The Cleveland Browns owners’ plan for a stadium in Brook Park already survived a battle between the legislature and governor over how $600 million in state money would be raised, and is still facing additional challenges including a potential class action suit over using unclaimed property funds, another city suit over the team violating its lease by negotiating a move, plus the fact that the plan relies on another $600 million in city and county money that hasn’t yet been identified. But on Friday, the Ohio Department of Transportation added a new, unexpected wrinkle when it denied the team’s request for a construction permit, because the stadium would be so tall that planes could crash into it:
“Although the structure was given clearance from the FAA, ODOT deferred to the Cleveland Airport System’s determination that the structure would impact the airspace of the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport,” ODOT explained in a statement released on Friday evening. “The deferral to local airport authorities is standard for all development proposals considered by ODOT that are over height but received clearance from the FAA.”
The Browns stadium being subject to a potential veto from the Cleveland Airport System, which is run by the city of Cleveland, whose officials very much do not want the Browns to move to Brook Park, would be quite the turn of events. Cleveland port control director Bryant Francis has apparently been raising objections with both ODOT and the FAA since March, and an ODOT spokesperson said yesterday that “If an airport has any objections to a permit due to safety concerns, it has generally been ODOT’s practice to deny the permit based on the airport’s concerns,” and then get the two sides to sit down and work out a compromise.
How serious is the crashy-planes thing, and is this just Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb using every lever he can to stall the project? Browns execs certainly implied that it’s just a pretext, noting that the FAA had approved the stadium plans even though the building would exceed federal height standards, because it wouldn’t significantly interfere with flight paths. The last time something like this went to court, after Phoenix sued neighboring Tempe for a planned Arizona Coyotes arena development near its airport that it said would be too tall, the whole thing ended up moot when Tempe voters rejected the arena proposal at the ballot box, so that doesn’t tell us much in terms of legal precedent.
None of which may matter: Browns owner Jimmy Haslam can still file an appeal with ODOT by the end of the month, and if that fails he can still reduce the stadium in height (difficult, since it’s already going to have a field 80 feet below ground level) or move it farther away from the airport (possibly less difficult), so this isn’t necessarily a permanent roadblock. It is more gamesmanship, though, and could force Haslam to wait to open his new stadium until 2030, which would require extending their lease at their current stadium in Cleveland for a year, which could lead to even more gamesmanship. All’s fair in love and stadium leverage, so don’t expect any of these legal battles to calm down anytime soon.
Ah, the classic lower the stadium or raise the airport dilemma. This also came up with the Rams Inglewood stadium. A competing stadium group even got former DHS head, Tom Ridge to say its proximity to LAX would make it a prime terrorist target. But that issue, as well as Tom Ridge, seemed to just go away. I expect you’ll hear it again in Kansas City and Arlington Heights.
How much you think a former goon-squad authority like Ridge gets paid for a gig like that? I’d hope it’s at least a suite for a division rival game, not like the Browns or somebody.
The stadium height issue didn’t just go away in Inglewood. They had to build the stadium with the field level far below ground level to get final approval.
Wouldn’t it be great if Mr. Francis turned out to be a Bengals or Ravens fan/season ticket holder?
That aside, the solution here is obvious… Ohio taxpayers should simply pay to demolish the airport and move it a few thousand yards further away from the site the Haslams want to have someone else pay them to build on.
Keeping billionaires happy in Western Democracies is of primary importance. It is called capitalism because those with the Capital make all the rules and clearly, in this case, that is the Haslams. An Arabic saying from the middle ages translates something like this: “The needs of others are not the concern of the sultan”.
Or as we like to put it, “you aren’t going to notice that from 30,000 feet.”
(Even a missing airport???)
Nothing else matters, including whether their companies obey the law or whether their football team is and ever shall be a catastrophic failure.
Because Capital.
Why let something as useless as the Rocky River Preserve Metropark get in the way after NFL football? Just send in the bulldozers and fill in that silly nature preserve and relocate runway 28. Then Haslam can build his stadium as tall as he wants. A 1,010 meter tall Brook Park Tower would surpass the Jeddah Tower, and a giant football on top would look like the Vince Lombardy Trophy. That’s a way to put Brook Park on the map, priceless! Who cares if Cuyahoga County files bankruptcy?
John, after reading your observation, I will have to increase my Effexor dosage, plus my sponsor will want to hear from me, and my group members will want to know what dark alleys you frequent.
LOL!
and actually, now that I think about it, I think a more correct translation would be:
“the ease of others is not the concern….”
Brodie Brazille had a very good breakdown on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF6pULwXjQc
They will probably be able to just move the stadium within the site, or they just need to throw some cash at Cleveland to pay for the demolition of the current stadium.