City of Cleveland Threatens Browns With Lawsuit Over Planned Move

Cleveland, Ohio. Copyright Aerial Agents

The city of Cleveland is threatening legal action on the Cleveland Browns over their intended move.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb sent a letter to Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam on Monday demanding the team comply with an Ohio law that penalizes attempts by local sports teams to move out of the city’s jurisdiction. The law requires a team that intends to move to give advance notice of their intent to leave the city and offer a six-month window to put the team up for sale. The Browns have indicated that when their stadium lease expires in 2028, they plan to build a new stadium in a nearby suburb.

The law, known as Modell’s Law, affects owners of professional sports teams that use a tax-supported facility and receive financial assistance from the state.

The law was named after then-Browns owner Art Modell and enacted in 1996. At the time, Modell announced plans to relocate the team to Baltimore, Maryland. After similar threats of legal action, the Cleveland organization moved and became the Baltimore Ravens, while the intellectual property of the Browns—their name, logos and colors, and team history—were placed in trust. The Browns were reestablished in 1999.

The Browns play at Huntington Bank Field, originally Cleveland Browns Stadium, in the downtown part of the city. The stadium was built while the team was held in trust and opened in 1999. It is the only stadium in the entire NFL that has not hosted a Super Bowl, and it has not hosted a home playoff game.

In his letter, Bibb noted that Huntington Bank Field is a “tax-supported facility” under the law and that the city of Cleveland spent some $350 million over the course of about 20 years to repair and maintain the stadium. But to date, the team has not complied with the law by providing the city a window to put the team up for sale. Bibb said that should the opportunity arise, “the City intends to take a leadership role” in finding a new group of owners to purchase the team.

Bibb demanded that the team comply with the law by Jan. 9 and provide the city with a date the team will be put up for purchase, as well as a date and time for the city to send representatives to inspect the organization’s records. Should the Browns fail to comply with the request, the city would “take appropriate legal action,” Bibb said.

The Browns have sought legal clarity on the issues surrounding the team’s planned move. The team filed a lawsuit in October seeking a declaratory judgment to “take this matter out of the political domain.”

“As we have consistently conveyed, the intent of our future stadium planning has always been to work in collaboration with our local leaders to find the optimal long-term stadium solution that will benefit our fans while positively impacting our region,” Haslam Sports Group Chief Operating Officer Dave Jenkins said in a statement on the Browns’ website.

When the current stadium lease expires, the Browns plan to move to a domed stadium in the suburb of Brook Park. The move is estimated to cost between $3 billion and 3.5 billion.