Could This Tactic Help Browns, City Of Cleveland Settle Stadium Dispute?

The Browns and city officials continued their war of words this week as they seek a resolution for the team's future stadium

Above shot of Cleveland Browns' dome in Brook Park with city ahead in the distance. / Cleveland Browns and HKS.

Cleveland city council President Blaine Griffin has an idea that could spark a resolution to the Browns ongoing stadium negotiations.

Speaking in an interview with 92.3 The Fan's Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima, Griffin threw out the idea of a land swap between the city and Brook Park as a possibly solution. He acknowledged that it was merely a suggestion but understands it may cause a stir.

"I'm one of those guys that I will work with anybody," Blaine said. "If the Haslams or the mayor of Brook Park and others wanted to lock ourselves in a room and say 'let's figure it out,' and maybe if Brook Park is something that we can talk about – and I'm just throwing it out there – land swaps or other things, then I'll be willing to have conversations. But I just think it's gonna to be too cumbersome to do that and the lakefront is the best ideal place to do this."

The land in question is the 176-acre space in Brook Park that team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam have a purchase agreement to acquire to potentially build a domed stadium. The project would also come with an accompanying mixed-use development. In it's entirety the proposal comes with a price tag around $3.8 billion. Ironically that land once belonged to the city before the closure of two Ford Motor Co. plants on the site.

Blaine went on to explain why requiring the land makes sense for both the city and Brook Park.

"I don't know [if they'd consider a land swap], and I know I may have started a controversy," Blaine said. "But I'll be honest with you, I don't know the mayor of Brook Park but he seems like a very reasonable person that we wouldn't want to overwhelm and inundate them. Listen, it's $90,000 just to cover the police on game day alone. I don't know how many police Brook Park has but we struggle to send police down there to start to cover game day now, with the shortages we have. To have that type of burden on their community is something they need to think about. This is where regional partnership and regional collaboration come in."

Blaine went on to explain that right now he hasn't seen the effort to bargain a land swap or any type of agreement between Brook Park and the city. He reiterated that he'd be willing to get in a room and hash it out though.

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If the Haslams move forward with the proposal they have said they will cover about half of the cost of stadium, about $1.2 billion. The other half would be funded by bonds backed by local governments and eventually paid off by the tax revenues earned from the entire development.

That setup is why the Browns need entities like the city and county on board to acquire the bonds. Over the weekend the county expressed in a letter to the Haslams that they were not in support of the Brook Park plan, instead pushing for a renovation to the current stadium.

The city has expressed similar sentiments in recently in a letter of their own that outlined an offer to contribute $461 million to renovate the Cleveland Browns Stadium. The city initially gave the Haslams an Aug. 12 deadline to respond but that date has since passed without any follow up from the team owners at this point.