Details of the settlement require HSG to pay the city $25 million by Dec. 1 and for it to demolish the current 25-year-old stadium to a state of being pad-ready, a project estimated to cost $30 million.

In addition, starting on Jan. 1, 2029, HSG will pay the city $5 million a year every year until 2033, totaling $25 million over five years. Upon termination of the team’s current lease, which is slated to expire in 2029, HSG will invest no less than $2 million per year over the next 10 years on a mutually agreed community benefit project totaling no less than $20 million.

“This $100M investment continues our lakefront momentum and economic resurgence,” said Mayor Justin Bibb in a statement “This agreement puts the lakefront on the path to transformational development and the Browns on the path to a world-class facility in Brook Park.”

The city and the team owner had been at odds over the team’s plan to vacate its current home to build a new domed stadium. The team recently named AECOM Hunt-Turmer JV as construction managers for the new stadium.

After announcing in October 2024 their plan to build the new stadium outside the city, the Browns filed a lawsuit seeking to keep the city from using the Art Modell law to prevent them from moving. The law, named for a former Browns team owner, was passed in 1996 in Ohio to prevent professional sports teams playing in publicly funded facilities from relocating without giving local governments and potential local buyers a chance to retain them in place.

In response, the city filed a lawsuit seeking to enforce the law. Then, in early 2025, the state of Ohio changed the Modell Law to allow teams to move within the state without penalty. At the same time, the state approved giving the Browns $600 million in unclaimed taxpayer funds to help build the new stadium.

"We tried to fight the good fight," Bibb said. "But at the end of the day, the city council had one clear mandate for the administration: Don't leave the city of Cleveland empty-handed in this deal."

HSG has begun site work for the new stadium on 176 acres of land that is expected to also include a mixed-use development. The team wants to begin stadium construction in 2026.

The team’s decision to relocate opens opportunities for the city to revitalize its downtown lakefront, according to the city. Calling it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity," Bibb unveiled in July the Cleveland Era plan, which is intended to rejuvenate the city’s downtown lakefront including 50 acres of publicly owned land. The city is currently in the process of identifying development partners for the plan that calls for $5 billion in development along Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River, $100 million to transform 1,000 acres of underutilized land into a re-industrialized area—that it says would create 25,000 jobs—and a $1.6-billion modernization of Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport.

In September, the Ohio Dept. of Transportation (ODOT) approved a construction permit for the team’s new stadium, reversing an August decision denying the permit because airport officials had complained that the stadium exceeded the height limit by 58 ft. at its highest point.

“We will continue to work with the Browns, HSG, the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and the leadership team at the airport to ensure that not only will we have the best in class domed stadium, but a nearly $2 billion modernization of the airport,” Bibbs said.

“It’s not in our interest to have bad traffic,” said team owner Jimmy Haslam at a press conference. “It’s not in the airport’s interest or the city’s. It’s in our interest to work together.... Five years from now, you’re going to come into a modern airport and it’s going to be hooked into great transportation and you are going to see one of the most significant sports stadiums in the world.”

The airport is currently undergoing a $1.6-billion modernization effort that includes a new, larger terminal planned to open in 2032—and reported to be twice the size of the existing terminal—as well as a consolidated security checkpoint, expanded lobby and baggage claim, new international facility, surface parking slated for completion in 2026 and a 6,000-space parking garage expected to open in 2029.