With Shedeur Sanders joining the Browns, there’s an extension of the ‘Prime Effect’ coming with him. However, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb is not "all-in" with the storied NFL franchise turning a corner and it’s all centered around the debate over a new stadium.
The local Cleveland government has a history of being resistant to public assistance for new stadiums. The worst event in Cleveland sports history happened because the city was not willing to assist Art Modell in funding for a new stadium. They asked Modell to wait, forcing him to move the team to Baltimore. A transgression that is still felt by Browns fans a quarter-century later.
“There are more important priorities than the Cleveland Browns," Bibb told Fox 8. “If they go to Brook Park, God bless them, good luck. But by hell or high water, we are going to develop a lakefront our residents can be proud of. It’s important that the city of Cleveland is not left empty-handed. The business community, the state, and the Browns must do the right thing transitioning the city of Cleveland, so we can continue the progress we’ve had on the Lakefront.”
Bibb’s comments are tone deaf to the conversation of progress. Cleveland has been working to rebuild the Lakefront since the Gateway project of 1990. The Browns are not impeding the city’s progress on upgrading.
The city wants its cake and to eat it too with multiple Browns ownership regimes having an issue with that. The Haslam’s have already secured $600 million from the state. Bibb’s last stand against the Brook Park project is falling on deaf ears. The notion of the Browns staying in the downtown city limits of Cleveland is a foregone conclusion.
Cleveland is a football town. When the Browns leave downtown, there is nothing they can add to the Lakefront that will replace its impact on downtown. It is also a football town that has failed to find its pivotal quarterback leader.
If Shedeur Sanders becomes that Knight in shining armor and wins games, there is no measure to what that would mean to Northeast Ohio. One of the most popular current football players in the landscape saving Cleveland from its 30-year torture. The attention and revenue that will generate will be historic.
With one of the biggest feathers in the cap of why Shedeur and by some extension Deion should love the Browns situation is in fact this stadium project, which should be hosting games before the end of Shedeur’s rookie contract.
If Sanders is the QB that was promised, he will rival Lebron James’ impact. That’s how meaningful the Browns are to Cleveland. If Bibb plans on digging his heels in resisting the owners, Cleveland will find themselves missing out on much revenue.
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