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CLEVELAND (WJW) — The Fox 8 I- TEAM has found a new filing in federal court by the Cleveland Browns asking to move ahead on their lawsuit against Cleveland in the hope of clearing a path to move to Brook Park.
The Browns filed the lawsuit in federal court in October seeking clarity on the Modell Law, which originally restricted sports teams from moving. The Browns want the Modell Law declared unconstitutional.
The City of Cleveland asked the federal judge on June 27 to “hold deadlines in abeyance” and issue a stay in the federal case. The city’s motion was filed a short time after state lawmakers made an amendment to the Modell Law allowing sports teams to move as long as they stay in Ohio. The federal court granted the stay, but the Browns now say, in a federal motion filed July 10, that the city is still trying to enforce the Modell Law in county court.
“The ‘harm or threatened harm underlying the dispute’ is the city’s active effort to enforce the Modell Law against the Browns,” the motion states.
The amendment does not eliminate that harm because the City continues to prosecute its enforcement suit in state court— the very conduct that the Browns challenge as unlawful in this action. And the City has neither acted nor indicated any intention to cease its effort to enforce the Modell Law and dismiss that suit. Far from ceding any claim under the prior version of the Modell Law, the City’s motion reveals the City’s intent to pursue such claims.
The attorneys for the Browns also argue that the city has not satisfied the standard for imposing such a stay, and the Browns say a lengthy delay in the case could be detrimental.
“The Browns do not just need relief at some point—they need it soon,” the motion states.
The Browns brought this suit last year, in 2024, because obtaining the financing and approvals necessary to develop a new stadium in Brook Park, let alone the construction itself, will take years. Prompt resolution of the Browns’ claims is critical because the Browns must take action now to have any hope of building a new stadium in Brook Park by the time their current lease expires and before the 2029 NFL season begins.
The Browns plan to build an enclosed stadium and move to Brook Park at the end of their lease on the lakefront after the 2028 season.
The Browns and the City are battling in federal court and the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
Friday, a county judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the City against the Browns.
And, the city just asked the county judge for an order blocking the Browns from taking any steps at all toward moving to a dome. The latest filing by the city now accuses the Browns of breaching their contract with the city, even though the team plans to stay in Huntington Bank Field on the lakefront until the end of the lease.
