Cleveland will be playing hardball to keep its pro football team in town.
Via FOX 8, the city has decided to invoke the “Modell Law” in an effort to keep the Browns from leaving downtown and building a domed stadium in Brook Park.
A letter sent by Mayor Justin Bibb to owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam explains that Cleveland will attempt to use the law to force a sale of the team.
The law was passed in 1996, after the late Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore.
The Browns previously filed a federal lawsuit aimed at getting “clarity” on the application of the Modell Law. The case is still pending.
The team explained at the time that it has “no interest in any contentious legal battle.” But they’re the ones who sued for what’s known as a declaratory judgment that resolves a dispute and sets forth the various rights and responsibilities.
Whatever the label used, every legal battle is inherently contentious. Otherwise, a lawsuit never would have been filed.
The Haslams bought the team in 2012, knowing the full history of the team’s prior relocation. It’s gutsy, to say the least, to defy the procedure that was put in place following the relocation of the Browns.
And while the team would still be in the area, it wouldn’t be in Cleveland.
The Haslams secured the upper hand by filing in federal court, where the judges aren’t elected by local residents. In hindsight, Cleveland probably regrets not filing a case of its own in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, where any judge that lets the Browns leave town would have to answer for the ruling at the ballot box.
