CLEVELAND — The Browns’ back-and-forth fight with Cleveland over a deliberate trip to a new suburban stadium has already gone to court.
The NFL team said Thursday it has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking streamlining of the “Model Law,” which the city has threatened to implement to prevent the Browns from escaping after their lease at the Huntington Vault Ground across the street to the lake expires in 2028.
The team has played its games in downtown Cleveland since the 1940s, and in its 65,000-seat stadium, which the team leases through the city, since 1999.
Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam announced last day that they are moving forward with plans to create a domed stadium and entertainment complex in Brook Landscape, about 15 miles south of Cleveland.
The day before, Cleveland City Council threatened to stop the trip by invoking the “Modell Law,” then called former Browns owner Art Modell. Then, abandoning his fight with the city to build a new stadium, Modell moved his franchise in the 1995 season to Baltimore, where it became the Ravens.
Environmental law passed in 1996 was compromised to cancel the transfer of Major League Football team Columbus from Ohio to Texas in 2019. The team stayed and was purchased by the Haslams, who are also part owners of the NBA’s Milwaukee. Green bills.
“Today’s action for a declaratory judgment was brought to take this matter out of the political arena and ensure we can move this transformative project forward to make a new domed Huntington Bank Field at Brook Park a reality,” Dave Jenkins, CEO of Haslam Sports Team. , he stated in an observation.
“We have no interest in any contentious legal battles, but we are determined to create a project that will add to greater Cleveland by constructing a domed stadium and an adjacent mixed-use development… This project will bring world-class events and economic activity that will generate significant revenue for the city, county and state.”
The Browns explored other options, including a renovation of their dynamic stadium, but said the transformation was too expensive. The city had proposed paying $461 million for a renovation it hoped would complete construction of the lakefront branch next to the Rock & Roll Hall of Reputation.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb called the Haslams’ decision to travel with the team “frustrating and deeply disheartening.”
