HSG to pay the city $ 25 million to December 1 and demolish the current stage of 25 years to a state of being prepared by PADA project is calculated that will cost $ 30 million.
In addition, from January 1, 2029, HSG will pay the city $ 5 million a year each year until 2033, for a total of $ 25 million in five years. Once the current lease of the team is completed, which is expected to expire by 2029, HSG will invest no less than $ 2 million annually over the next ten years in a community benefits project according to $ 20 million.
“This $ 100 million investment continues our impulse and the economic resurgence of the lake,” said Mayor Justin Bibb, in a statement “This agreement puts the lake on the way to transformative development and browns on the way to a world class facility in Brook Park.”
The city and the team owner disagreed with the team’s plan to detach their current house to build a new stadium with dome. The team recently named Aecom Hunt-Turmer JV as managers of the new Stadium.
After announcing their plan to build the new stadium outside the city in October 2024, the Browns filed a lawsuit that sought the city to use the Modell Art Act to prevent them from moving. The law, named for an ex -owner of the Browns team, was approved in 1996 in Ohio to prevent professional sports teams from playing on public funding facilities to move without giving local governments and possible local buyers the opportunity to hold them in their place.
In response, the city filed a lawsuit that sought to enforce the law. At the beginning of 2025, the state of Ohio changed the law of modell to allow teams to move within the state without penalty. At the same time, the state approved by giving Browns $ 600 million to unlawable taxpayer funds to help build the new stadium.
“We have tried to fight the good fight,” Bibb said. “But at the end of the day, the City Council had a clear mandate for the administration: do not leave the city of Cleveland with empty hands in this agreement.”
HSG has begun work for the new stage of 176 hectares of land, which is expected to also include mixed use development. The team wants to start construction of the stadium by 2026.
According to the city, the team’s decision to move to the city to revitalize its city center, according to the city. Named a “unique opportunity to generate”, Bibb presented in July the Cleveland Era Plan, which aims to rejuvenate the city center center, including 50 hectares of public land. The city is currently in the process of identifying the Plan development members who are calling for $ 5 billion throughout Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River, $ 100 million to transform 1,000 hectares of under-use land in a re-industrialized area, which would say that it would create 25,000 jobs and a modernization of $ 1.6 million from Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport.
In September, the Ohio (OLD) Department of Transportation approved a construction permit for the new team stadium, reversing a August decision by denying the permission because the airport officials had complained that the stadium exceeded the height limit at 58 feet at its highest point.
“We will continue to work with the Browns, HSG, the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] And the airport leadership team to ensure that we will not only have the best at the class -dome stadium, but also a modernization of almost $ 2 billion from the airport, “said Bibbs.
“It is not of our interest to have a bad traffic,” said team owner Jimmy Haslam at a press conference. “It is not of the interest of the airport or the city. It is of interest to work together … From five years, you will enter a modern airport and you will hook you at a great transport and you will see one of the most significant sports stages in the world.”
The airport is currently experiencing a modernization effort of $ 1.6 million that includes a new largest terminal planned to open in 2032, and was reported twice the size of the existing terminal as well as A consolidated security checkpoint, an enlarged lobby and a luggage claim, a new international installation, a surface parking planned for completion by 2026 and a parking garage of 6,000 spaces that will open in 2029.
