Renderings of a proposed dome in Brook Park Credit: Cleveland Browns

Ahead of another Browns loss, this one being different than the others because it happened in another country, Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam gave a brief update on the Brook Park dome project.

Bulldozers were already moving dirt, he said, despite various legal entanglements still lingering and ongoing traffic studies and planning still working out how to accommodate the crowds. Work on the $2.4-billion megastadium and village was underway ahead of the team’s expected arrival in 2029 and there’s every reason to be excited.

Even if the sticker comes with a bit of shock.

“The average ticket will be over $200 plus food and beverage,” Haslam told the Associated Press, “so we want [fans] when [they come] to a game to have a great time and say, ‘You know, that was a lot but it was worth it, and I want to do it again’.”

Again, that’s before food and beverage, and before parking. All of which are sure to come with stiff price tags.

And those estimates are four years out. Who knows how much the ticket will actually cost by the time the Browns, and whoever is serving as general manager, coach and quarterback by that time, step foot in Brook Park.

Haslam’s price tag for a seat in the Dawg Pound (and beyond) rings of an air of overconfidence to some, especially to long-time fans wary of both a flashy suburban stadium and of a team that, in their minds, has not proven its worth the move. (Or tickets that can run into the four figures.)

“I think a lot of fans, myself included, feel like $200 on average is a tough pill to swallow,” Rodney Symons, the head of the Lakewood Dawg Pound Browns Backers chapter, wrote Scene in an email.

The team does currently sport the lowest average ticket price in the NFL, according to StubHub, at $158. Only six teams have prices below $200. The Eagles, meanwhile, command $475 a ticket, on average. Nine teams average more than $300 to get in the building.

So… expect more?

A Browns spokesperson said Jimmy was just spitballing, after all, when he threw out the number.

“That was really just an estimate based on historical ticketing pricing and inflation, but we haven’t finalized our pricing yet,” they told Scene. “Our lowest price in the current stadium is $70 per seat and we do plan to have a broad range of seating options in the new building including standing room only seat – Our intent with pricing is always to be able to accommodate our fans with many different seating options, including affordable options.”

The Haslams’ campaign over the years to sell the move, with its promised hotels and wintertime ice rink, still seems to miss the mark of what most fans actually yearn for, Symons said.

“We just want a fair deal and a stadium experience that feels like it is still ours,” he said. “It is about keeping the Dawg Pound alive, keeping families coming to games and remembering what makes Cleveland football special.”

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Mark Oprea is a staff writer at Scene. He's covered Cleveland for the past decade, and has contributed to TIME, NPR, Narratively, the Pacific Standard and the Cleveland Magazine. He's the winner of two Press Club awards.