BACKING THE BROWNS? Fan loyalty around

SPORTS

Backers Backing Out?

Browns fans across the world stay solid despite the trade that’s rocked Cleveland.

IT’S A TYPICAL BROWNS MOTIF: Unwavering dedication despite tragedy. We’ve seen it in perfect record 0-16 parades and after botched drives and shoddy calls. And yet, even after beer bottles rain down, Brownies return to FirstEnergy Stadium, clad in orange and bone. With the consequences of 24 sexual misconduct accusations looming, newly acquired quarterback Deshaun Watson is a potentially tragic burden with a $230 million price tag. Still, as preseason kicks off this month, Browns Backers around the world, 363 chapters and 100,000 plus fans, are mostly optimistic for the 2022 season. Even as some back out in protest, the vibe for many is undeniable: We're gonna show up.

THE ROYAL PERTH BROWNS BACKERS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

On the Gold Coast, 2,200 miles away, Bruce Millinger brags often about, as he says, “being the most distant Browns Backers chapter on the planet.”

A distance with downsides: Perth is 12 hours ahead of Cleveland.

It’s why Millinger, who moved to Perth with his Australian wife in 2003, schedules “Brekkie with the Brownies" — that’s Aussie for “breakfast” — at 8 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time. The event attracts a jerseyed Backer base of 33, half expats.

At Perth’s American bar, Millinger’s Backers often compete with local interests. Cricket, being one. “I’m sorry, any sport that breaks for tea in the afternoon is not a sport,” Millinger says with a wink.

As for the 2022 season, Millinger’s group is mostly supportive. He lost a member in the spring, a minister at a local church, who refused to publicly support his Backers.

“Do you still want to be on the mailing list?” Millinger asked him.

“Yes, by all means,” the pastor said.

“So basically, he’s still a Browns fan,” Millinger says. “But he didn’t want to have direct association with the Browns.”

SPACE CITY DAWG POUND

As one might expect, the Backers are bigger in Texas. And as a result, so are the potlucks and fundraisers.

Clocking in at 251 members, Houston’s Space City chapter — named after the town’s NASA legacy — started in 1994 as a way for Cleveland transplants South to gather in one, big organization.

Watching since Tim Couch’s reign, Cory Hammer, an IT consultant from New Riegel, Ohio, took over right before COVID-19 cut games short and slashed attendance to 50.

But this, of course, was Texas. Months into the pandemic, with Mayfield’s playoff genius, Space City was near record numbers. Which has Browns fans in Texas, Australia and France talk about their team practical perks. In 2021, Space City and how the big trade raised over $4,000 has changed it. — via 50/50 raffles, “Backer Bash” pregames and signed footballs sales — for Sydney’s Song, a charity for BPAN, an ultra rare child neurological disorder.

It’s why The Trade — what Hammer calls it — is so dispiriting. “Our club is split right down the middle,” he says, on both Mayfield’s treatment and Watson’s lawsuit. “I think all of us would prefer not to have controversy surrounding our starting quarterbacks, right?”

SUD DE FRANCE BROWNS BACKERS OF MONTPELLIER

Years after hopping around the globe, Beau Whitney found himself in Montpellier, France. It was 2017. The Browns were infamously 0-16.

“And when we got here, there was no Browns group,” Whitney, a native of Delaware, Ohio, says.

He laughs: “If you can believe that.”

So Whitney started his own chapter, and did so with a half dozen fans as Mayfield made his debut. He soon ran into the usual expat Backer obstacles: Language barriers and stiff sports TV competition with rugby and soccer diehards. Even when they found a dedicated meeting place, the Major League Brewing Co., the owner was preferential to American baseball.

“He’s always trying to turn on, like, a Toronto Blue Jays wildcard game, or something like that,” Whitney says. “I’m like, ‘Really? Baseball?’”

Whitney has a theory as to why foreign nationals and Northeast Ohio natives are lured to supporting a traditionally bleh NFL franchise, even as the team garners a reputation overseas due to Watson.

A universal understanding of, and pity for, the underdogs.

“There’s an authenticity to it,” Whitney says. “No one’s a fake Browns fan. That doesn’t exist.”

SHOPPING

Slice of Orange

Retail and restaurants trade spaces at Pinecrest, which is attracting both national chains and local talent.

There are no revolving doors at Pinecrest, but it sure feels that way sometimes. That’s because Pinecrest, which opened in 2018 in Orange Village as a hybrid retail and residential district, has seen its share of comings and goings lately. “In any development of this scale, remerchandising is anticipated and planned for,” says Jessi Fausett, director of marketing for Fairmount Properties, which manages Pinecrest. “Most of the time the next store or restaurant is a better fit than the last.”

On the “going” end of the spectrum are Next Door, an eatery owned by the Kitchen Restaurant Group (operated by Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk); City Works, an upscale taproom and American eatery; and Oak & Embers Tavern.

Chris McCauley, a co-owner of the remaining Oak & Embers locations in Hudson and Chesterland, attributed his restaurant’s closure to timing.

“We opened in December of 2019 and the pandemic hit within three months,” McCauley says. “That’s kind of true of the entirety of Pinecrest. The place was designed to gather. For the two years we were there, we weren’t allowed to gather. That really hurt their business model, which I think will come back once people get back to the regular life that we had prior to COVID.”

But the brighter news is what has recently arrived or is on the way. New openings include Free People Movement, Casper Sleep Shop, Océanne, Fount, Clay Luxury Kids and the Last Page, an eclectic American restaurant that Cleveland Magazine readers named “Best New Restaurant” in May. Stores that are opening soon include:

Sozo, a Cleveland-based lifestyle company that plans to take its first steps into brick-and-mortar in September. “Our pieces are all handcrafted and made locally in-store as part of our mission to restore American-made craftsmanship and showcase the makers that make this happen,” says Sozo chief operating officer Christine Rizk. “While buying online is made easy, the experience of retail cannot be fully replicated online.”

Kitchen Social, a Columbus-based eatery with two locations, plans to make its first expansion out of the state capital this summer, according to Fausett.

Lao Sze Chuan, an award-winning Chinese eatery, will take over the lot previously occupied by City Works when Long Yu’s Shinto Restaurant Group finishes converting the former restaurant and taproom into a “truly elevated culinary experience” prior to the end of 2023.