Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Browns’ quest for a domed stadium starts an NFL fight for Ohio dollars
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A political battle fit for the gridiron is underway in Ohio, where state Republican leaders are clashing over whether to single out the Cleveland Browns for help building a new suburban domed stadium or impose tax hikes to fund stadium upgrades for the Cincinnati Bengals and other teams longer term.
Neither idea is without critics in both parties, who argue that underwriting National Football League stadiums siphons money from the state’s policy priorities, including funding infrastructure and public schools.
The most heated debate centers on a proposal by Haslam Sports Group, which owns the Browns, to relocate from the team’s existing open-air stadium on downtown Cleveland’s lakeshore — where they have played since 1999 — to a new $2.4 billion complex in Brook Park, about 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) south. The team has proposed a private-public partnership to which the state would contribute $600 million.
After the money was approved by the Ohio House last week, commissioners in Hamilton County, home to the Bengals, balked. They moved swiftly to re-up their request for $350 million for Paycor Stadium, where the Bengals’ lease is up June 30, 2026. The ask follows Bengals Executive Vice President Katie Blackburn’s comments at recent NFL meetings in Florida, where she said, “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year” — while noting negotiations are progressing.
The stadium debate heads to the Ohio Senate after their two-week spring break.
Browns dream big, Cleveland recalls Modell nightmare
Dee and Jimmy Haslam, generous Republican campaign donors, say they want a facility “consistent with other world-class NFL stadiums.” With the addition of a dome, the Browns could host year-round events during northeast Ohio’s severe winters and “catalyze meaningful economic impact” at an adjacent entertainment complex. They point out that eight in 10 home game attendees live outside city limits.
Leaders in Cleveland, where Browns games draw coveted economic activity to downtown and the tourism district along Lake Erie, are livid. The existing $247 million Huntington Bank Field was primarily funded by city and county tax dollars. To many, it’s a symbol of the hard-luck sports town’s commitment to the team it nearly lost when then-owner Art Modell notoriously packed off to Baltimore in 1996.
Modell’s messy exit, also hitched to a stadium dispute, led to a state law that says no owner of an Ohio professional sports team that plays most of its home games at a tax-supported stadium can go elsewhere without an agreement with its host city or unless the host city is given six months’ notice with an opportunity to buy the team.
Democratic Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and members of the city council have threatened for months to invoke the “Modell Law” to prevent the Browns from leaving their current location, where the lease runs through the 2028 season. The city plans to remake the so-called “North Shore” with an eye toward accessibility, economic development and environmental protection. The team has filed a constitutional challenge to the law, and the city sued it back.
Meanwhile, the clock for allocating dollars toward the project is running down: Lawmakers face a June 30 deadline to finalize the state budget for the next two years.
Governor and House have different funding ideas
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget proposal called for raising the $600 million by doubling the tax on sports betting companies from 20% to 40%. The idea was to create a long-term revenue stream that could help both the Browns and the Bengals, and other teams.
“The governor’s plan goes beyond one team,” DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said. “The general revenue fund can’t afford that. Therefore, we need to look at something that is more sustainable and can help all the teams.”
The GOP-led Ohio House, however, rejected DeWine’s plan in a vote last week. Its version of the operating budget calls for issuing $600 million in general obligation bonds to pay for the Browns project instead. Paying off the bonds would cost the state about $1 billion over 30 years.
House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart told reporters that the “metrics” of bonds are better for Ohio taxpayers because officials project that tax revenue from the Browns’ “megaproject” will be ample to cover the $40 million a year it will take to repay the bonds.
Senate must work through the opposition
As the Senate takes up the bill, it must weigh opposition to the current plan from all quarters: DeWine, the city of Cleveland, the Bengals, legislative Democrats and Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, who is running to succeed DeWine next year.
“Ohio is getting ready to spend more money on a new stadium in one city for one football team than it will spend on new highway construction for the next two years in the entire state,” Yost wrote in a recent Columbus Dispatch op-ed. He called state money for the project a “spendthrift gift to a billionaire.”
House Democrats unsuccessfully fought to pause the funding proposal altogether, citing unanswered questions about revenue projections, economic impacts and commitments by private developers. Cleveland Rep. Terrence Upchurch told reporters that lawmakers have more important priorities than helping the Browns’ owners, “especially since they only won three (expletive) games last year,” referring to the team’s 3-14 record.
A fellow Democrat in the Republican-supermajority Senate has proposed prohibiting public dollars from going to any professional sports franchise without a winning record in three of its five past seasons.
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AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy in Cleveland contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Cleveland, OH
Cleveland police investigate fatal shooting; man detained
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Officers from the Cleveland Division of Police Fourth District responded to the sound of gunshot Saturday evening.
According to police, officers were in the area of the 3200 block of E 93rd Street when they heard gunshots around 8:30 p.m.
Officers responded to the area and located an adult man with gunshot wounds.
They immediately began to provide first aid until EMS arrived.
When EMS arrived on scene crews continued care and transported the man to the hospital.
Police said during the course of the investigation, officers identified and detained a 33-year-old man.
Officers also located two firearms and several casings from the scene.
The victim was treated at the hospital, but was later pronounced dead by hospital staff.
The Cleveland Police Homicide Unit is investigating the incident, and no further information is available at this time, police said.
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.
Cleveland, OH
‘Very special’ wedding moved to Cleveland Clinic so father can attend days after quadruple bypass
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WJW) — Rick Nelson has been recovering at his Seven Hills home for 10 days after a 10-day stay in the hospital. He and his family are grateful he could see his daughter get married, and be home for his 37th anniversary and Father’s Day because he almost didn’t make it to any of them.
