The battle over the future home of the Cleveland Browns has reached a critical juncture, with the team’s owners committed to a new stadium in Brook Park, and “Today in Ohio,” hosts Chris Quinn and Leila Atassi say its time for elected officials to to change strategies and negotiate the best possible exit deal for the city.
“Mayor Justin Bibb has done something bold and frankly unprecedented for a Cleveland mayor. He stood his ground against these billionaire owners of the Browns, and he refused to mortgage the city’s future for a stadium deal that didn’t make sense for taxpayers,” Atassi said. But she emphasized that the situation has fundamentally changed: “The Haslams have made it clear that they are moving on. They’re taking their stadium plans, they’re taking their money, and they’re going to Brook Park.”
The podcast revealed that tensions have escalated, with Bibb “firing off these press releases” and “calling for the Brown COO to be removed from city boards.” While acknowledging that “anger is understandable,” Atassi argued that “at some point the city really has to shift gears.”
Quinn agreed, noting that Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam “have built a plan where even if their numbers don’t all work out, there’s extra dollars, and they’ve said 100 million for Cleveland, for the lakefront, which is a lot of money.” This potential investment in Cleveland’s lakefront could be lost if city officials remain entrenched in opposition.
The podcast also discussed Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne’s continued resistance. “From what I hear, he’s just hardline,” Quinn said, suggesting that political considerations might be preventing a pivot that could benefit county residents.
Quinn made the case that despite public animosity toward the Haslams, this stadium deal offers unique advantages for taxpayers. “This is the best deal taxpayers have had on a stadium ever because the money does get paid back. You and I won’t pay for it. If I don’t go to a single Browns game and I don’t use their offsite parking. No money comes from me to pay for this stadium.”
Atassi suggested much of the public resistance might result from the public’s animosity toward the Haslams.
“I’ve heard from a lot of readers in the past day... they are Browns fans and they are almost universally anti-Haslams.” She mentioned the “cynicism among Clevelanders who feel like they’ve seen this play out before. These big promises, public money, not enough return.”
Yet she warned that the public’s goodwill involving the principled stand by Bibb and Ronayne could vanish if officials don’t eventually compromise: “If this ends with nothing for this city, that goodwill could really evaporate.”
The podcast painted a picture of a pivotal moment for Cleveland and the county, where principled opposition needs to transform into practical negotiation. As Quinn put it: “It’s time to sit down at the table and figure out what’s best for everybody involved.”
Listen to the discussion here.
Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from Today in Ohio, a news podcast discussion by cleveland.com editors. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.
Listen to full “Today in Ohio” episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.