A New Dome In Brook Park Allows The Browns To Reshape Their Perception

With a multi-billion dollar investment into a "Browns Town" epicenter in Brook Park, the Browns can work to reshape their perception around the league.

(Concept Photo - Cleveland Browns)

You’ve heard the cliches. “Mistake on the Lake,” “Factory of Sadness,” the list goes on and on. The YouTube videos have millions of views. You know what I am talking about, all too well.

For decades the Browns have been football’s punching bag. Some of it has been their own doing, well, most of it. But a large part of it also belonged to the NFL whose process for getting the Browns expansion moving in the right direction utterly failed. The process set them up for disaster in a way those before and after them have avoided.

As true as it is that the NFL failed the Browns at the re-launch in 1999, the perpetual failures since 1999 fall squarely in the Browns lap for a large portion of the stressful 25 years we have all endured. You can’t blame the NFL for your failures in 2011 the same way you can in 2001.

While there have been a few fun moments since that 1999 Monday Night Football blow out, the current Cleveland Browns Stadium has seen more than its fair share of disaster and the franchise as a whole could use a facelift.

Recent seasons under Kevin Stefanski have helped to change the way the NFL views the franchise, and this season could be another step in the right direction. But a full scale transformation, into something Browns fans and Northeast Ohioans can be proud of, is capped off by a stadium and football experience that rivals the best the league has to offer.

Browns fans don’t like it but the modern perception of the franchise is built around poor play, poor front office decisions, and poor facilities. Cleveland has never been a destination for free agents, without the required overpay, and the league’s best have consistently looked down on the Browns from their modern stadiums and state-of-the-art facilities.

The recent run of success on the field, including two playoff seasons, is starting to reshape how the roster is viewed. Kevin Stefanski has won two Coach of the Year awards and general manager Andrew Berry is among the league’s brightest at the position. Jimmy Haslam has stepped back from his meddling days and allowed the team to built around smart people who look at the game and its decisions without the distraction of emotion. Across the NFL the organization is viewed at the forefront of the analytics revolution and consistently push the boundaries of how the league hires important positions.

While the on-field and front office products have been reshaped, the facilities have fallen behind. The CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea has badly needed a facelift for years. Overcrowded weight rooms and locker rooms, an indoor practice facility that doesn’t reach the 100-yard full field requirement. As forward thinking as the Berea location was when it was built in the early 90s is as far behind as they have fallen in the modern era.

Players across the NFL have noticed the condition of these facilities. The NFLPA report cards have shown us that. Mix the facilities in Berea with the current stadium’s lack of character and crumbling structure and you get a negative league-wide perception. That perception has been perpetuated through decades of on-field failures but the surrounding elements have started to take more of the blame. It’s time to catch up.

(Concept Photo - Cleveland Browns)

We have heard many times that the cold weather and unique environment playing on the lake gives the Browns a particular home field advantage. The weather elements are supposed to help the team while they hinder the opponent. But long gone are the days where Browns players live in the city year round. The players who arrive from warm climates take off during the offseason to those warm climates they come from. The weather in Cleveland at its worst is as foreign to the current players as it is those who visit.

What makes a true difference is noise. That’s it. If your home crowd can make enough noise to be detrimental to the opposing offense then you have a chance to make life very difficult for the opposing team. That is clearly what the Browns are chasing with their structure. A Dawg Pound section from field to roof, going vertical up the side of the dome should create as much chaos as possible.

(Concept Photo - Cleveland Browns)

The light entering the stadium through the glass roof will also emulate that outdoor feeling so many of us covet. This won’t feel like the dome structures you have seen for so many years that fail to give you any outside light. The architecture firm working here also designed the Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium and will bring those same design elements to this project.

It’s understandable those of you consumed the team in their best years would feel a connection to the lakeside location. You have the emotional connection to the old Municipal Stadium and the similar feelings you had cheering on the Browns in the current stadium along the shores of Lake Erie. That connective tissue is hard to tear.

It will be hard to forget it when you travel to Brook Park to watch this team. But keep in mind there is an entire generation, my generation, that has never seen the “good old days.” We wanted them badly, but the post-1999 version of the franchise failed to provide anything close.

Perhaps there would be a stronger connection to the current building had the organization won playoff games there the way the former edition did before Art Modell did the unthinkable. There were moments, especially a few this last season that gave us a glimpse, but the new Browns failed to connect us to the stadium as we know it. I don’t think you will see fans ripping seats out of Cleveland Browns Stadium this time around. They bonds aren’t that strong.

The current stadium didn’t do anything wrong. It hosted the games it was required to host and it certainly met the standard needed for years to match the elements. The franchise failed it on the field. The city failed to provide more tools of convenience to make it enjoyable. The scope of what it can become, even with an upgrade, is limited at best. So why not move on from twenty years of difficult history and try something different.

Concept Video - Cleveland Browns:

A brand new stadium, one that is amongst the NFL’s best, helps reshape the way the Browns are viewed. The on-field play certainly remains the most important element of that perception but having world class facilities doesn’t hurt. The organization began to shift the Berea headquarters and brought much needed updates to the cafeteria, weight room, and other elements of the building. Those will help shape the team’s enjoyment and preparedness. It was a needed first step.

The development in Brook Park would be the crown jewel of this transformation. We all want the NFL to view the Browns with same pride we do. We want to find a way to avoid the discomfort of admitting you’re a Browns fan and stand proud to tell someone that fact.

The team’s on-field play has helped to shift perception. A “Browns Town” dome in Brook Park is the final step in helping the organization and fans find that proud feeling once again.

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