An Ohio lawmaker proposes a plan to help make gas cheaper by holding back $600 million meant for the Browns.
There are plenty of reasons not to go to a Cleveland Browns game: The stadium is old, the team isn’t good, the quarterback is reprehensible, there’s always construction on the way, and have you seen how expensive gas is recently!
Well, lawmakers in Ohio have a solution to at least one of those issues, and it basically boils down to just not giving the Browns money. Specifically, using the $600 million earmarked for the Browns new stadium to instead backfill the coffers while instituting a gas tax holiday across Ohio. It’s a little convoluted, but it successfully brings together two wildly popular concepts in politics; cheaper gas and not giving billionaires money.
The $600 million has been a point of contention for more than a year now in Ohio. In the summer of 2025 Ohio lawmakers approved the money to be given to the team in the form of a grant for the new Brook Park stadium, which broke ground last spring. The money was pulled from Ohio’s Division of Unclaimed Funds, which is a pool of money made up by “forgotten bank accounts, utility deposits, uncashed checks and more,” according to Ohio Capital Journal. A lawsuit looking to block that grant from happening was filed, and in December of 2025, a judge blocked the state from handing over the money. Since then it’s been in legal limbo even as the team moves forward with construction.
Fast-forward to this week when both major political candidates in the Ohio gubernatorial race proposed a gas tax holiday in an effort to fight ever-rising gas prices. The gas tax typically is used to fund public works like road repairs and other projects done by the Ohio Department of Transportation. Which kind of begs the question of how much money is actually available for those projects. Well, one Ohio Democrat has a solution. Use that $600 million to fund the Department of Transportation instead of the Browns and give Ohioans cheaper gas.
It is obviously political posturing, but it is a pretty good posture to take. It would force lawmakers to decide in relatively clear terms between giving money to an unpopular billionaire or make gas cheaper. To put it in a different way, the state of Ohio could keep a little more than double the total of Deshaun Watson’s contract to fill in potholes and fix bridges.
The new Browns stadium is planned to open for the 2029 season in Brook Park, Ohio; a southwest suburb of Cleveland and about 13 miles from the current lakefront stadium. It would, technically, be the second time the Browns would move out of the city of Cleveland. When Art Modell first tried to relocate the organization, a law was passed, known as the “Modell Law” that prevented professional sports teams from leaving the city if the organization accepts state funding. Current Ohio governor Mike DeWine helped fix that problem for Haslam by getting the law changed to prevent teams from moving out of the state, not just the city of Cleveland.
For now, the Browns continue to play in Huntington Bank Field. The team will host it’s home opener this Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.