The City of Cleveland has filed a lawsuit against the Browns to stop the team from leaving the lakefront and heading to the suburbs.
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According to the Associated Press, the city filed the suit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Jan. 14. The Civil Case information page lists the Haslam Sports Group LLC as the defendant in the case.
The Browns intend to leave the lakefront stadium after the lease expires in 2028 to move to Brook Park, Ohio. The team owners unveiled plans in August for a $2.4 billion dome, which the Haslam Sports Group said would help the city attract major events like the Super Bowl and the Final Four.
This unveiling of the Brook Park property took place one week after the City of Cleveland proposed $461 million in funding — which it would split with the Browns — to renovate the existing stadium and the surrounding area on Lake Erie.
The Browns have been in what is now Huntington Bank Field since 1999.
"For decades, the City of Cleveland and the taxpaying public have supported the Cleveland Browns—financially and otherwise—at the team's lakefront stadium," the lawsuit states. "Through thick and thin, rain and snow, good seasons and bad, Clevelanders have stood by their football team.
"That community support carries tangible costs: The City and taxpaying public have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into building and maintaining the Browns' stadium (now called Huntington Bank Field) as well as the area surrounding it.
"And the City has long provided those funds against the backdrop that, in return for that exhaustive taxpayer support, the Browns and their owners would uphold their end of the bargain under the law—and uphold their role as stewards of the Downtown Cleveland community that has experienced exciting and significant growth over the years."
The lawsuit points to the 1996 "Modell Law," which was enacted after Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore. Modell was unable to reach an agreement on a deal with the City of Cleveland, so he packed up and headed east.
Essentially, the Modell Law says that if a team takes taxpayer money and plays in a taxpayer-supported facility, its owner must either obtain the city's authorization to move out of the facility or provide an opportunity for the city and others to purchase the team.
The City of Cleveland said in the lawsuit that the Haslams took advantage of the Modell Law by purchasing the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer. This prevented the team from leaving.
"But the Haslams no longer want to abide by duly enacted Ohio law when it hampers their desired ends — that is, pursuing a new domed stadium away from the Downtown Cleveland community that has long supported the team both financially and communally," the lawsuit adds.
"In connection with their desire to abandon their current stadium, the Browns preemptively filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to invalidate the Modell Law entirely (or to at least declare the Browns immune from it), and have intimated, via this lawsuit and by letter, that they have no intention to follow state law or their obligations under a long-held lease contract with the City."
