The Browns Are More Than A Building
Courtesy of: Cleveland Browns Official Twitter
MEGA-PROJECTS!!! YEAH!!! HIT ME WITH THOSE SWEET, JUICY MEGA-PROJECTS!!!
Don’t just make it super expensive, make it —
MEGA-EXPENSIVE!!!!
That’ll fix ‘em. All the Cleveland Browns need is a new stadium and Deshaun Watson’s troubled past will disappear. Once the city builds a new stadium, Kevin Stefanski will give up play calling and let his coordinators do their jobs.
Once we get a new stadium…
It doesn’t matter. None of this matters. This isn’t about where the Browns play football. It’s about getting Taylor Swift to play here. It’s about getting NCAA Final Four tournaments, and putting in bids for Super Bowls. MAYBE AN OLYMPICS!!!
But no, this has nothing to do with the Browns, or their history.
I’ve said before that I don’t really care where they play. I’d prefer it to be on the lake, but don’t twist my arm too hard into a brand-new stadium twenty minutes outside the city.
Yes, wrap your head around the eye-watering figures and the dazzling renderings that promise to transform a boring plot of land into a buzzing hive of sports, concerts, and whatever fantastical events that supposedly justify the astronomical costs. It’s a narrative so polished, so irresistible that it makes the fiscal prudence of investing in an objectively tragic and composite stadium seem downright mundane.
But let’s cut through the hype for a second. What are we really talking about here? Is this just a ploy wrapped in civic pride but truly aimed at lining pockets and boosting real estate values? The kind of ploy where the community bears the cost while the benefits somehow trickle upwards, not downwards?
Probably, but we’ll still have the Browns AND more Drake! Everyone loves that guy, right? That reminds me, I still have to listen to Kendrick’s new track…
The promise of a new stadium carries the allure of high-stakes games and glittering halftime shows that might — just might — overshadow the decades of tradition and loyal support that the current location embodies. But what does shifting locations actually offer the average fan? Improved access to million-dollar nachos? A better angle to see the Jumbotron? Or is it just a smoother route for the affluent to glide into their luxury boxes, far removed from the die-hards braving the elements that their loyal supporters call home?
(Hint: It’s the last one.)
This isn’t about where the Browns play football. It might not even be a meaningful evolution of the fan experience. Perhaps the true value of a stadium isn’t in its concrete and steel but in your head — the moments don’t necessarily require a specific location to exist, they just need space and someone to see them and to remember.
Let’s face it: the drama of whether the Browns will stay lakeside or move to a suburban dome is laden with financial benefits you’ll never see, wrapped up in the allure of the “new” that might tempt us to forget the value of the “tradition.” There isn’t value in any of it. You can’t put a price on memories, celebrations, and lamentations because they are worthless to everyone except for YOU and the people YOU shared them with. Your memories are worthless to the Haslams, because they can’t be exchanged for the things they want: Dollars. Spectacle. And more of both.
More.
More!
More!
The stakes are high, the clock is ticking, and a decision that will shape the skyline, the economy, and the very identity of Cleveland will be coming soon. Will the Browns be forced to stay rooted in the rugged charm of their lakefront stronghold? Or will they chase a shinier, albeit costlier, future in Brook Park?
If they tear down the stadium and build a new one it doesn’t change the fact that you were there when the Browns beat the Bills in the snow in 2007 with nothing but Phil Dawson’s foot. You were there to see every returned touchdown Josh Cribbs gave you, and every NFL-record snap Joe Thomas took.
Nothing can take that away from you. They won’t be torn down with the building. Wherever they play next, you’ll bring them with you.
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