While the Browns are trying to put together a better team on the field, they are also starting discussions about what their home in Cleveland will look like in the future.
Browns owner Dee Haslam told ESPN that the team has started studying that could include a new stadium in a different part of Cleveland or a redevelopment plan that would renovate First Energy Stadium while also creating commercial, retail or residential space in the surrounding area.
“The main thing is to start the conversation, at some point,” Haslam said. “I don’t know that we’re ready to start the conversation, but we are ready to get all the information we can about what’s possible. So I think it’s really important to find out what’s possible. There could be a lot of great ideas that we might not be able to do because it’s not feasible for one reason or another. I don’t want to get the horse in front of the cart until we’re knowledgeable enough to know, because we’re not informed enough to know right now. But we do know that we have a desire to make a bigger impact on the future of Cleveland.”
There is a lot to figure out and the Browns have time to do that as their current lease runs through 2029, so there aren’t any concrete notions about what a redevelopment plan would look like or where a new stadium could be built. Haslam said that the latter decision should be “a decision by the people of Cleveland and the planners” and that the team’s goal in whatever they do is to do “the right thing for the people of Cleveland.”
