ReportWire

Tag: Brook Park

  • Who Will Pay for Capital Repairs at New Brook Park Browns Dome? It’s Entirely Unclear – Cleveland Scene

    [ad_1]

    The Haslams will soon build a $2.4 billion dome in Brook Park. And while the funding for that project is pretty much locked up—with the generous help of $600 million from the state of Ohio—one looming, lingering question is how exactly repairs will be paid for in the future.

    It’s a question of timely importance. One need only look to the current situations at Rocket Arena and Progressive Field to pull the distant future into the present.

    The Gateway Economic Development Corporation of Greater Cleveland, the nonprofit that owns and operates both facilities, recently shared that it expects $150 million in capital repairs at the arena and stadium in the next few years, and another $261 million in capital repairs through the end of the current leases. (2034 for Rocket Arena and 2036 for Progressive Field, respectively.)

    But Gateway doesn’t have the money—not nearly enough. It’s already had to get creative to cover past bills, including landing bailouts from Cuyahoga County and Cleveland. The current sin tax revenue, the mechanism by which it has in the past funded all repairs, pales in comparison to the growing list of bills. And all sides admit there are no firm plans for future revenue streams.

    Down on the lakefront, Cleveland Cleveland City Council in July approved $2.7 million for capital repairs on Huntington Bank Field, which the city owns and operates. That brings the total Cleveland has spent on repairs to the stadium in the last 11 years to $30.7 million.

    The Brook Park dome is an entirely different beast. First of all, it would be owned, in theory, by a new community authority formed by the suburb with authorization from the state of Ohio. But that authority wouldn’t have recourse to collect or levy any taxes or fees outside of the footprint of the project.

    There simply exists no structure to pay for repairs going forward as it stands, which has local stadium financing expert Ken Silliman worried.

    “In my opinion, for Brook Park to not have tied down the responsibilities long term for routine maintenance and capital repairs at this late of a stage is a major problem,” he told Scene.

    Silliman, the author of Cleveland Sports Facilities: A 35-Year History, spent years at City Hall negotiating deals with team owners, including the infamous tug-of-war around Art Modell moving the Browns to Baltimore in the mid-1990s.

    “In my view, [we’re] at the team’s mercy as far as who’s going to pay for routine maintenance, who’s going to pay for capital repairs,” Silliman said.

    It is part of the current talks between Brook Park and the Haslams, though.

    “Mayor Orcutt and the City of Brook Park are in regular communication with the Cleveland Browns regarding all aspects of stadium planning, including long-term maintenance and management considerations,” Paul Marnecheck, Brook Park’s Commissioner of Economic Development, told Scene. “The question of capital repairs is a key component of the broader negotiations currently underway.”

    “No final agreements have been reached at this time,” he added. “The Mayor remains focused on ensuring any arrangement is fiscally responsible and in the best interest of Brook Park residents.”

    In Brook Park, the Haslams are intent on having the suburb create a new community authority, which would require state authorization, to own and operate the stadium. But that authority would have no legal mechanism to collect taxes or revenue outside of its footprint, or perhaps through taxes levied by Brook Park.

    The Haslams, meanwhile, have expressed a desire to double or triple the county sin tax. But that proposal has its own litany of problems. While the state recently approved legislation allowing Cuyahoga County to go back to voters to seek a doubling of the tax rate, Executive Chris Ronayne has said he will not pursue that both because it would still not be enough to cover the capital repair bills at Progressive Field and Rocket Arena and because polling shows voters are unlikely to approve a new sin tax bump if part of the money is diverted to the Brook Park dome. Both the Cavs and Guardians have expressed similar concerns about the Browns being included in future sin tax referendums.

    “There’s substantial doubt whether a measure submitted to the voters that includes the Brook Park stadium as an eligible recipient would pass given that hesitancy about move,” Silliman said.

    Spokespersons for the Browns and Cuyahoga County either did not respond to a request for comment or declined to comment.

    Stadium authorities are seen today as the new golden model. It’s one the Browns are pursuing.

    The Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium is owned by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, which collects Clark County hotel tax dollars to fund maintenance and reapirs. In other words, Nevada owns Allegiant; Nevada’s tourists pay to keep the Raiders happy.

    A similar model around Paycor Stadium—the Banks New Community Authority—uses a one-percent amenity tax collected on dollars spent in the district to pay for events and promotions.

    In theory, a Brook Park Stadium Authority could do the same, with an okay from state legislators. Which would mean the financial responsibility would fall on anyone who visits the dome or surrounding development, paying more in parking, beverages, food and tickets.

