Would Cleveland Browns moving to Brook Park be unprecedented in the NFL?

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns moving downtown for the suburbs would be a rare but not unheard of move in the NFL.

And if the team threatens to leave the city but stays in Cleveland anyway, that wouldn’t be unique either. The Chicago Bears have shown recently, even buying land in a suburb doesn’t make a move a forgone conclusion.

Could two of the NFL’s most iconic locales—Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium and the Cleveland lakefront—be abandoned in search of other stadium sites? That’s the potential situation now developing as both the Chiefs and Browns look to solidify their venue futures.

The Chiefs have been at Arrowhead Stadium (above) since 1972, and the Browns have played on the shore of Lake Erie since ’46, with the exception of the three years in the ’90s between the two versions of the franchise. But amid continued uncertainty in both cities regarding planned stadium projects, the Chiefs and Browns are increasingly evaluating other options.

The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs are on an April 2 ballot in Jackson County, Missouri, along with MLB’s neighboring Royals (above, background). The pair of teams are seeking to implement a ⅜-cent sales tax for 40 years, with that money targeted toward a planned new Royals ballpark and renovations to Arrowhead Stadium. That measure reached a ballot after the county legislature overrode a veto from county executive Frank White.

But White has continued to speak out against the possible tax extension, recently saying “taxpayers are being asked to pay more than $2 billion over 40 years to private businesses that … have not been transparent with their projects or plans.” That prompted the teams’ most overt threat to look at other locales should the vote fail, amplifying other similar comments made recently.

“If April 2 results in a ‘no’ vote for the Chiefs and Royals, we will explore all options for where we will play come 2031,” the teams said in an open letter to the Jackson County legislature that was particularly critical of White.