CLEVELAND — As the battle over a possible new stadium for the Browns heats up, Cleveland City Council on Monday approved an ordinance directing Mayor Justin M. Bibb's administration to enforce the so-called "Art Modell Law" during negotiations with the team.
The legislation, sponsored by Ward 16 Councilman Brian Kazy, calls for Law Director Mark Griffin to use the laws provisions "in order to keep the Cleveland Browns in the City of Cleveland and to protect the interests of the taxpayers of the City with regard to their investment in the lakefront stadium." This comes as the Browns confirm they are considering either renovating the existing stadium downtown or building an entire new venue in another Northeast Ohio community, long rumored to be Brook Park.
Passed in 1996, the "Modell Law" was derisively named after former Browns owner Art Modell months after he moved the team to Baltimore. Part of Ohio Revised Code Section 9.67, the text states that:
"No owner of a professional sports team that uses a tax-supported facility for most of its home games and receives financial assistance from the state or a political subdivision thereof shall cease playing most of its home games at the facility and begin playing most of its home games elsewhere unless the owner either:
- Enters into an agreement with the political subdivision permitting the team to play most of its home games elsewhere;
- Gives the political subdivision in which the facility is located not less than six months' advance notice of the owner's intention to cease playing most of its home games at the facility and, during the six months after such notice, gives the political subdivision or any individual or group of individuals who reside in the area the opportunity to purchase the team."
In short, according to the law, Dee and Jimmy Haslam must give either the city or other local groups a chance to buy the Browns if they seek to take the organization out of Cleveland, provided no other formal agreement is reached to let the club go somewhere else. Even if such a move would only be to the suburbs and not to a completely different part of the country, Kazy believes the text applies just the same.
"The Cleveland Browns have to go through the legal process of leaving the city of Cleveland, whether they want to move the team to Timbuktu, or whether they want to move to Brook Park," Kazy said in April when he announced his intention to bring the ordinance up for a vote. "They have to go before Cleveland City Council and ask permission to move the team, or give us six months notice and offer to put the team up for sale."
The lease at Cleveland Browns Stadium expires in 2028, and the club has already begun looking at its options. Last month, Signal Cleveland reported that team representatives had met with state lawmakers about the Brook Park proposal, which would entail a roughly $2 billion project on 176 acres of land near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
The "Modell Law" has only been officially invoked once, in 2018, when then Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine sued Columbus Crew owner Anthony Precourt to block him from moving the Major League Soccer franchise to Texas. Before he could be fully challenged in court, Precourt agreed later that year to sell the team to (ironically) the Haslam family along with a number of Columbus area investors. The lawsuit was then dropped, and MLS awarded Precourt an expansion team in Austin.
Bibb has not indicated if he will indeed test the Modell Law to potentially force the Browns to stay in Cleveland. Commenting on the negotiations back in March, the mayor only said he "has been active and engaged with the Haslam Sports Group (HSG) to understand the needs of the team and collectively work toward an agreement." The team estimates renovating the existing lakefront stadium would cost roughly $1 billion.
The Browns have not commented on Council's ordinance.
3News' Dave "Dino" DeNatale contributed to this report.