It’s time for another missive from NEOtrans, the Cleveland blog that first reported that the Browns owners were seeking a new stadium rather than renovations to their existing one way back in June 2022. The blog’s proprietor, railroad expert Ken Prendergast, has a particular propensity for stories with no named sources, and his latest is no exception:
It seems that the clock has run out on city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County leaders on keeping the stadium downtown for the Cleveland Browns football team’s home games. NEOtrans has learned that the Browns’ owners, the Haslam Sports Group, are due to make an announcement soon, possibly by the end of this month, that they will put all their efforts into building a new covered stadium in suburban Brook Park.
Prendergast gives no indication — not even a “sources close to the team” or anything — who he has learned this from, so there’s no way to tell if this is news or a rumor he heard from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about or an attempt by somebody to put pressure on Cleveland city officials to up their ante or what. And on top of that, it’s a rumor we’ve heard from him before: Back on August 6, Prendergast wrote, “In the coming weeks, the owners of the Cleveland Browns will reveal their plans to build a $3.6 billion domed stadium and associated development in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park.”
That was ten weeks ago, so this still qualifies as “coming weeks,” but only barely. The latest post doesn’t provide any new info on Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam’s decision, repeating earlier reports that the stadium would cost $2.4 billion and the Haslams would want $1.2 billion of that in public money.
As for the Haslam’s half, there’s more unsourced reporting on where that could come from:
The Browns appear eager to tap a new source of capital. In August, the National Football League (NFL) owners approved the use of private equity investment as a component of the ownership structure of its teams. Private equity firms could purchase as little as 3 percent or as much as a 10 percent equity stake in a team…
Based on that value, a firm could pay anywhere from $180 million to $600 million to take an equity stake in the Browns. That, perhaps as much as anything, is why the Browns are now focused on Brook Park.
Huh? Sure, the Haslams could sell 10% of their team to private equity to raise half their private share of a stadium cost. But before this they could have likewise sold 10% of their team to a minority owner, or used 10% of their team as collateral for a bank loan, or sold some of their other $4 billion worth of assets, or any of a number of other things. Billionaires don’t generally lack ways to raise cash for a stadium deal — even A’s owner John Fisher has sources of money, if he can figure out how to pay it back — so much as ways to raise cash that don’t cost them more than they’d make on the deal, and giving up 10% of a franchise worth $6 billion according to CNBC ($5.1 billion according to Forbes, the more conventionally used guesstimate) would be a significant cost, especially since the theoretical private equity goons would presumably want a cut of future revenues from the hypothetical future stadium.
This whole “NFL teams can tap private equity money” bit is making the news rounds at the moment — look, here’s Forbes contributer (aka unpaid blogger) Phil Rogers theorizing that it’ll make it easier for the Chicago Bears to raise money for their own $2 billion–plus stadium. But while it does increase the universe of potential investors in NFL teams, it doesn’t change the main calculation: how to get public funding for these buildings, since that wouldn’t have to be paid back out of owners’ pockets.
The public price tag for a Brook Park stadium for the Browns remains $1.2 billion, which the Haslams have previously said would come from “innovative funding mechanisms with local, county, and state officials that would leverage the fiscal impact of the project,” whatever that means. Brook Park doesn’t have any significant money, Cuyahoga County says it’s not interested in paying to help move the Browns out of Cleveland, and there’s been no word lately of Gov. Mike DeWine offering to carry the bulk of the $1.2 billion load — so we’re back at “Haslams want a suburban dome as soon as someone else agrees to pay for it.” They can “announce” that as their first choice if they want, but until someone shows up with a $1.2 billion novelty check, it’s more a wish than an agreement.