The Browns Stadium Boondoggle: Elite Socialism in Action

The Browns stadium deal is not merely a bad investment—it is a paradigm of elite hypocrisy, a socialist redistribution of public wealth upward, executed by lawmakers who claim allegiance to free‑market principles while enacting policies that privatize profit and publicize risk.

Earlier this year, Ohio’s Republican supermajority passed legislation requiring that high school students be instructed in the virtues of capitalism.¹ At the same time, these very lawmakers voted to seize $600 million from the state’s unclaimed‑property fund—money legally belonging to ordinary Ohioans—and redirect it to fund a $2.4 billion private stadium project for billionaire owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam. That is not capitalism. That is elite socialism, a state‑directed transfer of private/collective resources to elite private interests.

The Haslams, whose estimated net worth exceeds $8.5 billion, are not merely beneficiaries of state largesse—they are its architects. Whether the team remains in downtown Cleveland (with the city offering $461 million in renovations) or relocates to Brook Park with state and county subsidies, the outcome is the same: private/public funds extracted to enhance elite private empires.

Let us strip away the euphemisms. This is not a “public–private partnership.” It is a state‑sanctioned seizure and redistribution of wealth, orchestrated by legislators who demand work requirements, means testing, and behavioral monitoring for ordinary Ohioans receiving food, housing, or healthcare assistance—but offer no such oversight when the recipient wears a suit and owns a football team.²

When working families receive modest aid, it is denounced as “government dependency.” When billionaires receive hundreds of millions in public money, it is praised as “economic development.” This is not pedestrian ideological inconsistency; it is class warfare masquerading as policy.

County Executive Chris Ronayne called the proposal “piracy,” rightly charging that lawmakers are robbing Bob and Betty Buckeye to pay Jimmy and Dee Haslam.³ And indeed, the state has now declared the unclaimed‑property fund reverts to public ownership after ten years—not to be reinvested in public education or healthcare, but to underwrite the speculative ventures of the ultra‑wealthy.

Even the supposed safeguards are laughable: a mere $50 million in escrow from the Haslams, and another $50 million line of credit—a token hedge against a half‑billion‑dollar state exposure. Meanwhile, individuals requesting a few hundred dollars in public aid are subjected to rigorous oversight and bureaucratic suspicion.

This arrangement is a perfect study in the moral inversion of modern American political economy: public discipline for the broad citizenry, public indulgence for the rich; free‑market platitudes for the powerless, centralized socialism for the powerful.

This stadium subsidy is merely the latest manifestation of a systematic pattern—from pharmaceutical companies capturing billions in public research funding while charging monopoly prices for resulting drugs, to defense contractors operating on cost-plus arrangements that guarantee profits regardless of performance, to agricultural corporations receiving millions in annual subsidies while preaching individual responsibility. The Browns deal simply makes visible what usually operates through more obscure channels.

This is not merely the marginalization of the interests of the poor, working, and middle classes, but the broader appropriation of public resources away from the citizenry at large—those who should have access to public investment without facing moral scrutiny, bureaucratic suspicion, or ideological disapproval.

It is telling that both Policy Matters Ohio and the Buckeye Institute—voices from the ideological left and right—oppose the deal. They understand, as do many citizens, that this is not governance in the public interest. It is the use of state authority to engineer a systematic upward redistribution of wealth, cloaked in the language of jobs and development.

The real divide in America is not between socialism and capitalism—it is between elite socialism, in which wealth is extracted and insulated for the privileged, and democratic socialism, in which collective resources are used for collective needs. (Ours has always been a mixed economy—part capitalist, part socialist, the latter increasingly tilted toward elite interests—though this has rarely been acknowledged in our political discourse.) Until we name this truth and demand ideological consistency from our legislators, we will continue subsidizing billionaires while denying the citizenry investment—and calling it “fiscal responsibility.”

The scaffolding of economic life already exists. The only question is whether it will remain a scaffold supporting billionaires or be reclaimed as a structure serving all the people.

NOTES:

¹ Senate Bill 17, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in March 2024, requires ten principles of “free market capitalism” to be taught as part of financial literacy courses required for high school graduation. The Ohio House passed the bill 66–26 in February 2024. See: Ohio Capital Journal, “Ohio House passes bill that would add capitalism to high school financial literacy curriculum,” Feb. 12, 2024.

The Statehouse News Bureau, “Former Gov. Rhodes said ‘Profit isn’t a dirty word.’ Now, Ohio students will learn about capitalism,” Mar. 15, 2024.

² See, e.g., Ohio Administrative Code 5101:4‑3‑13 and 5101:4‑9‑09 (SNAP work registration, employment/training and sanctions); 5101:1‑3‑12 (Ohio Works First requiring 30–55 hours/week of work). Ongoing eligibility mandates include documentation of income, assets, and residency. No equivalent oversight applies to recipients of corporate subsidies or stadium funding.

³ Chris Ronayne described the plan as “akin to piracy” and stated, “This is not just robbing Peter to pay Paul, this is robbing Bob and Betty Buckeye to pay Jimmy and Dee Haslam.” See: WKYC, “Ohio’s unclaimed funds could help build Browns stadium: Here’s how to see if any belong to you,” June 5, 2025. wkyc.com

Axios Cleveland, “Ohio Senate proposes $600 million Browns stadium subsidy using taxpayers’ unclaimed funds,” June 4, 2025.

DeNatale, Dave, Lynna Lai, and Peter Fleischer. “Ohio Senate approves its version of budget, including $600M for new Cleveland Browns domed stadium in Brook Park.” WKYC, June 11, 2025.

⁴ Should the Browns remain in downtown Cleveland, the city’s proposed $461 million commitment is expected to come from municipally issued bonds, potentially backed by revenues through the Cleveland–Cuyahoga County Port Authority or tax levies. The Port Authority, which regularly issues loans and revenue bonds to spur commercial development, functions as a centralized mechanism for steering public resources—effectively a form of state planning within a nominally capitalist framework, choosing economic “winners” with public backing.

General sources consulted: Associated Press, Axios Cleveland, The Guardian, New York Post