The Browns have offered to host an Obetz youth football camp, but not a team training excursionGETTY IMAGES
An administrator with the town of Obetz, Ohio, is "demanding" that the Browns "bring a mini-training camp or other type of team excursion to his village in order to earn an extension" of the Crew's training-facility lease there, according to Bill Bush of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. If the two sides "can’t come to terms, the village will ask the Crew," whose new ownership group includes Browns co-Owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, to "leave the training facility in December, terminating its 22-year relationship with professional soccer." Obetz Administrator Rod Davisson said that the Crew’s option to extend its Obetz lease "expired late last year, and the team has been on a month-to-month deal since." Browns Senior VP/Communications Peter John-Baptiste said that the team has "offered to host an Obetz youth football camp, which typically involves active and former players, but not a team training excursion." He added that the Crew's current training facility has "two fields, a locker room, training room and coaches offices." A plan to "convert parking lots around Mapfre Stadium ... into an expanded training and practice facility will be reviewed by a new panel created by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 7/22).
