Cleveland Browns in Oberlin?
by Ian Haynes

When the Cleveland Browns hired head coach Butch Davis, one of his first moves was to suggest that the team move away from their training facility in Berea, Ohio for part of their summer training camps. The top four schools mentioned as possible sites to move the team to were Kent State University, Hiram College, Ohio Northern and the surprise of the bunch, Oberlin. This information was mentioned late in March of this year.
“The story surfaced in the local media [The Morning Journal] with the Browns, under new coach Butch Davis, wanting to find an isolated location for their training camp instead of right now staying in hotel rooms in Berea. Oberlin was mentioned along with a few other schools who were lobbying pretty heavily to bring the Browns to their schools,” VicePresident for College Relations Al Moran said.
Through the next few months the other schools were eliminated as candidates for the training camps until, at this point, only Oberlin and the Brown’s current training facility are left. The Browns have visied the campus on several occasions, have toured the facilities and been in contact with the school over the past few months.
“We have talked to the Browns on several occasions and the way the College looks at it is if it works out it’s just like another summer conference. We have summer conferences when we have no academic programs underway, the dorms and the fields are vacant and if we can work something out, we work something out,” Moran said.
“The school is not going to benefit like other schools would have like Nicholls State in Louisiana when they brought the Saints or St. John Fisher in Rochester when they brought in the Bills. Those schools brought in the NFL teams not for making money as much as using the link with the NFL for recruiting, publicity and visibility. St. John Fisher used the training camp to help recruit athletes. Having the Browns come isn’t for the reason of publicity. We are known as a highly selective academic institution. We are hoping they come here because of the economic impact they would have on the city of Oberlin,” Moran said.
“For the town in terms of outright consumer spending, bringing the Browns to Oberlin would greatly increase money in the town. Studies have been conducted in other towns hosting training camps and have shown that these camps can bring in high six figure to seven figure amounts of money during the time they are going on,” head football coach Jeff Ramsey said.
The Browns coming to Oberlin, while not signifying any major changes on campus, would provide an economic boost to the community. Taking a look at the economic impact that the Saints training camp had on the Houma-Thibodaux area in Louisiana: the direct spending in the area generated by the training camp was through the roof. In 2000, during the 31-day camp, direct spending attributed to the camp was slightly over $1.4 million. Total spending attributed to the camp ended up at just over $1.6 million. An estimated 75,000 fans swarmed the southern Louisiana area during the training camp, looking for souvenirs, food and lodging, among other things. This provided a number of opportunities for local merchants and distributors to cash in on the influx of people to the area.
Money generated from tourism, though, was not the only money being inserted into the local economy. The Saints themselves spent nearly $814 thousand during their 31-day stay. The money was paid to the college for rent and other services, to the food services and numerous local vendors. Expenditures also included temporary labor, shirts and uniforms for workers and equipment rental.
For Oberlin, hosting the Browns’ summer training camps could prove beneficial. Not only does it provide a boost to the economy — it brings in a number of people, many of whom might never have come to the town.
“The way the Browns are playing, they way they are turning their program around successfully, you would assume that they would draw summer visitors into the area and then they would be able to visit the Allen Memorial Art Museum, the restaurants and they would stay in the Inn and surrounding areas, so the economy would get a good boost,” Moran said. “In the meantime, the Browns have been to visit the campus twice, they have checked out our facilities and they seem to be adequate, so we don’t have to put up any new buildings right now or change any of our facilities, but if they decide to come here we might have to do some minor things like getting extra long beds for the dorms and portable air-conditioning units for the rooms.”
“The city would benefit from this deal because NFL teams tend to be a benevolent organizations in the fact that they want to give back to the communities and the small towns and that such a deal would bring people who might otherwise never visit the town or the college here,” Ramsey said.

As of this point, the College is waiting on word from the Browns to see if the situation is workable, if in which case it is, then both sides would need to sit down and work out some sort of contract. A letter requesting a proposal has been sent to the Browns organization and the College is awaiting response.
From a financial standpoint, the College is looking for the Browns to pay for the use of our facilities. “We are welcoming the Browns to use our facilities, but Oberlin College being a non-profit organization and the Browns being a for-profit organization would pay for the use of our facilities,” Vice President for Finance Andrew Evans said.

A proposal is expected sometime in the near future. “We expect to hear from them before too long. Since the season is going on right now, everyone in the administration is busy. We are expecting to hear from them once the season ends,” Evans said.
Though the emphasis of the Browns coming to Oberlin is on the economic boost for the community, ultimately the College stands to gain from the deal. As mentioned before, people who might never come to this campus now have a chance to see it. “It gives people the chance to see the campus, to see the new science center, to see that this is a beautiful campus. That is where the College really stands to benefit,” Ramsey said.
From an athletic standpoint, having the Browns here could benefit recruiting throughout all sports, not just football.