    Or, Brook Park could be on the hook, at least partially.

    “Unless and until they get those terms tied down,” Silliman said, “the responsibility would presumably fall on Brook Park.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Haslam Says Average Browns Ticket at Brook Park Dome Will Be ‘Over $200’ – Cleveland Scene

    [ad_1]

    Ahead of another Browns loss, this one being different than the others because it happened in another country, Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam gave a brief update on the Brook Park dome project.

    Bulldozers were already moving dirt, he said, despite various legal entanglements still lingering and ongoing traffic studies and planning still working out how to accommodate the crowds. Work on the $2.4-billion megastadium and village was underway ahead of the team’s expected arrival in 2029 and there’s every reason to be excited.

    Even if the sticker comes with a bit of shock.

    “The average ticket will be over $200 plus food and beverage,” Haslam told the Associated Press, “so we want [fans] when [they come] to a game to have a great time and say, ‘You know, that was a lot but it was worth it, and I want to do it again’.”

    Again, that’s before food and beverage, and before parking. All of which are sure to come with stiff price tags.

    And those estimates are four years out. Who knows how much the ticket will actually cost by the time the Browns, and whoever is serving as general manager, coach and quarterback by that time, step foot in Brook Park.

    Haslam’s price tag for a seat in the Dawg Pound (and beyond) rings of an air of overconfidence to some, especially to long-time fans wary of both a flashy suburban stadium and of a team that, in their minds, has not proven its worth the move. (Or tickets that can run into the four figures.)

    “I think a lot of fans, myself included, feel like $200 on average is a tough pill to swallow,” Rodney Symons, the head of the Lakewood Dawg Pound Browns Backers chapter, wrote Scene in an email.

    The team does currently sport the lowest average ticket price in the NFL, according to StubHub, at $158. Only six teams have prices below $200. The Eagles, meanwhile, command $475 a ticket, on average. Nine teams average more than $300 to get in the building.

    The Haslams’ campaign over the years to sell the move, with its promised hotels and wintertime ice rink, still seems to miss the mark of what most fans actually yearn for, Symons said.

    “We just want a fair deal and a stadium experience that feels like it is still ours,” he said. “It is about keeping the Dawg Pound alive, keeping families coming to games and remembering what makes Cleveland football special.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Browns sue city of Cleveland

    Browns sue city of Cleveland

    [ad_1]

    The Browns’ back-and-forth battle with Cleveland over a planned move into a new suburban stadium has gone to court.The NFL team said Thursday it has filed a lawsuit in federal court asking for clarification of the “Modell Law,” which the city has threatened to use to keep the Browns from leaving after their lease at lakefront Huntington Bank Field expires in 2028.Video above: Cleveland Browns players robbed at gunpointThe team has played its games in downtown Cleveland since the 1940s, and in its current 65,000-seat stadium, which is leased to the team by the city, since 1999.Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam announced last week they are moving forward with plans to build a domed stadium and entertainment complex in Brook Park, about 15 miles south of Cleveland.Earlier this week, the Cleveland city council threatened to block the move by invoking the “Modell Law,” named after former Browns owner Art Modell. After losing his fight with the city to get a new stadium built, Modell moved his franchise after the 1995 season to Baltimore, where it became the Ravens.The state law passed in 1996 was used to stop the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer from moving from Ohio to Texas in 2019. The team stayed and was bought by the Haslams, who are also part owners of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.”Today’s action for declaratory judgment was filed to take this matter out of the political domain and ensure we can move this transformative project forward to make a new domed Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park a reality,” Dave Jenkins, CEO of Haslam Sports Group, said in a statement.”We have no interest in any contentious legal battle but are determined to create a project that will add to greater Cleveland by building a domed stadium and adjacent mixed-use development. … This project will bring premier events and economic activity that will generate significant revenue for the city, county and state.”The Browns explored other options, including a makeover of their current stadium, but said the remodeling was too costly. The city had offered to pay $461 million toward a renovation it hoped would lead to development of the lakefront area adjacent to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.Clevland Mayor Justin Bibb called the Haslams’ decision to move the team “frustrating and profoundly disheartening.”

    CLEVELAND —

    The Browns’ back-and-forth battle with Cleveland over a planned move into a new suburban stadium has gone to court.

    The NFL team said Thursday it has filed a lawsuit in federal court asking for clarification of the “Modell Law,” which the city has threatened to use to keep the Browns from leaving after their lease at lakefront Huntington Bank Field expires in 2028.

