00:00A great day. Wouldn't you say it? Are we getting shovels in the dirt? Today's the day I believe. Will
00:08they be gold shovels? Who has the big scissors? Do we have big scissors? Groundbreaking. That's ribbon cutting. This is
00:17groundbreaking. Oh I like ribbon cutting too. Alright. I want to be like one of the guys with the scissors
00:21like the Nihilists and Big Lebowski. Dave Jenkins joining us. Brown's president. We're just the barber beef king. Yeah. The
00:27best scissors ever.
00:28He is leading the project for the new stadium and today is a special day for the Browns and Browns
00:35fans everywhere. The official groundbreaking is today. Obviously an exciting day for everybody. Dave thanks for joining us in studio.
00:42Great to be here. Wouldn't start my momentous day any other way than to be here with you guys. I
00:47don't believe you but thank you very much. I'm here. You guys don't have to answer to any of this
00:54but like Joe Banner on social media you know I got the stadium renovation.
00:58and I took it. You got a stadium that is going to be you got a dome in northeast Ohio
01:03that is going to be built. I think that's a pretty big deal and that's a sizable accomplishment considering there's
01:09politics involved. There is so much else. You've got the state legislature that has to wait. You got county commissioners.
01:17You've got a mayor. You've got a voting populace.
01:20And you are the guy. I think that is going to get the most credit for getting this done. It's
01:26a pretty big deal.
01:27It's a big deal but it was a massive team effort. And today is a big day. We're not really
01:31great at stopping and celebrating the wins but
01:33you can't help in those little quiet moments to think about wow what are we doing here and
01:38how big of a moment this is for this entire region and for the state of Ohio the first dome
01:43stadium in
01:44Ohio and the single largest economic development project in the history of northeast Ohio. So that
01:49means jobs. That means tax revenue. That means quality of life enhancement. So we're really excited.
01:55I've enjoyed watching the process. Does it for you you know almost I kind of think about it as the
02:01draft
02:01like guys walk across stages like well you're just starting. It's not where it ends.
02:05How much how much do you have to do now that there's actually going to be shovels in the dirt
02:11and things actually being built. What do you have to oversee after all this.
02:15You know what we've said all along is we're working hard to for the chance to work hard. So the
02:20real work
02:21starts now. You got to be on time. You got to be on budget. You got to be on design
02:24intent. You got to sell
02:26the thing. So there's a lot of work to do and that's what we'll be focused on for the next
02:3136 months.
02:32What was the most important aspect to you Jimmy and D everybody when it came to building something
02:41like this that was going to have a roof. We've seen some of the design. I would say the things
02:47that people are very excited about about having fans closer to the field and this new wave of how
02:52stadiums are going to be considering the fan involvement and all that. What was what would you
02:58say was the most on your checklist of thing. What was the most important. You know the brand is built
03:04on the backs of our fans backs of our players. So building something that kept having a process
03:10that kept our players and our fans at the forefront of the process was really important to us. So
03:15you'll see it in arguably the best locker room in the NFL. Maybe people don't see that a whole bunch
03:21but that's going to exist in great spaces for players families and friends. But then also
03:28ensuring that the entire fan journey whether it's how you get there where you park how you get in
03:32the building and then what you experience once you get in the building that only happens by keeping
03:38the fans at the forefront of our of our process. Dave Jenkins bronze president joining us on the show.
03:42So one of the things that I've been critical of with other like I got to say like Vegas it
03:47it comes
03:48off a little bit antiseptic to me. But you know you're taking in ideas from just about everything.
03:53So when you're taking in an idea from another stadium was there anything that kind of hit
03:58for you guys like we'd like to have something like this from maybe U.S. Bank. We'd like to have
04:03something like this from Allegiant. We'd like to have something like this. Was there anything there
04:07that you kind of like okay we'd like this but we're still going to do our own thing here?
04:11Yeah I think we spent a lot of time touring different stadiums. In fact everywhere we go we're trying to
04:15pick
04:16up different ideas but you love the natural light of U.S. Bank Stadium. You love the noise of U
04:20.S.
04:21Bank Stadium. You love the modern bright feel of Allegiant and it's a very similar actual
04:28construction to SoFi Stadium in L.A. by going deep into the ground. So there's a lot of different
04:33takeaways. But you still have to make it ours. Yeah the commissioner is going to be here today.
