Haslam Sports Group says it is investing more than $4 billion across four Ohio cities, detailing the scale of its stadium and development projects in Berea, Brook Park, Cleveland and Columbus in an announcement published by the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday, November 11.
The centerpiece is the new Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park, which the group describes as a $2.6 billion total investment and Ohio’s first enclosed stadium, set to open in 2029 just minutes from downtown Cleveland and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. According to the Browns’ announcement, Haslam Sports Group is funding more than $1.75 billion of the stadium cost, including all cost overruns, with $600 million financed by a state performance grant repaid by project revenue and $245 million funded by Brook Park bonds backed by project-generated tax revenue.
President Dave Jenkins framed the spending in the announcement around the group’s stated mission. Jenkins told the Cleveland Browns’ official site: “Win, Fan, Community has long been how the Haslam family decides where every dollar goes.” He added, in the same announcement: “Our fans deserve venues built around them, our communities deserve investments that help them thrive and the athletes that make up our teams deserve world class training facilities.”
Next to the stadium, the group is planning a $1 billion privately funded mixed-use development it describes as a “live, work, play” neighborhood, with two hotels near the airport, a 3,000-seat year-round music venue, dining, experiential retail, residential and office space. The announcement says the first phase is set to open alongside the stadium in 2029, and that the Brook Park project alone will create more than 5,000 construction jobs, with an estimated $3.3 billion in local fiscal impact over 30 years.
In Berea, two projects are underway around the Browns’ training facility. The CrossCountry Mortgage expansion is a $178 million privately funded investment that includes a 7,000-seat community stadium for high school football, 150 apartments with 10,000 square feet of retail, a 140-room Marriott hotel called “The Barker,” the University Hospitals Sports Medicine Institute clinic and the Browns Experience Center. The announcement says the Experience Center, the UH institute and office space are already open, with the hotel set to open in July 2027 and the community stadium in August 2027.
A separate $70 million privately funded modernization of the training facility itself focuses on an expanded player locker room, cafeteria and lounge, an upgraded team meeting room and modern meeting spaces, according to the announcement.
The Cleveland piece of the portfolio is a $100 million investment the group says it is making as part of its agreement with Mayor Justin Bibb to help accelerate the lakefront transformation and prepare the current stadium site for redevelopment once the team moves to Brook Park.
The Columbus investments total $253 million across Astor Park, the OhioHealth Training Grounds and a new locker room at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, tied to bringing a National Women’s Soccer League team to Columbus. The training grounds will include a 45,000-square-foot facility with three heated grass pitches, a 3,700-square-foot weight room with an altitude room, a natatorium and recovery spaces, and the project is set to be complete in December 2027, ahead of an inaugural season in 2028, according to the announcement.
Astor Park, already home to the 20,371-seat ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, adds 17,000 square feet of first-floor retail, more than 440 apartments, an office building and a 2.5-acre riverfront park. The announcement notes the stadium, opened in 2021, was the group’s first and served as the proof of concept for the Brook Park vision.
The group says the work is being built by Ohio companies, with a goal of more than 40 percent of contract participation from local contractors on the new Huntington Bank Field, and that the Columbus NWSL project is creating more than 110 full-time club jobs and more than 230 construction jobs.
For Northeast Ohio readers, the near-term milestones are in Berea, where the hotel and community stadium arrive in 2027, while the Brook Park stadium and its surrounding development remain a 2029 story. NewsForce247 has also covered the Browns’ on-field decisions this month, including the team’s choice to stand pat at the trade deadline, and the lakefront neighborhood next door to the current stadium, where Bratenahl’s board recently approved privacy trees and a fence for a Lake Erie estate.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: What we know is the group’s own accounting of its investments, timelines and funding splits, as published by the Cleveland Browns on November 11. What is still to come are the construction milestones themselves — the Berea openings in 2027, the Columbus training grounds that December, and the Brook Park stadium in 2029 — each of which will test the estimates the group published this week.
What happens next is continued construction in Berea and Columbus through 2027, while Brook Park moves toward its 2029 opening. NewsForce247 will follow the local-contractor participation and job figures as the projects report them.
Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY