Procedural vote on Cleveland Browns stadium name-change turns into talk of redlining, poverty and respect (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland City Council held a special last-minute meeting on Wednesday to formally approve the new name of Cleveland Browns stadium as Huntington Bank Field.

Council approved the name change in a vote that was largely seen as a formality. Cleveland’s lease with the Browns for the city-owned stadium compels council members to sign off on naming rights unless the name runs afoul of the law somehow or is seen to embarrass Cleveland via things like derogatory or sexual language.

Fourteen of council’s 17 members attended the 27-minute hearing. All but one – Councilman Mike Polensek -- signed off on the name change.

Even though it was mostly a procedural meeting, dialogue among a few council members got heated – perhaps not much of a surprise, given the looming tensions over a possible deal between the Browns and Mayor Justin Bibb to extend the team’s lease and renovate the lakefront stadium.

Council President Blaine Griffin, at times, attempted to tamp down the emotion by lauding Huntington Bank’s lending record in Cleveland, and its recent decision to reopen a branch in the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood after protests from residents.

But heading into the vote, Polensek, along with council members Kevin Conwell and Brian Kazy, offered some pointed questions and criticisms.

Kazy asked a Browns lawyer -- who was present in an otherwise sparsely filled council chambers -- to disclose how much the team is getting from Huntington Bank in exchange for its 20-year naming rights deal.

The Browns lawyer refused to answer, saying the dollar figure is “proprietary.”

In the previous naming-rights deal with FirstEnergy, the Browns received $6 million annually.

Polensek was also critical of the secrecy. “This is going be tens and tens of millions of dollars, and no one can tell us [how much]? Can we get any for our neighborhoods?” he asked.

In response to those concerns, Griffin pointed out that the stadium lease includes no provisions that would require the Browns to disclose their profits from the deal publicly. And Griffin said the naming-rights money -- along with other team revenue sources, like the sale of broadcasting rights for games – goes to the Haslams, so they can use it to pay their share of the city’s 25-year-old debt for stadium construction.

Kevin Conwell, who represents much of Glenville, demanded the Browns commit to spend more money in neighborhoods like his. “I don’t want the Browns to get everything, and my people don’t get anything. They can’t even go to the stadium,” Conwell said.

Conwell wanted to see something similar to the team’s 2014 stadium renovation agreement with the city, when the Browns agreed to make improvements to football fields at various Cleveland schools.

But Griffin ultimately appeared to quell Conwell’s concerns by explaining how the vote on Wednesday was simply related to naming rights and was not related to any public financing for a future stadium renovation.

Both Conwell and Kazy ended up voting for the measure. Polensek held firm against it.

Polensek, the longest-serving member of council who represents much of Collinwood, railed against bank redlining on the East Side. He blasted Huntington Bank for failing to have a Community Reinvestment Act agreement with the city of Cleveland. Griffin responded that one would be finalized in the coming days, and that no bank has had such an agreement with Cleveland since 2014.

Polensek was also critical of the timing of council’s vote. Griffin had scheduled it for one day after what Polensek described as the Browns’ “grand announcement” on Tuesday, in which they publicly revealed the new name during a celebratory news conference.

The lease requires council to sign off on the name change before it can happen. It is “disrespectful,” Polensek said, for the team to have sought council approval after their big public rollout.

Citing Cleveland’s high poverty rates, especially among children, Polensek also lamented Cleveland’s historic spending on stadiums and the Browns’ threat to relocate to Brook Park. He criticized how council didn’t have a chance to question team or city officials about Huntington’s Community Reinvestment Act status before Wednesday’s vote.

“I want to know what the people of the city of Cleveland are getting out of this,” Polensek said.

Griffin noted how the lease allows the name-change to go forward after a 30-day waiting period if council chooses not to approve it.

He did not explicitly mention how that option -- had council exercised it -- would’ve scuttled the team’s desire to use the new name during Sunday’s home-opener.

Griffin also described how he coordinated the timing of Wednesday’s hearing to cater to the Browns. Had the name change been listed in a normal council meeting agenda, perhaps days before a meeting, it would’ve revealed the name change before the Browns wanted to go public. And the deal with Huntington Bank was at risk of falling through, if word had gotten out too early, Griffin said.