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Is Another AFC Team's Stadium Situation A Sign Of Things To Come For Browns Fans?
As the Buffalo Bills navigate an expensive new stadium project, they've faced backlash over newly implemented PSL pricing. Is it a sign of things to come for Browns fans?
The future of the Browns stadium situation is a hot topic in the Cleveland sports ether right now and it isn't going away anytime soon.
As team owner Jimmy Haslam mentioned at the league's annual owner's meetings this week, the next couple years will be critical in determining where the area's beloved Browns will play their games for years to come. Together, Jimmy and Dee made it pretty apparent that the decision is down to two options: getting funding for a $1 billion renovation of the current facility downtown – a move that would be coupled with projects to a re-imagine the lakefront and increase foot traffic around the stadium – or build an even more expensive domed stadium on a plot of land in Brook Park that they are closing in on acquiring.
The subject is controversial for a number of reasons and there are no easy answers in terms of what the right move is. Money, of course, is at the core of it all.
Negotiations between the city and the team are ongoing and will continue to be in the months and years ahead with a soft deadline of 2028. That's when the team's current lease on Cleveland Browns stadium expires, although the Haslams made it clear that they could extended if needed.
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What comes after that, however, may end up being even more controversial to fans. Personal seat licenses or PSLs are a new reality in the NFL, particularly for teams that opt for building multi-billion dollar stadiums. For those unfamiliar with a PSL, it's an additional fee for season-ticket purchases that grant said purchaser ownership of a particular seat or set of seats. That fee essentially gets you in the foor, but then you still have to pay an entirely separate cost for the tickets themselves. Oh also, in order to retain the rights to the seat license, a buyer must buy season tickets every year or risk losing the PSL.
Currently, 21 teams either currently use or used at a point some variation of PSLs as part of the process for acquiring season-tickets. The Browns actually utilized a PSL ticket modeal in the early 2000's but wound up dumping it in 2013, one year after the Haslam's purchased the franchise. Wherever the latest round of stadium negotiations go from here fans should probably plan on the team re-instituting PSLs. They should also expect it to become a major point of contention.
Look no futher than the Buffalo Bills for a real time example of how sticky this PSL business can be. While the Browns are still finalizing their future plans, construction is already underway in Orchard Park, NY on the Bills new $1.7 billion stadium. On one hand it's a positive sign that a smaller market team was able to figure out it's stadium situation to keep the franchise in the same city its played in since 1959. On the other, as personal seat license pricing began to emerge this week, a blue collar fan base is concerned about being priced out of tickets.
According to The Buffalo News there is "major sticker shock" for fans hoping to purchse season tickets, with PSL prices expected to cost $15,000-$50,000 per seat in suite and club sections of the new stadium. General admission PSL pricing has not yet been rolled out by the team but these initial figures have already raised warning flags for fans.
One fan in the story, who has had tickets in her family since the 70s, mentioned that her club level seats come with a PSL of $20,000 if you have to finance the payment. Another fan told Channel 2 WGRZ in Buffalo that if he wants to continuing purchasing his eight suite tickets it will cost him nearly $400k at the new stadium with PSL's factored in, or about $50,000 per seat.
Buffalo is providing a bit of foreshadowing into what is likely on the horizon for Cleveland fans once the team figures out where they'll be playing their games in the future. Buffalo is a similar market, positioned along Lake Erie as a rust belt city that deals with many of the same financial issues as Cleveland. So while the PSL conversation may still a ways away, it's coming. And as the Bills fans are finding out first hand it's another uncomfortable reality of NFL's new stadium crusade.
