Cleveland Browns' improvement plan for FirstEnergy Stadium before City Council today (LIVE coverage)
FirstEnergy Stadium renovation proposal
The Cleveland Browns will appear before Cleveland City Council this morning to ask for $2 million for each of the next 15 years for improvements to FirstEnergy Stadium.
(Courtesy of the Cleveland Browns)
Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group By
Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group
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on November 25, 2013 at 8:30 AM, updated November 25, 2013 at 2:46 PM
Tune in to the comments section below, beginning at 9:30 a.m., for live updates on the hearing.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and the Cleveland Browns today will ask City Council to tap the general fund for $2 million in each of the next 15 years for upgrades to the “fan experience” at city-owned FirstEnergy Stadium.
Some council members have said in recent interviews that they would not support the financing agreement unless it is clear in the stadium lease that the city is obligated to pay for the kinds of renovations that are planned.
Jackson and Browns CEO Joe Banner announced Tuesday that they had reached a tentative agreement on the financing of $120 million worth of proposed stadium upgrades, which include two enormous, high-definition scoreboards, faster escalators and a state-of-the-art sound system.
The Browns would cover half of the expense with loans from the NFL and take out a bank loan for the remainder. The city would contribute $30 million over 15 years – estimated at $22 million when adjusted for inflation – to offset that cost.
What bank is providing the loan? What does their balance sheet look like? Who picks up the tab if Haslam defaults on the loan? Where are these funds coming from?
The city also will give the Browns organization more input on how to spend about $12 million of the $24 million already in the stadium's existing capital improvement fund, which is set by the stadium lease and fed by the existing Cuyahoga County tax on alcohol and cigarette sales, known as a sin tax. In exchange for having input on the capital repairs fund, the Browns will allow the city to reduce its payments to the fund in the final years of the lease.
Their "improvement capital fund" does not come anywhere near covering these improvements. Once again, who picks up the tab if Haslam defaults?
Those payments, however, balloon toward the end of the lease – increasing from $850,000 a year to more than $5 million in the last five years. And the sin tax will expire in 2015 if voters do not approve an extension, leaving the city’s general fund to pick up that tab.
What if this awful sin tax does not get passed again? Who will pick up the tab then? I will guess new taxes to offset this cost?
Visit the comments section below beginning at 9:30 a.m., when council will debate the issue. Council also is expected to vote on legislation related to Cuyahoga County's convention center hotel.