Both the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs continue to face hurdles in their path to building or renovating stadia for the future.

The Browns appeared on the way to signing off on a new indoor stadium in the Broom Park district late last month, but have now been set back by a legal challenge to the proposed method of funding that would use ‘unclaimed funds’. Former Ohio attorney general Marc Dann and former state representative Jeffrey Crossman — both Democrats — have filed legal motions claiming that the plan proposed by Ohio’s Republican leadership ‘violates multiple provisions of the state and federal constitutions’.

The action was filed on behalf of three named Ohio residents, as well as all other individuals whose unclaimed funds were being held by the state as of the end of June, arguing that the funding plan constitutes taking people’s private property for government use, notably because of provisions in the proposal that would use more than $1bn in unclaimed funds to create an Ohio Cultural and Sports Facility Performance Grant Fund. The Browns were the first revealed beneficiary of the newly-created scheme, which will take $1.7bn from an estimated $4.8bn of unclaimed funds and use it specifically for the ‘renovation and construction of sports and cultural facilities’.

The state Senate and House of Representatives separately approved a budget that includes $600m — to be paid back via tax revenues from the project — towards construction of the venue, which will replace the outdoor Huntingdon Bank Stadium currently used by the Browns. The Brook Park site, land adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins Airport, is closer to the team’s training facility in Berea, and is expected to cost in the region of $2.4bn to develop into the planned stadium and entertainment quarter. The owning Haslam Sports Group had pledged $1.2bn in private funding.

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Meanwhile, in Kansas, the Chiefs have been given an extended deadline to decide whether to take advantage of a financing plan that could see them cross state lines.

The Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council has already agreed to the use of bonds to cover 70 per cent of the cost of constructing a new stadium for the multiple Super Bowl champions should they be persuaded to leave their current home, Arrowhead Stadium, in Missouri and the Chiefs now have almost another 12 months — through June 30th 2026 — to make their decision.

The lease on Arrowhead, negotiated with Jackson County, is due to expire in January 2031 which, while it appears a long way in the future, needs to see a replacement in place should the Chiefs opt to leave. Jackson County voters recently defeated a sales tax extension that would have helped finance a proposed $800m renovation of Arrowhead, but recent amendments — which now include disaster relief funds for the St. Louis area to rebuild after a series of devastating tornadoes — would authorises an issue of bonds covering up to 50 percent of the cost of new or renovated stadiums in Missouri, where the neighbouring Kansas City Royals are looking to build from the ground up. Each venue would also receive up to $50m in tax credits and other aid from local governments.

The Chiefs are currently sitting on plans for a $1.15bn renovation of their existing facility.