Cleveland Officially Sues Browns Over 'Modell Law'

Cleveland Browns Stadium might be vacant come 2029, an attendee of a meeting between Brook Park and the Browns on Wednesday told Scene. Credit: Erik Drost

The Cleveland Browns are violating state law and are fleecing the hundreds of thousands of Clevelanders that help pay $350 million to maintain Huntington Bank Field with their intent to move to a new dome in Brook Park, a new lawsuit filed by the city on Tuesday alleges.

A state suit field in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, the latest plot point on the stadium saga revolves—yet again—around precise interpretation of the 1995 Modell Law, a state provision created then to prevent another move-to-Baltimore fiasco.

“The Cleveland Browns are violating state law and their contract agreements with the city,” a press release read.

Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam cannot, a complaint filed Thursday morning added, “bilk the city and its taxpayers for millions, only to unilaterally abandon what the city provided to them.”

The suit overall alleges that the Haslams opted to relocate from Huntington Bank Field to Brook Park without giving Cleveland the clear chance to buy the team, as per the Modell Law’s language.

Mayor Justin Bibb hinted at the law in his press conference in City Hall’s Red Room in October, where he soberly discussed acquiescing to the Haslam’s decision to build a mega-stadium complex on 120 acres of land just east of the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Since then, City Hall has been brewing with a legal offense, which emerged fully with Thursday’s complaint.

“The Haslam Group’s circumvention of these requirements not only undermines the trust of Cleveland’s residents,” Law Director Mark Griffin wrote in the release, “but also violates a law designed to protect all Ohioans.”