04:39Obviously you've had conversations about you know attracting events and you've talked about the
04:44team that is involved in coordinating you know those efforts. But everybody the first thing
04:49people are going to ask when they see that the shovels go into the ground. Is this going to be
04:54a place that we're going to have a Super Bowl? What kind of conversations have you had with the
04:57commissioner about that? So the commissioner has already said publicly that the stadium will be
05:02Super Bowl ready. It's can the region bear a Super Bowl. So I think even recently in New Orleans
05:09which is a city that does a lot of large-scale events and oh by the way the soup their
05:13stadium
05:13was 50 years old when the Super Bowl was hosted there two years ago. They had some challenges
05:19with hotel rooms. So we've got to solve that big piece is infrastructure. So are you guys are going
05:27to be leading the efforts to push the community spearheading those efforts to get everybody riled up
05:33to say hey we can do this Cleveland Ohio Northeast Ohio can host a Super Bowl but we're going to
05:39need
05:39some help. Have you have you implored the business leaders and you know the the the everybody involved
05:45in the hotels and and all of that all the developers. You know we haven't quite had those conversations
05:50yet and I think those will be further down the road but you have to have a region that can
05:53bear it and
05:54you have to have population and jobs to support population and tourism and you can't build a bunch of
05:59hotels for one event. But we'll I think there'll be a slow build to that. What do you think fans
06:05will
06:05be most excited about with the new stadium? I think what I touched on earlier is just the thoughtfulness
06:13that went into it and the unique experiences that the different products we have within the building
06:17will present. So over 20 different premium experiences over 70 percent of the building will
06:24be general admission. So but then everyone gets to celebrate or to participate in the grand concourses
06:32and the roof and the largest indoor end zone scoreboard in the league and the closest first
06:37row to to the field and the closest last row to the field. So there's just a lot of a
06:42lot of amenities
06:42being built into it. Yeah that's so how far do we know how far away it is that I'm to
06:47bank field now
06:48do we because it I'm I'm still trying to in my mind. It's pretty close now that we put the
06:52field
06:52seats in. Yeah. But it's just going to be a little bit of a different experience. So even when we
06:57do
06:57these field level suites in the new building around the league your seats in a field level suite are
07:02you're standing there and you're being blocked by large football players and pads. In our building
07:07you're actually going to go up to the you're going to have your own set of stairs into the bowl
07:11for
07:11your seats for your that suite. So just trying to be as thoughtful as we can about it. Oh yeah
07:15because then you get to see
07:16everything there. And then you said at the top basically so like it's going to feel like the fans
07:19are really on top of everybody. Absolutely. In this one concourse that serves the entire building
07:25there's only 15 upper deck rows. So it's going to be pretty intimate feel. Dave Jenkins is in with us
07:32now. So we'll ask you a third real question about PSLs because it's something that comes up when new
07:38stadiums are built. Buffalo where you're from originally or you're from upstate New York but Buffalo
07:42down the road. That is something that's come up there. Look people are driving by gas stations
07:47looking at the price of gas and they're wondering you know is this going to be something we can
07:52afford this new era of Browns football. What can you tell them? How can you assure them that yes
07:57this can be affordable to follow your team and continue holding season tickets. So the reality is
08:05there will be PSLs and that's an important industry-wide component to financing these
08:12large stadiums now. The prices have gotten so high that PSLs are being relied on. And the other reality
08:19is the first PSLs that get released are going to scare people because the price points are going to be
08:25the best seats with naturally the highest PSLs. But like I said earlier 70 percent of our seats are
08:32going to be non-premium. So not have their own club spaces but it's indoor so it's going to feel
08:38like
08:38a club. And those will be lower priced PSLs. So it's really important for us to have entry points for
08:45all types of fans. When it comes to everything that goes around it not just the stadium but you know
08:51I've seen some of the renderings there and again it's hard for me to put together I'm not a really
08:54good artist or anything like that in my mind. By the way Dave Jenkins joining us Brown's president
08:59in studio. What are some of the other amenities that will be going around the stadium that will
09:04excite some of the fans out there? So we've got about a billion dollar development going on around
09:09the 2.6 billion dollar stadium. And that's going to be comprised of 1,500 for rent apartments,
09:16almost 500,000 square feet of experiential retail space. We're going to do a 3,000 seat music venue
09:23that's going to be active over 100 nights a year. We're going to do two hotels that add up to
09:28about
09:28450 rooms. And then we're even exploring some other ways to get people to the district. So
09:34it's going to be a really active viable space. What is it going to take to get a rapid stop
09:41right there on the grounds? Because obviously we know one has a terminal right there at the airport
09:48but how do you get it with all the digging and the rail line that's there? How do you accomplish
09:53something like that? Because I think that would be the biggest win of all this is if people could
09:58get there from a timely manner all over Northeast Ohio via the rapid.
