The Browns yesterday announced a "five-point plan to enhance the game-day experience" at FirstEnergy Stadium, a proposal that includes "improvements to stadium access, cell-phone service, the team stores, the guest experience and pre-game rituals," according to Tom Reed of the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER. Browns President Alec Scheiner said that one of biggest goals is "getting fans into the stadium more quickly." The club will "add 44 security screening stations and 20 turnstiles," which it believes will "enable 4,000 more fans to enter the stadium every 15 minutes as compared with last season." The NFL’s new policy "requiring fans to use transparent bags will help with turnstile traffic flow." The Browns are "mailing clear bags to season-ticket holders." Express lanes for "fans not carrying bags also will be opened." Many of the improvements will "be rolled out for the regular-season opener on Sept. 8, but fans should see a difference in traffic flow into the stadium starting with the first preseason game on Aug. 8 against" the Rams. Another priority has been "enhanced cell-phone service." Scheiner said that a "new Distributed Antenna System tower from Verizon will be installed and the AT&T tower is to be upgraded." He believes "all cell service will benefit." The Browns "aren't sure if they will add Wi-Fi service." The team also announced that they have "hired CSC as their new security service." Meanwhile, fans will "notice a renovated team shop and new kiosks throughout the stadium." There also are "major changes coming to the pre-game presentation." The Browns will "employ a deejay on the field before kickoff and another in a booth during games" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 7/30). Scheiner said that the organization "interviewed more than 30 people before choosing" Kevin Griffin as its VP/Fan Experience & Marketing in May. Since then, Scheiner and Griffin have been "communicating with the public via phone, Twitter, email and surveys, gathering ideas about how to enhance the experience at the stadium" (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 7/30).
CARRYING THE BANNER: THE MMQB’s Greg Bedard notes the Browns will “follow the same collaborative decision-making process” as CEO Joe Banner used while with the Eagles, but “the buck stops with Banner.” Banner said, “I do have a little more power in the sense that in Philly the head coach worked with me closely but was not a direct report to me, and he is here. In the execution, that’s really not as big a difference as it sounds, but it is a difference.” The difference can be seen “in the way Banner went about filling out the organization: The depth of the challenge in Cleveland became a recruitment tool.” Banner: “Off-the-field business, on-field performance, all of it -- there’s a lot of room for growth.” Bedard notes Banner’s first hire was Scheiner, who is the “point man on renovations to FirstEnergy Stadium.” But Scheiner also has been “at Banner’s side throughout the reshuffling and restocking of the Browns.” Banner “saved his most daring hire for last, when he pulled [GM] Michael Lombardi from the NFL Network studios.” Lombardi was a Browns personnel exec “when Art Modell relocated the franchise to Baltimore, so the mere mention of him as a candidate -- let alone his actual hiring -- stoked criticism from fans and the Cleveland media.” Banner said of the hiring, “I’m not sure trepidation is the right word; it was certainly something I had to think through. But my job is to try to do what I think in the end is what the fans want and what we all want -- to win as many games as we can” (MMQB.SI.com, 7/30).