    Video above: Cleveland Browns players robbed at gunpoint

    The team has played its games in downtown Cleveland since the 1940s, and in its current 65,000-seat stadium, which is leased to the team by the city, since 1999.

    Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam announced last week they are moving forward with plans to build a domed stadium and entertainment complex in Brook Park, about 15 miles south of Cleveland.

    Earlier this week, the Cleveland city council threatened to block the move by invoking the “Modell Law,” named after former Browns owner Art Modell. After losing his fight with the city to get a new stadium built, Modell moved his franchise after the 1995 season to Baltimore, where it became the Ravens.

    The state law passed in 1996 was used to stop the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer from moving from Ohio to Texas in 2019. The team stayed and was bought by the Haslams, who are also part owners of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.

    “Today’s action for declaratory judgment was filed to take this matter out of the political domain and ensure we can move this transformative project forward to make a new domed Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park a reality,” Dave Jenkins, CEO of Haslam Sports Group, said in a statement.

    “We have no interest in any contentious legal battle but are determined to create a project that will add to greater Cleveland by building a domed stadium and adjacent mixed-use development. … This project will bring premier events and economic activity that will generate significant revenue for the city, county and state.”

    The Browns explored other options, including a makeover of their current stadium, but said the remodeling was too costly. The city had offered to pay $461 million toward a renovation it hoped would lead to development of the lakefront area adjacent to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

    Clevland Mayor Justin Bibb called the Haslams’ decision to move the team “frustrating and profoundly disheartening.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • As Cleveland Makes Stadium Pitch, Optimism in Brook Park After Meetings With Haslam Reps for New Dome

    As Cleveland Makes Stadium Pitch, Optimism in Brook Park After Meetings With Haslam Reps for New Dome

    [ad_1]

    Erik Drost

    Cleveland Browns Stadium might be vacant come 2029, an attendee of a meeting between Brook Park and the Browns on Wednesday told Scene.

    The day before Mayor Justin Bibb publicly released Cleveland’s latest proposal to the Browns for renovating the existing stadium on the lakefront—a contribution of $461 million to the $1-billion-plus project—and asked the Haslams to respond by Aug. 12, the team welcomed officials from Brook Park for a series of meetings at Browns headquarters in Berea.

    Starting at one o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, roughly a dozen officials from the suburb convened in a series of small groups in a conference room at 76 Lou Groza Blvd., itching to entertain the Haslam Sports Group’s plans for the future of Cleveland Browns Stadium a few miles south of Cleveland.

    By 4 p.m. that day, many had walked away with an answer crystal clear from their point of view: The Haslams are all but likely to pursue that 176 acres of land in Brook Park and a new dome over renovating the current stadium on the lakefront.

    “I think they have big plans,” a source familiar with the Wednesday meetings told Scene.

    “If you put a gun to my head? Yeah, they’re going to Brook Park,” they added. “Do I still think that legally or financially it could still be held up? Yeah, I do. I do.”

    The meeting, which the source said was conducted with representatives from the Haslam Sports Group, marks a plot point in one of the meatiest Cleveland sports sagas since Art Modell infamously moved the Browns to Baltimore.

    Since February, when news broke of Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam’s planned purchase of a massive plot of land in Brook Park, the team has kept mum their intentions for what happens after the lease at Cleveland Browns Stadium’s lease ends in 2028. 

    But just days after Jimmy and Dee Haslam told the assembled Browns press squad in West Virginia that there was no hard deadline to make a decision, Bibb ended the city’s public silence and gave them one.

    “The Browns have been an essential fixture on our lakefront for decades. But our first priority is always our residents,” Bibb said in a statement, arguing it’s better financial sense to renovate the stadium than open public coffers to build a $2-billion dome in Brook Park. “Having the Browns play here is integral to our city’s identity and community spirit. This initiative must go beyond the Browns and be about what’s best for downtown, the neighborhoods, the suburbs, and the region.”

    “The stadium is more than just a venue. It’s tailgating in the Muni Lot. It’s celebrating on West 6th,” he said, adding what might be an unconvincing note selling the lakefront stadium over a dome: “It’s Lake Effect snow drifting over the field—toe-warmers and three sweaters on the bone-rattling wind-chill days off the lake.”

    Of the public release and deadline, Bibb’s Chief of Staff Bradford Davy told reporters it was simply time, after more than a year of negotiations, to get an answer.

