CLEVELAND — With the Cleveland Browns' lease at FirstEnergy Stadium set to expire in 2028, the clock is ticking regarding the future of the team's home.
Citing sources on Monday night, NEOtrans blog's Ken Prendergast reported that the team has its sights set on "a new football/multi-purpose stadium and supportive development in downtown Cleveland" -- a report a Browns spokesperson denied to the online publication.
“All of our work over the past year has been focused on the renovation of FirstEnergy Stadium,” Peter John-Baptiste, senior vice president of communications for the Browns and Haslam Sports Group, told Prendergast. “All of our conversations with the mayor have been supportive and geared toward exploring a path that is beneficial to the city, community and the region.”
Citing sources from the team and City Hall, Prendergast -- who reported last year on the team's exploration of new stadium sites -- the Browns have been eyeing a new stadium near the lakefront immediately east of downtown.
"All the signs are right now, that's where they're going," Prendergast told 3News' Neil Fischer of a new stadium.
The report, however, also states that Mayor Justin M. Bibb and his administration haven't been as eager to move forward with plans for a new stadium, preferring to first seek input from the community.
According to a City Hall source, "there have been high-level conversations about [stadium] locations but zero negotiating to date." The source also said that the Browns' owners, the Haslam family, asked the Bibb Administration to sell them city-owned land, but was rejected by the mayor.
Last year, the Browns launched a feasibility study regarding the future of FirstEnergy Stadium, which was built in 1999. According to Prendergast, that study was completed earlier this month, but the results have yet to be made public.
The study was conducted by HKS Architects, which also designed the Minnesota Vikings’ $1 billion enclosed US Bank Stadium in 2016. Prendergast previously reported that any new stadium for the Browns could include a dome or retractable roof.
"They hired an architectural firm to do an assessment of the stadium and lo and behold, it doesn't meet their needs in terms of the structural condition of the amenities, the concourse spaces," Prendergast told Fischer. "The fact is that it doesn't have a roof and is limited in terms of what kind of events that you can have there."
In addition to acquiring the necessary land, another obvious hurdle for a potential new stadium for the Browns is who is going to pay for it. Per the report, "there apparently has been little discussion of stadium funding but it is probable that funding from the Haslams, the National Football League, an extension of the countywide sin tax that’s set to expire in 2034, and possibly state funding will be considered."
"Financing for professional sports stadiums are complicated and generally require partnerships and collaboration between privately owned sports teams and state and local government," a spokesperson for the Bibb Administration told 3News of the reports regarding a potential new stadium. "The Bibb administration is committed to working with the Haslam Sports Group in good faith to ensure that the Cleveland Browns continue to play home games in the City of Cleveland."