{"id":278659,"date":"2025-08-11T04:40:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/278659\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T04:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:40:21","slug":"cleveland-prepares-possible-lawsuit-over-browns-planned-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/278659\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland prepares possible lawsuit over Browns’ planned move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cleveland\u2019s law director says he is preparing for a possible lawsuit over the Browns<\/a>\u2019 planned relocation to Brook Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city is basing its effort on a portion of state code known as the \u201cArt Modell Law,\u201d named for the team owner who took the Browns to Baltimore in 1995. City Council members and former mayor Dennis Kucinich have urged Mayor Justin Bibb\u2019s administration to make use of the law in fighting another Browns\u2019 departure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The law, Ohio Revised Code Section 9.67<\/a>, says that no professional team owner can leave a taxpayer-supported stadium without first signing an agreement with the host city. Or team owners must provide at least six months\u2019 notice of their intent to leave. Within those six months, they must give the city or local investors a chance to buy the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city ordinances require the city to enforce the Modell Law,\u201d Law Director Mark Griffin said in a statement to Signal Cleveland. \u201cThat is what we are going to do. In order to protect our taxpayers\u2019 investment and keep the Browns downtown, we are following the law and putting together our litigation response. \u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean city lawyers are racing to the courthouse. Cleveland could be weeks away from filing a complaint in court. A mayor\u2019s office spokesperson said city staff are compiling information and researching case law before taking next steps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, council passed a measure<\/a> directing Griffin to enforce the so-called Modell Law if the Browns attempted to leave. Yesterday, Kucinich \u2013 who is also running for congress \u2013 wrote a letter to the administration nudging the city to sue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city\u2019s been through this before. It\u2019s traumatic,\u201d Kucinich, who wrote the Modell Law in 1996, said in a phone interview. \u201cAnd so I wanted to make sure we never had to go through it again. And that\u2019s why I wrote the bill and that\u2019s why I wrote it the way I did it, to at least give the city a fighting chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the city\u2019s news Tuesday evening, the Browns issued a statement from team chief operating officer David Jenkins arguing that the current situation \u201ccould not be more different\u201d from the 1995 move to Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dome stadium and ancillary development focus in Brook Park is the optimal solution for our fans and the region not only because it will bring more large-scale events and economic activity but also because it will open up the lakefront for more impactful development,\u201d he said. \u201cThe proposed Brook Park project will bring far more value to Cleveland than just the 10-12 events the current stadium attracts annually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DennisDennis Kucinich urged City Hall to call a play he drew up in 1996 by invoking the so-called \u201cArt Modell Law.\u201d Credit: Nick Castele \/ Signal Cleveland<\/p>\n

Does the \u2018Art Modell Law\u2019 have teeth?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bibb\u2019s administration hasn\u2019t said if he\u2019ll take Kucinich\u2019s advice. Whether a lawsuit would accomplish much is another question. Alan Weinstein, a professor emeritus at Cleveland State University, has his doubts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds good, but it\u2019s really sort of toothless,\u201d Weinstein said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Delaying a move by six months is of little importance when it would take years for the Browns to relocate to Brook Park, he said. Plus, he added, ownership doesn\u2019t have to accept a purchase offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really can\u2019t force them to do anything,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the law really does is, you got to wait six months for somebody to offer you some other opportunity, which they remain free to say, \u2018Thanks but no thanks.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kucinich, however, argues there\u2019s value in suing anyway \u2013 even if team owners were to challenge the law. The prospect of drawn-out litigation and appeals might force ownership to settle in the city\u2019s favor, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFiling a lawsuit can tie this up for years,\u201d Kucinich said, \u201cbecause eventually you\u2019ll have to go to the Ohio Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kucinich pointed out that his law has survived one recent challenge. Ohio and the City of Columbus cited the co-called Modell law in their 2018 lawsuit to stop the owners of the Crew, Columbus\u2019 Major League Soccer franchise, from moving the team to Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The owner, Precourt Sports Ventures, moved to have the case thrown out. But Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Brown denied the company\u2019s motion to dismiss. Soon a new ownership group stepped in to buy the team \u2013\u00a0a group that included the Haslams<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without divulging much, Council President Blaine Griffin said Monday night that he\u2019d been talking with the law director about the measure. He later said a Browns move to Brook Park isn\u2019t assured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly don\u2019t believe the last conversation has been had,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n

\"Signal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland\u2019s law director says he is preparing for a possible lawsuit over the Browns\u2019 planned relocation to Brook…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,53751,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-278659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-cleveland-mayor-justin-bibb","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115008295764108157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}