The Cleveland Browns have made their intentions to leave the city clear. And now they’re filing a lawsuit to move the process forward.
On Thursday, the Browns announced that they are filing a lawsuit against the city of Cleveland to challenge the “Modell Law,” which was designed to prevent teams from leaving cities that subsidized them with taxpayer money. The law is named after former Browns owner Art Modell, who moved the franchise to Baltimore in 1996, when they became the Ravens.
Ironically, the Modell Law was used to block an attempt to move the Columbus Crew to Austin, Texas, allowing the Browns’ current owners — the Haslam family — to purchase the MLS franchise.
The City of Cleveland has invoked the Modell Law in an effort to keep the Browns in Cleveland after the team announced its plans to move to the suburb of Brook Park. The Browns and Cleveland had negotiated on plans to keep the franchise in the city before the team revealed it will be moving to Brook Park to build a state of the art domed stadium.
“Today’s action for declaratory judgment was filed to take this matter out of the political domain and ensure we can move this transformative project forward to make a new domed Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park a reality,” Haslam Sports Group CEO Dave Jenkins said in a statement. “We have no interest in any contentious legal battle but are determined to create a project that will add to greater Cleveland by building a domed stadium and adjacent mixed-use development. … This project will bring premier events and economic activity that will generate significant revenue for the city, county and state.”
It’s unclear whether the vague Modell Law would apply to the Browns’ potential move, as the team would be remaining in Ohio after fulfilling the terms of its current lease, which is set to expire after the 2028 NFL season. The Browns’ legal action should provide clarity to situation and could ultimately determine where the team will be playing come 2029.