    “It’s the result of 18 months of conversations. We’ve talked about every deal point that exists in that lease,” Davy told Signal Cleveland. “The only thing left to do is transmit those deal terms in a formal document and that’s what we did.”

    “We’ve gotten to a point where we’ve really exhausted a lot of the deal points,” he told Cleveland.com. “We’re at a place now where we need to be asking questions about what the future of the lakefront looks like, and to answer that question, we need to know whether or not the Browns will call it home.”

    The Haslams Sports Group, in a statement from Chief Operating Officer David Jenkins, responded that day: “We appreciate the latest proposal from Mayor Bibb and his administration and will be following up with the City of Cleveland to better understand the details while we are still reviewing it.

    “We are working diligently to comprehensively examine all options to identify the best path for not only our fans, but also Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio,” he added. “Our region deserves to be thought of as evolving, forward-thinking, and innovative, so we need to think boldly and creatively in the process.”

    All of which seems to have taken front row at Wednesday’s meeting at 76 Lou Groza Blvd.

    While Bibb offered the Browns exclusive use of the Willard parking garage and Muni Lot on game and event days, and while he said he’d welcome the Haslams for discussions on participating in the city’s plans to develop the land around the stadium, what the billionaires have in mind for a possible Brook Park complex seems far more lucrative and dramatic in comparison.

    A Haslams Sports Group rep admitted as much on Wednesday to some Brook Park officials, noting the limitations of the current stadium site, issues with parking, and saying it simply doesn’t match up with what the Haslams ultimately want to do, the source said.

    In other words, what’s possible in Brook Park.

    Some initial renderings of those plans, portions of which have been leaked and others of which have been shared in off-the-record presentations with reporters from various Cleveland media outlets, show what the Haslams have in store beyond the dome, and the splashy events and concerts they would expect to draw thanks to a roof.

    For the Brook Park coalition, which included Mayor Edward Orcutt, the Haslams Group played a flashy minutes-long flyover video.

    “Think Disneyland,” the source said.

    Imagine a Crocker Park-style shopping and entertainment center. Luxury condos.

    “The Box,” as Haslam’s team dubbed it. Everything self-contained. Everything, including parking, in the team’s control.

    Brook Park can’t put the financial backing toward a stadium that Cleveland can, of course, meaning the question of how it all gets paid for remains open.

    “Those kinds of things are being worked out behind the scenes,” Mayor Ed Orcutt told Fox 8 earlier this week. “I’m going to be very limited in what I can say with information on that.”

    The state would likely play a major role; Cuyahoga County, which is going to shoulder a massive financial burden with the upcoming jail and courthouse projects, has remained on the sidelines of the current talks.

    “We are hopeful that the city of Cleveland and the Browns come to a resolution. We have not been a party to their negotiations,” a county spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

    Given Bibb’s public release of the city’s proposal and new deadline for the Haslams to respond, it appears the City of Cleveland won’t go quietly. City Council is likely to raise a fuss, especially after passing an ordinance confirming their intentions to utilize Ohio’s “Art Modell law,” which theoretically makes it harder for teams to leave cities. (It’s yet to be tested.)

    But, given the tenor of talks with Brook Park officials, neither that nor Cleveland’s latest offering will stand in the way, according to the source.

    “They’re building that dome.”

    The Haslam Sports Group, in that statement Thursday, emphasized no decision has been made. “We will continue to provide updates as we have more information to share,” it read.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Massive Astronaut Training Campus Set For Brook Park Gets County Funds

    Massive Astronaut Training Campus Set For Brook Park Gets County Funds

    [ad_1]

    click to enlarge

    Blue Abyss

    A rendering of what Blue Abyss’ astronaut training facility in Brook Park may look like when built in 2026.

    Eighty-two years after NASA’s Glenn Research Center opened at the heel of the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, a new aerospace facility is set to break ground in Northeast Ohio.

    But not just any research center: the largest commercial astronaut training center in the world.

    Blue Abyss, an aerospace company headquartered in Cornwall, U.K., has been eyeing since late 2022 some 13 acres of untouched land in Brook Park to build its first American campus for future dwellers of the International Space Station. And yesterday, following a meeting with Cuyahoga County’s Finance & Budgeting Committee, it got a nice pre-development boost: a $450,000 grant.

    A way to tap into the booming private investment into space and deep sea exploration—see: SpaceX and Blue Origin—John Vickers, Blue Abyss’ founder and British Army Veteran, set out to create a one-stop campus to house training for a variety of disciplines in the worlds of marine and space exploration.

