CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Documents released by the City of Cleveland Thursday show the city and the Cleveland Browns are ready to take the “Modell Law” lawsuit to court.
The City has expressed, on multiple occasions, its intent to enforce the “Modell Law” in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a Browns’ move to Brook Park. Documents show a Dec. 30 letter sent from the city to the team, “asked for confirmation about whether the Browns intended to comply with that law”. The Browns never responded.
In the documents, the City of Cleveland accuses the Browns of “abandoning the City just as the lakefront is experiencing unprecedented levels of new growth, violating their legal obligations in the process.”
The City believes the Browns will be breaking the law by refusing to comply by “not providing the City and local individuals with an opportunity to purchase the team.”
“The Browns understand that the City intends to assert legal claims in connection with those matters, as it has made clear in earlier public statements, and the Browns look forward to expeditiously resoling all of the parties’ claims in the litigation pending before the Honorable David Ruiz in the Northern District of Ohio”.
The Browns had recently announced their plans for a proposed dome in Brook Park, citing a lack of a legitimate option for a downtown stadium as a major player. The team has yet to define precisely how the new dome would be paid.
