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The Cleveland Browns may be facing a new financial hurdle in building a new stadium or making renovations to their current home.
“I’m no longer going to risk general new fund dollars for maintenance of a privately owned football franchise,” Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb said Wednesday in his State of the City address. “So we’ve got to be creative.”
Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam are in conversations with city officials on plans for a new stadium — but also considering renovations to their current one, which was built in 1999 when the franchise returned to the NFL.
A June 2022 report claimed the Browns wanted to build a publicly funded $1 billion domed stadium, which the Haslams denied in favor of focusing on renovations to the existing venue.
The team’s current lease at Cleveland Browns Stadium — which recently ended its naming rights sponsorship with FirstEnergy — runs through 2028.
Bibb recently proposed using $20 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to invest in Cleveland’s lakefront area— and that a new Browns stadium or renovations would have to fit “into a larger piece of making us have one of the best lakefronts in the world.”
Ravens Bank On Name
The Baltimore Ravens and M&T Bank have once again extended their naming rights deal to the NFL team’s 71,000-seat stadium. The Ravens announced that they’ll keep the bank’s name outside their home for another 15 seasons.
The current agreement was set to expire in 2027.
