Haslam Sports Group and the Cleveland Browns announced a financial plan for a new dome stadium on Thursday, nearly four months after initially revealing that the group would be focusing its efforts on building a facility in Brook Park.
The plan projects the stadium cost to be $2.4 billion total, with half of that funded privately. The other $1.2 billion is split up of expected contributions from the state of Ohio ($600 million), Cuyahoga County ($178 million) and the city of Brook Park ($422 million).
The press release reports that the proposed funding model would not use existing tax revenue or take money away from current public uses.
On a state level, Owner Jimmy Haslam and the Browns are not asking for $600 million outright, but rather for $600 million in bonds that Ohio would be able to pay off with the stadium’s revenue. Chief Operating Officer David A. Jenkins said in the press release that the $1.2 billion public investment would create roughly $2.9 billion in revenue, and after paying off the bonds, the state would net approximately $1.3 billion. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, however, has already said he’s opposed to the idea of using bonds to finance the stadium.
This comes a day after DeWine revealed a budget that would project to raise between $130 to $180 million by doubling the state’s tax on sports gambling, if approved by the state House and Senate.
Haslam Sports Group also planned for Cuyahoga County to issue bonds to come up with its $178 million share while adding a 1% incremental bed tax and rental car surcharge to visitors of the area.
The $422 million from Brook Park would come from a variety of areas, including admission tax, income tax and parking tax. An admissions tax would mean an increase in costs for Browns tickets and other year-round events taking place at the new venue, while the income tax would come out of Browns players’ and staff’s salaries.
The financial plan estimates the total fiscal impact of the new stadium and outside development to be $3.4 billion between the county and city, with $1.8 billion going to Brook Park and $1.6 billion to Cuyahoga County. That amounts to $2.1 billion in total revenue between the county and city, which the outline suggests could be used for a new jail or courthouse, operating expenses for Cleveland Hopkins Airport or general repairs to infrastructure.
A new dome stadium will not come at a cheap price. However, Haslam and the Browns seem to believe with their newest plan that the total economic output — $6.3 billion combined between the state, county and city levels over 30 years — will sway lawmakers into investing in a new home field and mixed-use development area.
“We get excited about the thought that we could have a domed stadium, a (modernized) airport, a developed lakefront, and it could be all done,” Managing and Principal Partner Dee Haslam said. “And a lot of the funds for the lakefront and some of the development downtown is spun off by what we’re doing at Brook Park. And so, we get really excited about that this could be a community that can do it all. We just need to work together to get it done.”
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