Negotiations between the Browns and Columbus officials have been ongoing for some time, but the request, which the Plain Dealer’s Brent Larkin excoriated in a column published Thursday, was framed to highlight the facility’s community benefits.
“The Athletic Practice and Training Facility will serve as a backdrop for collegiate athletic teams and community youth programs to utilize throughout the year,” the Columbus Partnership document reads. “It will also attract professional athletic teams and franchises to our region.”
Larkin called the language underhanded and was outraged that all Ohio taxpayers (including Clevelanders) should have to foot the bill for the move from training camp’s current location in Berea.
He even suggested that if the funding is approved, local taxpayers might repeal the Sin Tax — we ought to anyway — and abandon political leaders who support the deal.
Message received by House Majority Whip Mike Dovila:
I’ve been fighting to kill the proposed taxpayer money-grab to move @Browns training camp from Berea. … https://t.co/TudBxDS40v
— Mike Dovilla (@mikedovilla) February 4, 2016
Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem told Scene in a phone interview Thursday that the situation’s not as devastating for Berea as Larkin may have made it seem. There’s often a confusion between “training camp” and Browns headquarters, he said.
“The headquarters are staying in Berea,” said Kleem. “They’ve agreed to stay through the 2028 season and they’ve been very open with us about the possibility of moving training camp.”
Kleem said that though he’d “obviously prefer” if training camp stayed in Berea, he wouldn’t classify the potential relocation as “a crisis.”
“We’re still pulling in about $3 million per year in income tax with the headquarters, and ever since the training camp moved from two-a-days to one-a-day in the mornings, we don’t see as much economic development from having it here,” Kleem said. “It’s a nice draw, but it’s not huge.”
To Larkin, Kleem estimated that Berea stood to lose about $40,000 per year in income tax revenue should the training camp move elsewhere.
Kleem told Scene that he hasn’t formulated an opinion on the funding mechanism for the Columbus facility — “the first time I heard about it was from Brent Larkin,” Kleem said — but stressed that Berea has had a very good relationship with the Browns and says, in general, that a pro team having its training camp someplace other than its home town isn’t unusual.
“A lot of people want to believe that Berea’s in a bad situation with the Browns,” Kleem said, in conclusion, “but from my perspective, it’s been a great situation.”
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2016.
The “Kleem Team” sound as if they are in Jimmy Haslam’s hip pocket…..and the low energy mayor does not feel the need to crawl out to see the sunlight. Haslam – again – shows himself to be a grinning, fast talking huckster. The state legislators and governor should tell him to pay every cent of the proposed Columbus training facility…..it’s bad enough that the public must be kicked down Shakedown Street for “NFL-worthy” stadiums.
So, Berea mayor doesn’t seem to understand the concern here. As a taxpayer that doesn’t live in Berea, I could care less that the city would only lose 40k or whatever per year. What I care about is the fact that my tax dollars and the tax dollars of people in Cleveland would help move a component of our team to another city so I can no longer participate in that. I drive every year to training camp at least once, just for the experience and to get an early look at the Browns. So now if they move training camp, I’ll go to training camp as often as I get to drive 2 hours to see the Buckeyes play, about once every 2-4 years. Fantastic. Using my money for that move is just the knife in the gut though. It’s like getting $5 from Haslem, and then turning around buying a Steelers hat with it. Or getting your tax refund and sending it to ISIS. Or getting $20 from your spouse so you don’t have to hit the ATM and you buy a prostitute with it. Do you see where this is at all insulting? If you want to move the Browns, that’s not a State of Ohio benefit, it’s a Columbus benefit. Use your own ******* tax dollars to move our ****, Columbus.