CLEVELAND — After Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam confirmed the team could be moving its from downtown Cleveland lakefront out to Brook Park, the mayor of Brook Park is reacting to the possibility.
On Monday, the Haslams were at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando and said the club is down to two options when it comes to the future of the stadium: a $1 billion renovation to the existing one, or a $2 billion project to build a new one in Brook Park. The owners say they have an option to buy 176 acres of land in Brook Park near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
When 3News asked Mayor Edward Orcutt about the second option on Tuesday, he would only share that he's aware of Brook Park being mentioned in a study of where the stadium should go next.
"We've been cognizant of that," he said, "but we do understand that there's nothing imminent about them coming here right now, only because as we work on economic development here in the city of Brook Park, it's something that we just don't go out there and share, openly discuss, business opportunities that we may be having with other companies."
Meanwhile, downtown businesses like Agave & Rye on West 6th Street are nervous about the talks. Damon Heeter, who works in upper management for the restaurant, explained that they'd lose 35% of sales if the stadium left, highlighting the profitability of home game Sundays.
"The entire street is just covered with people with their joy of the Browns, and taking that away from the area is definitely going to put a dent into businesses," he told us. "That it's going to hurt us, going to hurt our team members here. Some of them look forward to that Brown Sunday because of how much business it brings in. It kind of reminds me of when LeBron left the first time, how much that impacted the downtown restaurant business and bar business. It'll be the same exact thing for the Browns."
He said the area would lose some of it's electric energy as well.
"This past year, this was kind of the funnest place to be on those weekends, and if that moves away, then it's totally not going to be that," he added. "It's just going to be like your average, regular downtown."