The city wants to stop the Haslams from getting money for a planned Brook Park stadium-village.
The city of Cleveland continues to try to keep Jimmy and Dee Haslam, the owners of the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns franchise, in town. The Haslams have four years left on their deal with Cleveland to use the city’s football venue. The Haslams have given no indication that they intend not to fulfill their obligation to use the stadium through 2028. The city of Cleveland has asked a judge to stop the Haslams from making preliminary plans to build a stadium in Brook Park which is about 15 miles from downtown Cleveland. The city wants the Haslams not to take money “from any source” or to even “carry out any negotiations for it.” The Haslams have $600 million in Ohio state money available to help pay for the stadium-village which is expected to cost around $2.4 billion. Cleveland has experience in suing NFL franchise owners.
By 1995, the city of Cleveland seemingly had no interest in giving then Browns franchise owner Art Modell a new stadium where he could reap as much as 92 percent of the money spent within the stadium perimeter including the parking lot. Modell always thought he would be first in line for a new Cleveland facility. His thinking was wrong. Modell decided to take his business to Baltimore on November 6th, 1995. The city of Cleveland filed a lawsuit to force Modell to honor his lease after he announced that he was moving his team to Baltimore. Modell had a lease through 1998. A restraining order temporarily blocked Modell from leaving. A trial date was set for February 12th, 1996 but the NFL and the city settled and the league expanded into Cleveland for the 1999 season. Cleveland built a new stadium for the NFL. Modell agreed to keep the Browns legacy in Cleveland if the city dropped its lawsuit. Its suing time again in Cleveland.
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