You are Cordially Invited to the 25th Anniversary of the Publication of
My Cleveland Story
by Greg Cielec
at Corleone's Restaurant and Bar in Parma
5669 Broadview Road
June 2 at 6:30
Besides the company of many old friends thew night includes dinner, house wine and beer,
plus a new copy of the novel.
$65 includes all of the above plus a small donation will be given to the Cleveland Food Bank
for each person in attendance.
Spots are limited
Call 216.741.0220 for reservations
Isn’t it time to stop this stupid idea of building a domed stadium in Brook Park? There are so many reasons why it just shouldn’t happen.
Let’s start with the location. I grew up in the southwest suburbs, stretching west to east from the airport to the Cuyahoga River, from Old Brooklyn to the north and Medina County to the south. I know the Ford sight in Brook Park, there just isn’t enough room for all they are promising. There is the airport to the west and south, Interstate 480 along with a major train corridor to the north, and to the east are several small neighborhoods and Holy Cross Cemetery. Are we going to build new hotels between the runways at Hopkins? Put sports bars between the gravestones at the cemetery?
The Haslems did not know what downtown was like before it came back. The saving of the theaters, building of Gateway, the transformation of the Cleveland State campus, and, of course, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Downtown is the epicenter of the region. And they must realize that Cleveland isn’t Dallas or Los Angeles. Anything built in Brook Park as far as hotels and restaurants would just replace the same type of business downtown.
Northern Ohio is a downtown centered urban area. The Cavs and Indians play there. Playhouse Square is there. Our major public university is there. The hub for our mass transit is there. Major hotels are located there. Downtown is the reason we are able to attract events like NCAA basketball early rounds for men and the finals for women. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is there.
Many people choose to stay downtown and walk to the games, whether they are at Progressive Field, Rocket Arena, or First Energy Stadium. Many of us have a favorite place to tailgate and, again, walk to the game. That is especially true for Browns games. Many of us meet friends at various sites and take public transportation downtown for games, again especially true for the Browns games.
In 1990 there was less than a thousand full time residents downtown, in 2023 there was over 21,000. Many of those people are living downtown so they can walk to Progressive Field to see the Guardians play; walk to Play House Square to see plays and concerts; and to walk to lakefront to see the Browns play. Many of those people spent good money to live downtown, in a walking community. How many people are going to be able to walk to games from home, or from a hotel for that matter, if the Browns move to Brook Park?
Making the Brook Park stadium for the fans is a myth. Making it as a money maker for the owners is more like it. They want to b e like Jerry Jones. They want to control everything from tickets, to parking, to everything in and out of the stadium. But again, this isn’t Dallas. My Dawg Pound seats cost $45 a piece in 2012 when the Haslems came on board. This season they will be $165 a piece. Two tickets to every game comes out to over $3300 for the season. And mine are the cheap seats! What are seats going to cost in the new stadium? Are fans going to have to pay for yet another PSL?
The Browns currently sell out each game in the current stadium. Does that warrant billions of dollars being spent on a new one? The Browns talk attracting Super Bowls and Final Fours. If those ever happen, it will be only once. The NFL favors warm weather for the Super Bowl, and every covered football and baseball stadium in the country bids on the Final Four. We would have to wait our turn with thirty other sights. Are we going to spend three billion dollars on two events that might happen once over the next thirty years?
Another myth is about concerts. Stadium size tours happen during the summer, when more venues, covered or uncovered, are available. During the winter established artists now do residencies at arena size or smaller venues, such as Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, or the Eagles and U2 in Las Vegas.
We have two very functional convention centers, the Huntington downtown and the IX Center near the airport. Between the two of them Greater Cleveland can accommodate almost any show or convention possible, from the Republican Convention to a major car show every year. We don’t need a domed stadium for conventions or trade shows.
Does the supposed cost of the project include infrastructure? How are we going to get there? I480 and the Brook Park rapid station are not even slightly able to accommodate a Browns crowd. And who is going to pay for the construction over runs to upgrade those things? Those of us of a certain age will remember the traffic hassles of getting to and from the Coliseum in Richfield, and that seated a little under 20,000. What about the traffic that will be caused by a crowd of over 70,000? What a mess that will be. Can you imagine trying to catch a flight at the airport on a Browns game day?
So many Cleveland traditions will be eliminated. Tailgating in the Muny Lots. Tailgating where my crowd does, in one of the lots in the Flats. Taking busses and the rapid downtown on game day. Staying in a downtown hotel the night before Sunday games, or the night after Monday and Thursday night games. Bar hopping in the Warehouse District or on East 4th Street before and after games. What about the bars in Tremont, Ohio City, and the Flats who run shuttles on Sunday to Browns games? They are not going to run shuttles to Brook Park.
If the Haslems really want to do something for their fans they could put a quality product on the field, starting with cleaning up their front office and their outside business interests. Since they took over in 2012 not only have ticket prices gone up greatly, but problems off the field keep surfacing. Since 2012 there has been seven head coaches and six general managers for the team. You wonder who will survive this season. The team has had only two winning seasons and their first ever 0-16 season. In 2018 seventeen former employees of Haslem’s gas and oil company pleaded guilty in a fraud scheme that ripped off some of their best customers. Haslem was guilty of either being in on it or not knowing what was going on inside the higher end of his company. In 2023 Federal prosecutors investigated Haslem attempting to bribe Pilot executives to inflate the worth of the company so the final payment in the sale to Warren Buffett would be larger than what it should be. The case was settled out of court.
Most football people, including some of those on the coaching staff at the time, were not enamored with the drafting of Johnny Manziel. His drinking and partying lifestyle were no secret around the Texas A&M campus, and most scouts saw his college game skills not transferring to the NFL. The Watson trade was greeted with even more apathy. No football people throughout the NFL thought it was a good deal, including some of those who were on the Browns coaching staff at the time. The franchise will be haunted for five to eight seasons by sending three first round draft picks to Houston in the trade. One of the reasons the Browns gave up on Quarterback Baker Mayfied during the Watson fiasco was a maturity issue. I guess sexual assault doesn’t figure in the Browns definition of maturity.
The one constant through all of this mess has been team ownership.
Greg Cielec, cielec@hotmail.com, 216.496.8286
Two articles every Browns fan should read:
Brent Larkin’s essay in the Sunday Plain Dealer on April 13, also on Cleveland.com.
Zurie Pope’s article “The Haslems gave big donations to Ohio Lawmakers, who are now deciding the fate of Browns stadium.” April 7, 2025, ohiocapitaljournal.com
A documentary every Ohioan should see:
“Ohio Confidential” The HBO original documentary series The Dark Money Game. Episode 1, Season 1.
