A Browns move to Brook Park will deal an economic blow to Cleveland, study says

CLEVELAND — As the Cleveland Browns build their playbook for moving to suburbs, the city stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in annual spending and taxes, according to a new report.

On Tuesday, Cleveland released a study that looks at the potential economic impact of the NFL team's departure from the Downtown lakefront. The city commissioned the $48,000 report in September, just a few weeks before Mayor Justin Bibb announced that team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam were focusing all their efforts on building a new, domed stadium in neighboring Brook Park.

The study was produced by Econsult Solutions Inc., a Philadelphia-based consultant that has worked with the city before. News 5 requested the report in mid-October, after Bibb mentioned it during a news conference, and received it Tuesday afternoon.

The findings echo what city officials have been saying – that a Browns move will hurt a fragile Downtown, where fans spend money on transit, hotel rooms, bar tabs and restaurant bills.

The report says a new Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park will deal a $30 million blow to Cleveland's economy.

On top of that, the city stands to lose about $11 million in annual tax revenues - about 1.4% of the city's general fund budget, which pays for everyday services and salaries.

The consultant crunched those numbers based on information from the city and other public sources. The report does not include any data provided by the Browns.

City officials declined to discuss the findings or make the consultant available for an interview. The Browns have seen the study but have not commented on it publicly yet.

'Putting Downtown Cleveland ... at risk'

In mid-October, Bibb mentioned the forthcoming report during a news conference at City Hall, where he broke the Brook Park news and criticized the Haslams' decision.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb on the Browns departure from the lakefront

"Moving this asset to Brook Park will undermine all the public subsidies that we've already been making in our sports facilities, long-term," he said at the time. "I believe right now is a critical time as we are advancing the revitalization of the urban core of our city – and it's the wrong time not to choose Cleveland, and it's the wrong time not to choose our lakefront and Downtown."

The study presents a similar narrative, warning of pain not only for hotels and other businesses but also for existing entertainment venues.

If a new stadium in Brook Park siphons events away from properties like Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and the Huntington Convention Center, Cleveland's economic losses could more than double, the consultant wrote.

"Given weak market conditions and slow regional economic growth, the success of the proposed development will depend on its ability to draw demand from other parts of the county and region, putting Downtown Cleveland especially at risk," the study reads. "In other words, the proposed development will effectively shift economic activity."

The consulting firm used economic modeling software to come up with its projections and made some assumptions about where fans are coming from and how much they spend outside of the stadium. The study also looks at the ripple effects of that spending.

The report does not delve into how much Cleveland spends each year on debt-service payments and other costs tied to the city-owned stadium. That exact dollar amount wasn't immediately available Tuesday, but it's more than the $11 million in yearly income-tax revenues, property-tax revenues, admissions-tax revenues, parking-tax revenues and bed-tax revenues that the city stands to lose.

The admissions tax is, by far, the biggest source of city revenue from the stadium. In 2023, it brought in more than $7.3 million from tickets to home games, concerts and other events.

'There is limited demand'

The consultant also questioned the viability of the Brook Park project, slated to rise on a 176-acre site near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

"The amount of proposed development for the site would be unprecedented in this part of the county, and there is limited demand for the proposed uses," the report says.

The study suggests that the property, a former Ford Motor Co. plant site owned by a group of real estate developers, is better suited to an industrial project. That's what those developers were pitching – a business park called Forward Innovation Center West – before the Browns came along.

The Browns are proposing a $2.4 billion stadium – a price tag they hope to split with taxpayers – and more than $1 billion worth of private development, including apartments, offices, hotels, restaurants, retail and thousands of parking spaces.

Cleveland Browns release first renderings, details of Brook Park stadium proposal

The Haslams have described that plan as an economic development engine.

"A solution like this will be transformative not for Cleveland and Northeast Ohio but also the entire state of Ohio from the resulting events, tourism and job creation," they wrote in a statement last month. "Additionally, moving the current stadium will allow the city and region's collective vision for the Cleveland lakefront to be optimally realized, and Downtown will benefit from the major events the Brook Park dome brings to the region."

The team's lease on the Downtown stadium ends after the 2028 season. The Browns are on a tight timeline to start building in Brook Park if they want to play there in 2029.

They're still working to line up public financing , with a focus on borrowing against new tax revenues generated by the stadium and surrounding development.