    One with a human centrifuge for high-G research; a parabolic flight simulator for microgravity experiences; and a pool for freedivers and astronauts to simulate space or test autonomous underwater vehicles—a cavernous pool with enough water to fill 17 Olympic-sized ones, with a cylindrical “shaft” 150 feet deep to aid deep sea simulation. (About as tall as the Cleveland Public Library on Superior Avenue.)

    And to house all of the visiting NASA students and deep-diving shift workers, Blue Abyss is planning a 130-room boutique hotel.

    click to enlarge Marc Drew, Blue Abyss' COO, at County Headquarters on Monday afternoon. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    Marc Drew, Blue Abyss’ COO, at County Headquarters on Monday afternoon.

    Such a campus, which would cost roughly $235 million to build and would break ground later this year, would lure novices and veterans alike seeking “extreme environment training,” Blue Abyss COO Marc Drew told County Council. Those who might otherwise head to NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, or the Deep Research Labs in the U.K.

    “There are other companies that can provide some aspects for astronaut training,” Drew said. But “the ability to take an astronaut and put them through the long arm centrifuge so they can experience the high G forces; the next day, put them onto the parabolic flight, so they then experience very quickly zero gravity; the ability to then put them into the pool so they can start experience doing spacewalks?”

    “That will be a unique global capability,” he said.

    And, Drew and others argued, a decent job creator. Some 1,759 full-time equivalent jobs could pop up, a Kent State University study done late last year, found—a count that could grow to 3,900 by 2029. And a $3.5 million jump in Brook Park tax revenue.

    That’s, of course, if Blue Abyss’ wavy campus actually opens its doors in 2026. Several on Council worried that the dream center for Northeast Ohio aerospace could go the route of the “Icebreaker” wind farm off the shores of Lake Erie that was put on hold due to a lawsuit and concerns about killing birds.

    click to enlarge A rendering of what Blue Abyss' 150-feet-deep testing pool could look like. - Blue Abyss

    Blue Abyss

    A rendering of what Blue Abyss’ 150-feet-deep testing pool could look like.

    “That project went on for one year, two years, five years, 10 years, and we’re not close to substantially completing that project,” District 6 Councilman Jack Schron said. “Fortunately, we didn’t have any funds there.”

    “This is not a project that’s without risk,” District 2 Councilman Dale Miller added. “This is a new and difficult undertaking, and it’s not typical for the county to be involved at the pre-development stage. But our intention is to give the project a catalytic boost at a critical time that’s necessary for them to bring the following stages to completion.”

    But such risk, minding rising construction costs and high interest rates, comes with potential that could be parsed down to one word: limitless.

    Apart from the on-staff scientists and scuba divers, Blue Abyss could tap into the growing market for space tourism, albeit a lot closer to the ground. Drew painted a future where Cleveland residents and tourists alike could pay a decent fee to experience zero gravity for about 20 seconds. “So if you don’t want to go into space” he said, “you can come to Blue Abyss.”

    Schron seemed to tap into Drew’s itch for branding opportunities, for naming rights, for, say, competition with Cedar Point, the Great Lakes Science Center. “You know, it seems like an attractive place for Disney to extend a hotel brand,” Schron speculated.

    Other than spending this year locking down the $250 million or so needed to finish Blue Abyss’ campus, Drew said the company is seeking or “in talks with” your usual suspects in our age of private ventures into space exploration. With Virgin Galactic, with Axiom Space, with Sierra.

    And with NASA Glenn, the government-backed facility down the road on Aerospace Parkway seems to need a tad bit more convincing: “While we have spoken with the company about our facilities and expertise in dealing with low-gravity environments,” a NASA spokesperson said in an email, “we don’t have any contracts or agreements with them at this time.”

    “Why Cleveland?” Schlon questioned at Council. “We all love Cleveland, but why would this project, with all those brand names you’re talking about?”

    Drew answered rationally, positing that Vickers chose those 13 acres of land due to its proximity to a NASA outpost and an international airport. And, Drew added, the executive was, he heard, moved by the eagerness of those whom he met with.

    “I think he came to Cleveland and was impressed with the passion,” he said. “He met a whole breadth of individuals, and was convinced that the way that Cleveland integrates its economic development, it was the right place for us to set up shop.”

    Blue Abyss is aiming to break ground for its 300,000-square-foot campus before the end of the year, and is planning to open, Drew said, by “mid-2026.” If it does, it will be the largest facility in the world with capabilities for both deep-sea diving and parabolic flight.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

    [ad_2]

    Mark Oprea

    Source link