This month the Browns announced they bought 176 acres of land in Brook Park located about 30 seconds from the airport. It's the site of the once proud and gigantic Ford Casting and Engine Plants that supplied generations with good jobs. It was the home of the legendary 351 Cleveland Engine in the day, with Ford building 34 million engines of various types there since 1951. In its prime it employed 15,000 people every day. The plant now is 99% gone but Ford still has some presence there, but nothing like before.
In Its Prime - Local Legendary Place
I grew up about 10 minutes from this site in Berea and had friends who's dad or mom worked there. On one side there is 1-71, on another is I-480, on another are heavily used railroad tracks and Snow Road on the other. Just over the tracks is Route 237 then Hopkins Airport. And just before 480, there is Brookpark Road. Ever since they tore down much of the plant, I have wondered what was going to happen on this property. The airport can't expand that way, and I suppose they could build millions of square feet of storage warehouses, someone already has on a very small scale. But the area is incredibly unique.
A domed stadium there? I know that's charged many people up and I get where they're coming from. The Browns have always played on the lakefront, it's tradition. The Lakefront is a site like few others in sports, and that's not lost on me. The Indians/Guardians played there as well for generations, and League Park before that. But today we celebrate them far more at Progressive Field one of MLB's best ballparks. Many have stated that the purchased site is like the old Coliseum site in Richfield, but it's not at all. This site is about 10 miles from downtown, where the Coliseum was about 25, but seemed further as it was far more difficult for many to get to. And there was (and still is) nothing around the Coliseum site, a place we all loved during its wonderful life.
What's interesting about this purchase is this. As where the current stadium is a very unique site and gives the Browns an identity, the new site has great potential if chosen to be among the most unique areas in sports if done properly, and that would be the key. It's a stones throw from the airport, NASA, and a huge MId-West Train rail switch-yard. If you hired the right architects and engineers to do this, and built a dome with a surrounding area, revitalizing the entire area with proper themes and imagination it could be incredible. But you'd have to do it right, and pay homage to a place that was once exceedingly important to the city, and make it so again. It could become the Browns new identity, on a famous site that personified the work ethic of an entire region matching the team's history. But all of that would require a lot of really smart, visionary people and governmental cooperation.
You would also have to make it accessible to ALL roads and interstates because everyone knows the current stadium parking and traffic is a mess. The thoroughfares surrounding this property are major and would all need to be updated around the site. The RTA station is right there, and you would have to incorporate the Rapid Trains (The Main Red Line) to stop at the stadium on event days. And it would need easy access to Hopkins. If you used your head, you could have a brilliant plan here. And if you decided on this, use those same smart, inventive type of people to reinvent the lakefront downtown and start something great there if the current stadium or site isn't in the plans.
All I am saying here is this. I have no idea who pays for what, how much, or any of that as that's not what this writing is about. I'm saying if this is where things go, those involved must, must, must do it right and understand the potential to be very different and to own a venue like no other in America. You'd have a dome, next a major airport, near the I-X Center on the highways. You could attract any event on earth, and possibly spur a lot growth. It's also about 5 minutes from the Browns Headquarters, and it's still Cuyahoga County where Brook Park sits. And if you literally drive 30 seconds north you're in the city of Cleveland.
Who knows where the Browns will or not not go, but I know this. This was purchased for a reason, and if you follow the money it generally takes you where you want to go for answers. If I had to bet on where this is going, I'd say the days on the Lakefront are dwindling down to a few more years.
And if that's right, please do it right. Really right.
