Browns Owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam yesterday informed season-ticket holders in a letter that the team is "not raising prices this season for the seventh time in eight years," according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER. Some sections of FirstEnergy Stadium will "actually see a decrease" in cost. The Browns raised ticket prices in '15 "for the first time in seven years when they were coming off a promising 7-9 season." However, the team this past year regressed to 3-13. The Haslams in the letter wrote, "We are devoted to making significant improvements and giving you a team that you can be proud of for years to come" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 2/18).
HEALING PROCESS: In Akron, Nate Ulrich reports the Browns this coming season will honor Pro Football HOFer Jim Brown "with a statue outside FirstEnergy Stadium." The move comes "six years after an ugly rift developed" between Brown and then team President Mike Holmgren, who "stripped Brown of his executive adviser title." When the Haslams bought the team in '12, they "repaired the team’s relationship with Brown," hiring him as the organization’s special adviser. Plans for the statue, which was announced on Brown's 80th birthday, is their "latest gesture of ultimate respect." A team spokesperson said that plans are to unveil the statue "on alumni weekend, which is typically early in the fall." The exact date "won’t be set until the NFL releases the season schedule." Ulrich notes this will be the "first statue outside FirstEnergy Stadium and the fourth in downtown Cleveland recognizing a professional sports figure," joining monuments to former Indians Bob Feller, Larry Doby and Jim Thome outside Progressive Field (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 2/18). In Cleveland, Branson Wright in a front-page piece notes the statue "will become the first replica of Brown, outside of the historical marker in Mount Pleasant, his bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and his image in the Ring of Honor" at FirstEnergy Stadium. Many fans believe a statue of Brown is "long overdue" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 2/18).