On May 31, six days before his daughter Rachel’s wedding, Nelson was feeling chest pains. He was quickly taken to the Marymount Emergency Room. Within minutes of being there, he was taken via helicopter to Cleveland Clinic’s main campus in Cleveland.
A mechanical device was put in his heart to keep it pumping and he was given blood thinners after it was discovered he had severe blockage. Because of the blood thinners, it wasn’t safe to perform open-heart surgery for several days.
It was scheduled as early as possible, which turned out to be June 4 — just two days before the wedding.
The surgeon who performed the procedure, Dr. Faisal Bakaeen, told FOX 8 that it takes five days to be healthy enough to be discharged after a procedure like this, but Nelson was telling every caregiver he could that he needed to be at that wedding.
Cleveland Clinic staff decided that since Nelson couldn’t travel to the wedding, they were going to help bring the wedding to him.
They coordinated to change the venue of the ceremony to the hospital’s rooftop and got Nelson cleaned up and dressed for the wedding.
Bakaeen said Nelson’s power of the mind over his body helped his recovery.
“He was really determined to get better and that helped. I’m a true believer in that, and he did it. We did our part, but he did his part and we are very happy with the outcome,” he said.
It was an emotional moment. Every Cleveland Clinic employee who wasn’t helping a patient watched Nelson get wheeled up to experience a first look with his daughter and then escort her down the aisle with nearly 100 friends and family members watching.
Rachel, who’s last name is now Schultz after marrying her husband Dana, told FOX 8 those moments took away all the stress of nearly losing her father and then seeing him go through a major surgery while also dealing with last-minute wedding preps.
“It was just so reassuring just in that moment of like, OK, all the worry kind of washed away,” Schultz explained. “It’s not how I pictured it, but [it was] better than I could’ve imagined.”
“It meant the world to me,” Rick said. “I had something to come back and live for. I just kept saying why didn’t they take me, then I just started thinking about the wedding. I just want to see my daughter walk down the aisle.”
After the fact, as they sat on their couch, Rick and Gail Nelson were able to reflect on how scary the situation really was.
“I didn’t know how bad it was at that point,” Gail recalled thinking back to the first trip to the hospital on the 31st. “It wasn’t until after that it hits you that ‘Oh my god, I could’ve lost him.’”
But they were so thankful for the staff at the clinic and how accommodating and helpful they were. From getting Rick a clean shave, dressed, and all ready to go for the wedding to covering the parking for all of the wedding guests. They told FOX 8 it was top notch.
“The Cleveland Clinic, the doctors, the nurses, everything, were just fantastic. Couldn’t have asked for better,” Rick said.
Bakaeen told FOX 8 it was just as special for him and the team of caregivers who worked so hard to make sure Rick didn’t miss one of the most important days in Rachel’s life.
“I have a daughter and there’s nothing that would stop me from attending her wedding,” Bakaeen said. “This was special for him, but very special for me and the team.”
Cleveland, OH
Ohio’s 2nd Buc-ee’s approved in Richland County amid neighbor opposition
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Ohio’s second Buc-ee’s has been approved south of Cleveland in Richland County, but neighbors next door are not happy.
An online petition opposing the location has over 1,800 signatures, the petition is unnamed. Among those opposed is the Stadelman’s, a farming family right next to the field, who will go from a quiet rural exit to a popular destination.
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Rachel Stadelman and her husband Nick farm the land bordering the future Buc-ee’s site. All that separates them is a gravel road.
From farmland to gas pumps
Right now, the exit is farmland on every corner. But Buc-ee’s is betting on the interstate traffic. The Texas-based travel center has become like a tourist destination.
The same 37.5 acres the Stadelmans lease and farm today will be over 100 gas pumps by 2028.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do it. Most of our farms are in Mansfield, so we have to go right through all of it,” Rachel Stadelman said.
Safety concerns on the highway
The Stadelmans raise cattle right next to the proposed site. They drive farm equipment, like tractors, trailers and combines on highway 39, the same route that will carry Buc-ee’s visitors every day. Some of that equipment is 16 feet wide.
“My husband’s been hit out here. He was on a smaller utility tractor. It broke a vertebra in his back. And I was in a hayfield heading toward Lucas, probably a quarter mile down the road, and I got hit,” Rachel Stadelman said.
Rachel Stadelman, emotional at times, said she fears what comes next for her family.
“The girls are just used to running around wild out here with me. Now I’m going to be scared of leaving them for a second. They’re going to have to stay with me all day. I won’t be able to take my eyes off of them. It just makes me sick,” she said.
Economic impact vs. farming future
Supporters point to the economic impact. Mansfield’s mayor Jodie Perry posted on social media after the council approved the project on June 2, saying Buc-ee’s will be a major economic boost for the city.
Buc-ee’s by the numbers, according to Perry:
- Buc-ee’s will spend $50 million to build the store
- $25 million in annual sales
- Up to 225 full-time jobs and 200 part time jobs (starting pay $18/hour
- Annual payroll is expected be $9 million
The city approved a financing deal through a New Community Authority. Under the agreement, Buc-ee’s will front the cost of building the necessary infrastructure, then get reimbursed through a 2% surcharge on retail sales at the store, excluding fuel. Of that 2%, the vast majority goes back to Buc-ee’s to cover its infrastructure costs, plus 6.35% interest. Once those costs are fully paid off, the surcharge drops to a quarter percent.
But for the Stadelmans, the math doesn’t add up.
“I don’t know how we’re going to farm anymore. I think it’s going to put us out of business,” Rachel Stadelman said.
Buc-ee’s did not respond to a request for comment.
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.
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