Cleveland Browns: Jimmy and Dee Haslam step up for Cleveland

Thank you, Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam for stepping up with a massive $4.5 million dollar donation to major art centers of Cleveland.

Thank you to Cleveland Browns owners, Jimmy, and Dee Haslam, for stepping up for the city of Cleveland, with a massive $4.5 million dollar donation to major art centers of Cleveland, namely the Cleveland Orchestra, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Playhouse Square.

Cleveland fans want world-class sports, which means that the city itself must be world-class in every respect, and along with that lifestyle comes the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the finest orchestras in the world.

They play in the city of Cleveland, often at historic Severance Hall. If the reader will permit the present author to make a suggestion, take your spouse or significant other to Severance Hall, perhaps some evening after the Super Bowl when you’re not sure what to do with yourself. You will be glad you did, and you will have a positive feeling about the entire city.  All is right with the world when the Cleveland Orchestra performs.

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On the other hand, if classical music is just not your thing, there is also the Rock &  Roll Hall of Fame located near FirstEnergy Stadium, the home of your Cleveland Browns. Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Supremes….they are all at the Hall.

If you like the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, you will like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame also. Plus the music is awesome, and it is everywhere throughout the complex. This is part of being American, and the museum draws people from all over the world.

Then there is Playhouse Square, America’s largest performing arts center outside of New York City. It’s a not-for-profit enterprise, meaning that donations from individuals are essential to its continued existence.

There are four concentrations within Playhouse Square: The stage or live entertainment, arts development and the Performing Arts Center itself.

All of these enterprises are essential to the city’s identity and provides the environment that can foster and support major league sports, including our Cleveland Browns.

No one should ever call the Haslams cheap, because that is just not true. They have always stepped up and written the checks for the Browns.  With twenty-twenty hindsight, you may justifiably criticize some of the coaching and front-office hires, and the involvement in personnel decisions has not always been positive.  But they have never short-changed the organization.

Manipulating the salary cap means that popular players are let go, and sometimes it is necessary to conserve salary cap room, which causes great angst for the team and their fans when their favorite players wind up with other teams. But that is not because of a lack of willingness to spend money.

For that matter, it costs a lot of money to fire a football coach or general manager, and the Browns have always paid top dollar to convince the football people to come to Cleveland.  The Haslams may not have always gotten the top people, but they have succeeded in getting the most expensive ones, for sure.  Unofficially, the Browns have to lead the NFL in money spent on coaches and front office, and it probably is not even close.

Kevin Kleps, sports business analyst for Crain’s Cleveland Business, estimates that the Haslams have forked over more than $30 million dollars in order to terminate the contracts of Pat Shurmur, Mike Pettine, Rob Chudzinski, and Hue Jackson. That doesn’t count the megabucks left on contracts of other high paid executives such as Mike Holmgren, Joe Banner, Mike Lombardi, Ray Farmer and Sashi Brown which probably is a comparable amount. Those dudes made some major bucks from the Haslams and it cost major millions to send them home early.

But this article is not about mistakes made in the past, but about a sincere appreciation for what the Haslams are doing for the city of Cleveland and the state of Ohio right now.  Thank you again,  Jimmy and Dee. The city of Cleveland and indeed the entire state of Ohio is a little bit better off today because of you.