10:01So we're in conversation with RTA and there is a will. Now we've got it to your question,
10:07find the way. And part of it is funding. So we've identified about $80 million of infrastructure
10:12needs to ensure that. One thing we've always said is you got to get it right. You can't build a
10:16new
10:17stadium and all the things we've gone through for the last year and a half, the decision and
10:21the why and the how, and not get it all right. So infrastructure, getting people to your
10:26point to the building is really important. The RTA would be a great relief. So we've found,
10:31we've found this, identified the site where we want their station. And now it's a matter of how
10:35do you fund it? Are there federal dollars that could be committed to that? We've been recently
10:40awarded $35 million from the state. We've got some asks of the federal government. The RTA piece I think
10:47is going to take a little longer, but yes, there are ways to find subsidies.
10:51Well, how many tests will you guys go through before opening day for that? So it isn't just
10:55like, oh my God, because everybody expects there's going to be obviously some bugaboos as you work
11:00your way through on opening day, but it'll be here before we know. And there's going to be this grand
11:04thing that people want to see. And the last thing you want is a bunch of reports that people backed
11:07up down the highway and things like that. How do you, how do you go about testing that?
11:11So the other thing we've said is in five years, you can't look back and say we should have,
11:15could have, would have done something or spend a dollar on an expert. So we've employed,
11:19utilize experts throughout the process, including traffic and infrastructure experts.
11:24We'll continue to test AI, believe it or not, plays a role in simulating traffic and identifying
11:30where's the best ride share drop off and where should the RTA station be and those sorts,
11:34where should the exits be? And then our goal is to be complete by April and May of 29. So
11:42several
11:42months before the start of the season. So we'll have some large scale events before,
11:45and that'll be our bit of a practice run.
11:48But what's, what's the biggest complaint you've heard? What's the, the, maybe the biggest
11:53misconception you've heard from start to now, I can't say finish, but shovels going in the ground
11:58today. What's since this entire process has taken place?
12:02You know, not to sound whiny, but you know, we've taken the high road throughout the process and
12:07it's been a bit of a slugfest to get here. And there's probably a lot of mistruths that we're
12:11doing it selfishly or that we're just trying to make money off it. And we're not thinking of
12:16fans or, Hey, tradition wants it to stay on the lakefront. But in fairness to all of us,
12:21I don't think we'll really appreciate, including us, what we're building until it's finally done.
12:26And you walk in that building.
12:27Have you, have you ever been in the Muni lot?
12:29I have been in the Muni lot.
12:30Okay. What do you say to those fans that for 40 years have been getting the barbecues ready,
12:36getting the lobster, especially the people up front. I mean, their setups are just
12:40I've never had lobster in the Muni lot. You tell me about this lobster.
12:42It's an insane experience. I mean, it's, it's crawfish.
12:46Well, what would you, what would you say to them? Because, uh, that has been a bedrock of
12:52being a Cleveland Browns fan.
12:54You know, I said earlier, the brand is built on the backs of our fans.
12:58And we've said recently, this is 176 acre Muni lot. Let's bring that same energy,
13:02that same tailgating, that same spirit, uh, to the new site and leverage old traditions to build new
13:09ones. And it's going to be really, really exciting.
13:12Is the shovel gold today? Plated anyway?
13:16No.
13:17You get to keep the shovel?
13:18That's not Cleveland.
13:18You get to keep the shovel though, right?
13:21We'll keep the shovel. We'll send one to you guys.
13:23Well, I don't need the shovel. You're the one who needs the shovel. You're putting this together.
13:26I'm just over here going, wow, look at that. That's really nice. That's all I do.
13:30Uh, Dave, can't thank you enough for the time. I know today's a big day. Looking forward to
13:33seeing it later on today and a pretty momentous occasion for the Cleveland Browns. Thank you very much.
13:38All you do. Yes, sir. David Jenkins joining us here. Uh, bronze president joining us in studio.
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