Home renovation

Dee and Jimmy Haslam, owners of the Cleveland Browns, spoke to the media last week for the rst time since August. ey put to rest speculation that the team will seek to build a new, and incredibly expensive, stadium. Mostly.

e Haslams said they are focused on renovating the current FirstEnergy Stadium as part of a lakefront development plan. And the renovation likely will not include a roof. is after rampant rumors that the team wanted a super expensive (possibly $2 billion) new domed stadium.

ey left a little room for an audible, though. When asked what would happen if Mayor Justin Bibb, who hasn’t yet weighed in, told the team a new stadium with a roof was preferred by the city, Haslam replied: “Depends on how much he wants to fund.”

And that is at the heart of it, really. How much will city taxpayers fork over for stadium renovations? What about others in the county who bene t from the Browns being in Cleveland? What about other counties that form the nexus of the Browns fan base? What about the state, which ponied up for the upcoming Progressive Field renovations for the Guardians?

What about the Browns themselves?

In Cleveland, we seem to be perpetually engaged in robust debate about stadium, ballpark and arena funding, because the funding need — for maintenance and major renovation — is perpetual.

FirstEnergy Stadium was opened in 1999 with an original price tag of $283 million. A $120 million renovation (the Browns paid 75% of it) in 2014 and 2015 already is coming up on a decade old. Other cities are building new stadiums with costs north of $1 billion, some more than $2 billion. If you agree to build stadiums, you know they’re going to age and big money renovations, or massive money replacements, are inevitable.

It’s not going to be pretty. ere are many reasons to say that local governments, which have so many other pressing needs for taxpayer dollars, can’t a ord the tab. e timing may be especially di cult for FirstEnergy Stadium because the Haslams have just agreed to buy a 25% ownership stake in the Milwaukee Bucks NBA basketball team. With a $3.5 billion valuation for the team, that would put the Haslams’ stake in the Bucks around $900 million.

A mantra will surely be: “If they can a ord that, they can a ord their own renovations.” e dean of Cleveland City Council o ers a blunt example of how opponents will react. “I have a historical perspective. I’ve heard all the lines of (crap) about how we’re going to turn this around and turn that around,” Mike Polensek told Joe Scalzo of Crain’s Cleveland Business. “We’re going to bene t all these minority jobs and dah-dah-dah-dah. What a crock of (bleep). ey got us once. Should they get us again?” at’s out of Cleveland’s price range, and the Haslams are wise to instead focus their e orts on renovation of the current stadium. at’s a big enough challenge. e numbers make it clear: Brands that invest in marketing e orts fare better when the economy sours compared to brands that don’t.

Timing isn’t great, either, because of the stadium’s name. FirstEnergy was at the center of the biggest corruption scandal in Ohio history. Calls for the name to be scrapped may extend to calls for the stadium to be scrapped.

Polensek was one of nine council members who voted against the deal to build the Browns stadium in the rst place, and he’ll be a no vote again, citing extensive economic studies that show stadium deals don’t pay o .

Still, local leaders, time and again, have said professional sports are important to keep Cleveland a major league city and have voted to pay for the privilege of having them. And voters, when given the opportunity, have said yes, too, approving measures to build baseball, basketball and football venues.

It would be wise to give voters a voice again, though the risk of rejection would likely prevent such a strategy. It also would be wise for local governments, not just Cleveland, to negotiate a community benefits package as part of any deal. Lakefront enhancement would be ideal and sorely needed.

Like it or not, public money is almost always a part of the sports equation. In Bu alo, the state of New York and Erie County are paying $850 million to help build a new $1.4 billion stadium.

Research has found that brands that cut their marketing budgets typically take three to ve years to recover equity losses resulting from that downtime. On the other hand, 60% of brands that increased their media investment during the last recession saw ROI improvements.

Looking ahead, a recent HubSpot survey showed that 47% of brands reported that their budgets would increase and 45% expect their budgets to stay the same in 2023.

So with that in mind, how do you best utilize your budget to drive results during a recession?

To answer this question, let’s take a look at four key initiatives that your brand can dial in: e next question you’ll want to ask yourself might sound obvious. Who is your customer? is question becomes even more important during times of market turbulence, and it can’t be stressed enough the importance of re-examining this when the economy is in ux. Your customer may stay the same throughout these times, but what they need from you might change during recessionary times.

1. Give voice to your goals. When you create alignment and awareness of your goals, you can be speci c about what success looks like to you while ensuring all your team members know what role they play in the process of achieving these goals. Plus, this allows you and your team to celebrate these goals when they are achieved.

2. Highlight the partnership between marketing and sales. Clearly articulate when key members of these departments need to step in and conduct tactical e orts toward achieving your stated goals.

3. Create your marketing system. You might already have a marketing kit, templates or assets. However, it’s best that you take it a step further and use this as an opportunity to rededicate yourself to assessing your visual and brand voice, as well as considering how these t into your broader brand guidelines. is positions your team to be aligned and consistent when you go to market with your brand.

4. Streamline technology and operations. rough the implementation of common technology tools and processes across the board, you ensure all team members are aware of the process. You can also identify areas where this process can be improved.

Another important lesson to keep in mind is that it’s not always about how much money you’re spending. Instead, it might be worth focusing on the ways you’re spending it. Can you be more targeted in how you reach your audiences? Can you explore new data to see which channels outperform others?