The Cleveland Browns entered the second week of training camp by enjoying their first padded practice of the summer.
So far, camp has included the first injury scare of the summer, a big-name free agent passing on a Cleveland reunion, and the annual quarterback battle that is not exactly inspiring anyone involved.
While head coach Todd Monken and the coaching staff work to build the roster for 2026, the business side of the organization is busy building the team’s new stadium in the Cleveland suburb
of Brook Park.
Things have been mostly quiet in recent weeks on the stadium front, outside of the occasional nonsensical question about who the quarterback will be when the facility opens in 2029. But two items have recently come out that are of particular interest.
The first is a report from Front Office Sports that, for the first time in franchise history, the Browns are expected to play their home games on an artificial turf field rather than grass. If that turns out to be true, 17 of the league’s 32 teams will be playing on artificial turf:
The news comes as the long-simmering grass vs. turf debate is as active as ever thanks to the 2026 World Cup, which saw eight NFL teams temporarily replace artificial turf playing surfaces with natural grass to comply with FIFA’s requirements.
The NFL Players Association used the tournament as an opportunity to advocate for more grass usage across the league. Its efforts included a coordinated social media campaign, dubbed #WorthTheCost, timed to the World Cup Final; alongside the union itself, dozens of players shared the hashtag across platforms to express their preference for grass fields.
The Browns new stadium will have the “ability to accommodate grass,” … but that will likely only happen if and when the venue hosts soccer matches.
Except the Browns haven’t actually announced a decision yet on the playing surface of the new stadium.
Turns out the story from Front Office Sports is based on a standard Pro Football Talk post that doesn’t really say anything substantial or new. And the PFT report appears to be based on a May 5 article from cleveland.com that cites an unnamed club spokesperson who says artificial turf is “very likely.”
Got all that? Good, let’s move on.
The second item involves just how much fans will pay for the privilege of watching the Browns in Brook Park. During last week’s media session at training camp, owner Jimmy Haslam was asked about the possibility of fans experiencing “sticker shock” over the cost of Personal Seat Licenses, but Haslam said the pricing structure is still a work in progress:
“I’m not sure who said that. We actually had a meeting on it today, and I can unequivocally say this: we have made no decisions on pricing for PSLs or tickets. We have a lot of work to do. I can tell you this — probably our number one overarching goal is to have as many affordable tickets as we can, because we’ve got great fans and they deserve it.”
So what have we learned today?
- The Brook Park stadium might have artificial turf for football games and might have the “ability to accommodate grass,” unless it does not. In which case, the Browns will be playing indoors but on natural grass.
- There has been no decision made on how much tickets will be to watch the Browns, but the “goal” is to make sure an unknown will be affordable.
We now return you to the training camp quarterback battle, already in progress.
