The City of Cleveland owes the Browns more than $2.6 million for repairs at Huntington Bank Field — the one on the lakefront, not the hypothetical dome in Brook Park.
Cleveland is reimbursing the team for what are known as “emergency repairs” — basic health and safety fixes. On the list are repairs to overhead concrete, fixes to the joints in the seating bowl and concourses, replacement of failed gutters, a new hot water heater and other work.
Several of the repairs have already been made, while others are ongoing, according to City Hall.
Paying for repairs is a routine expense for the city under the lease with the Browns. Between 2014 and 2024, the city was on the hook for $28 million in such work.
The latest cost is a reminder that taxpayers continue to shell out for the current facility, even as the Browns push to build a new one — and even as the city and the team fight over the stadium in court.
Every few years, City Hall and the Browns size up the city-owned stadium’s repair needs. The latest stadium repair audit said the building was in relatively good shape but still needed $10.4 million in emergency repairs. More repairs are likely down the road.
Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration asked City Council to sign off on the $2.6 million payment to the team. Council introduced the legislation this week before summer recess and hasn’t yet passed it. The next scheduled meeting is July 9. Money for repairs comes from Cuyahoga County’s sin tax on alcohol and cigarettes.
The dollar amount is small compared with the other figures thrown around in the Browns’ stadium fight: the city’s preferred $1.2 billion lakefront renovation, the Browns’ proposed $2.4 billion Brook Park dome, $600 million in state financing for a new stadium and so on.
With a billion dollars on the line, what’s $2.6 million between frenemies?
