Today in Ohio - Oct. 5, 2026 What does it mean for politicians to call each other extremists?

Reporter Rich Exner did something I've not seen before, Laura.

Cataloged all the property tax incentives that the new Browns stadium will receive, in part because of very old decisions made about-

[laughs]

... sports stadiums and the very piece of land where this will sit.

So what are they?

So we're talking about at least four types of property tax incentives.

These are worth millions of dollars.

We don't know exactly how much.

That's up in the air.

But we know it's about a $3.6 billion stadium and mixed-use development, and there's an existing TIF, a tax increment financing district there.

There might be a new TIF, and there is a deal that l- late, uh, dates back to 1991 for pro sports stadiums that came up because of Gateway that makes them not have to pay taxes.

And then they're still trying to get a piece of that sin tax that goes to the stadiums in Cleveland for Gateway and the existing Browns stadium.

We know that Gateway saves about $8 million a year in taxes by paying only the value of its land, not the building itself, so we know this is going to be bigger.

But I did not realize that every major pro sports facility in Ohio is exempt from property taxes under this 1991 law, which just gives you another reason to be angry [laughs] at all the billionaire owners of the sports stadiums.

Well, except they're not privately owned.

True.

They're all publicly owned, and so they wouldn't pay taxes just because of that.

I, we should point out that none of this was created just for this stadium.

This is all the stuff that had existed, including on this piece of property, which I did not know about before I read Rich's story, that, that benefits this thing.

In, in the end, the Haslams are putting in about 2 billion of their own money, but man, there are a lot of millions that are, that are also in play from the public.

Right.

So you're talking about there was a, a entity that owned this property in between the Ford plants and the Browns, and that's called DROF BP1.

They obtained this $10 million brownfield grant through the Ohio Department of Development to help clean it up for new uses, which, you know, worked, I guess, 'cause otherwise maybe there wouldn't be anything coming on this site.

Um, so that abatement is for giving taxes on $35.2 million of the total value of $61 million.

So that's a savings of just a million dollars just this year.

Reporter Rich Exner did something I've not seen before, Laura.

Cataloged all the property tax incentives that the new Browns stadium will receive, in part because of very old decisions made about-

[laughs]

... sports stadiums and the very piece of land where this will sit.

So what are they?

So we're talking about at least four types of property tax incentives.

These are worth millions of dollars.

We don't know exactly how much.

That's up in the air.

But we know it's about a $3.6 billion stadium and mixed-use development, and there's an existing TIF, a tax increment financing district there.

There might be a new TIF, and there is a deal that l- late, uh, dates back to 1991 for pro sports stadiums that came up because of Gateway that makes them not have to pay taxes.

And then they're still trying to get a piece of that sin tax that goes to the stadiums in Cleveland for Gateway and the existing Browns stadium.

We know that Gateway saves about $8 million a year in taxes by paying only the value of its land, not the building itself, so we know this is going to be bigger.

But I did not realize that every major pro sports facility in Ohio is exempt from property taxes under this 1991 law, which just gives you another reason to be angry [laughs] at all the billionaire owners of the sports stadiums.

Well, except they're not privately owned.

True.

They're all publicly owned, and so they wouldn't pay taxes just because of that.

I, we should point out that none of this was created just for this stadium.

This is all the stuff that had existed, including on this piece of property, which I did not know about before I read Rich's story, that, that benefits this thing.

In, in the end, the Haslams are putting in about 2 billion of their own money, but man, there are a lot of millions that are, that are also in play from the public.

Right.

So you're talking about there was a, a entity that owned this property in between the Ford plants and the Browns, and that's called DROF BP1.

They obtained this $10 million brownfield grant through the Ohio Department of Development to help clean it up for new uses, which, you know, worked, I guess, 'cause otherwise maybe there wouldn't be anything coming on this site.

Um, so that abatement is for giving taxes on $35.2 million of the total value of $61 million.

So that's a savings of just a million dollars just this year.