Dave Jenkins knows the reputation surrounding the Cleveland Browns.
The president of the Haslem Sports Group, which owns the NFL’s Browns in addition to the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA and Columbus Crew of MLS, hasn’t overseen much success during his 22 years as president of the Browns.
In the Haslem family’s 14 years of Browns ownership, the team has made the playoffs as many times as it has held the No. 1 overall pick in the draft (twice each).
In an interview conducted during Super Bowl week, Jenkins told Front Office Sports that the Browns are “real easy to pick on right now” because the team has been unable to string together a “consistent run of success.”
“But like any business, any industry, the more data and information we can have accessible to inform our decision-making, we should be more successful,” Jenkins said.
Things have gone better for the Crew, who won the 2020 and 2023 MLS Cup titles after Haslem Sports Group became a partial owner in 2019, and a bit better for the Bucks, who made the playoffs but failed to make it out of the first round in each of the three seasons since HSG took over partial ownership in April 2023.
Still, the challenge of building winning programs in “mid-tier markets” has proven to be a difficult one for the Haslem Sports Group, most notably with the Browns.
“That presents challenges,” Jenkins said. “You’ve got to drive a business result and be competitive with other big cities.”
Cleveland is resetting things this offseason, firing head coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons. He led the Browns to both of the franchise’s playoff appearances since 2002 (2020, 2023) but won a combined eight games the last two seasons.
The team hired Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken as its next head coach as a pivotal moment in franchise history nears with a new $2.4 billion domed stadium in Brook Park, Ohio — a Cleveland suburb — set to be ready for the 2029 season.
“We were fortunate to find 176 acres just south of Cleveland, 10 miles from the heart of downtown,” Jenkins told Front Office Sports. “It’s going to drive activity like the city has never seen. So we’re super excited about the economic impact it’s going to create, the events we’re going to attract that have never considered coming to Ohio.”
–Field Level Media
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