Brook Park Mayor Edward Orcutt says he is not signing off on the Browns’ stadium project until all financial details are confirmed.
In Brook Park, Ohio, 3News recently had a discussion with Mayor Edward Orcutt regarding the progress of the proposed $2.4 billion domed stadium by the Cleveland Browns in the city.
Orcutt said he’s not signing off on anything until all the numbers are right.
“We have to prepare ourselves for the worst-case scenario,” Orcutt explained. “We want to make sure that there is a backstop.”
So what would that “backstop” or financial safety net be?
Mayor Orcutt expressed his growing confidence in the project, describing it as a puzzle being pieced together within the city of Brook Park.
He confidently stated that he believes the stadium will indeed be constructed at the former Ford Motor Company site in town. However, he is diligently collaborating with his financial and engineering departments to validate the feasibility of the project.
“What we’re going to have to do is over the next few months … we have to be definitive of what money is available to be able to make this project a reality,” he asserted. “Then what we want to do from there is make sure that we have everything in line to be able to get that shovel in the ground in 2026.”
Orcutt says from a financial standpoint, they’re still trying to lock down bonds from Cuyahoga County and figure out the tax rate increases for Brook Park residents. In their stadium financing plan, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam proposed having the city provide $422 million of the $1.2 million needed in public funding, and 3News media partner Cleveland.com reports this money would be generated by increasing the city’s admissions tax from 3.5% to 6.5%, creating an 8% parking tax, and using all city income tax dollars generated from the site.
In the building department, officials are working on rezoning the project site properly and they’re calculating how costly infrastructure changes surrounding the stadium would be.
“What I want to make sure of is that if the product that is projected to be delivered is not there, then we’ll have to have a backstop to be able to have another source of revenue to pay for that,” he said. “We are a business. Brook Park definitely needs to bring in revenue from the 175 acres that are there. That revenue will be utilized to operate the city.”
Orcutt said extra revenue from the stadium would go towards increased operational costs for the city, new fire trucks, police vehicles, and ambulances, and towards building repairs.
