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The owners of the Cleveland Browns are reportedly purchasing 176 acres of land in Brook Park.

That’s according to Northeast Ohio transportation and real estate blogger Ken Prendergast, who first reported the deal Thursday on the Neotrans blog.

He said this was somewhat inevitable: the Haslams wanted more space than the city could provide due to submerged land leases along the lakefront that must be owned by Cleveland or the state.

“They knew that they were having a difficult time with the Haslams,” Prendergast said.

“The Haslams wanted some things that the city of Cleveland wasn’t prepared to give them and based on the number of, the population of the city of Cleveland that were going to games, I could kind of understand why they weren’t willing to give them everything.

A study cited by Cleveland Scene last year found that only 15.5% of attendees at Browns games live in Cleveland.

The Haslam Sports Group has a contract to buy the parcel nine miles southwest of Cleveland, about 1,000 feet from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, according to Prendergast who cited three anonymous sources close to the deal.

The proximity to the airport and the size of the land are keys to the acquisition, which is now a purchase agreement, Prendergast said. The current acreage of the stadium land is about 50 acres or less.

“This is 176 (acres),” Prendergast said. ” It’s a much bigger piece of land. They could even expand that if they acquire some of these Park N’ Fly lots that are surrounding the site.”

That opens up a number of possibilities for restaurants, retail, hotels and more, Prendergast said.

And the Haslam’s would get a cut of that revenue.

Competition among NFL owners was also a factor.

“Who else in the NFL can say ‘I can walk off a plane and go through an enclosed climate-protected passageway and be in my seat without ever going outside,'” Prendergast said.

The news has led to speculation that the team could leave the city of Cleveland for the second time following the team’s move to Baltimore after the 1995 season.

This move would, of course, keep the team in Northeast Ohio, and Prendergast said it could provide benefits for Cleveland.

“If you develop that (lakefront property) with housing and retail and shops and hotels and all that, you’re probably going to get more people down there over the course of a year than you would from a stadium,” Prendergast said.

But there are also drawbacks.

“There’s some value to be gained for a blimp flying over your stadium and providing views of your Downtown skyline on national TV,” Prendergast said.

“You’re not going to get that” with the team in Brook Park.

The state of Ohio recently approved $20 million for a land bridge connecting Downtown to the lakefront.

Prendergast said despite the stadium uncertainty, the bridge remains a big part of the redevelopment plan.

“There’s an even greater use potentially for a land bridge with the stadium gone than there would be if the stadium had stayed,” Prendergast said.

“Maybe not the crush of traffic that we would see in big bursts, but steadier over time, a greater number of people.”

City blueprints show change is likely coming for Cleveland’s famous tailgaters, who have packed locations like Burke Lakefront Airport and the Municipal Parking Lot, Prendergast said.

“You’ll see that the municipal parking lots to the East of East 9th Street are all identified as future development sites,” Prendergast said.

“They want to develop along the waterfront line and make the waterfront line actually usable as a way of getting Downtown.