Browns file new amended complaint in lawsuit over move to dome: I-Team

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6 days ago

***Related coverage above: Legal bills show city cost of trying to keep Browns in Cleveland***
CLEVELAND (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team has found a new complaint filed in federal court by the Cleveland Browns against the city of Cleveland.
The Browns are taking steps toward moving to a dome in Brook Park, and last year they filed suit asking federal court to throw out the Modell Law, an Ohio law that restricts sports teams from moving. The amended complaint was filed Monday in federal court.
The amended complaint attacks the city while referring to the plan by the Haslam Sports Group, saying, 'The Haslams' proposal is a fiscally sound solution for the City that will keep the Browns in the heart of the greater metropolitan area for at least another fifty years. Instead of recognizing the benefits of the Haslams' proposal, the City seeks to hold the Browns hostage to its own failure of vision. Instead of a new domed facility that can drive significant economic activity year-round, the City insists on sticking with an aging, uncovered stadium that is used only a dozen or so times annually.'
Legal bills show city cost of trying to keep Browns in Cleveland: I-Team
Meanwhile, the city is pushing a lawsuit against the Browns in county court trying to block the team from moving. A hearing has been scheduled in that case next month.
The Browns would not move until their lease at the current stadium runs out.
The amended lawsuit also said, 'The Modell Law does not require a professional sports team or its owner to play in a facility without a lease agreement or to enter into a new lease agreement for a facility,' and, 'the Modell Law is plainly intended to prevent a team that is playing in a tax-supported facility from abandoning that facility during the term of the applicable lease.'
Behind all of this, the I-Team has reported that the city of Cleveland legal bills in the court battles with the Browns have now topped more than $400,000.
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In the Browns amended complaint, they also ask the federal judge to make the city pay for the team's costs and legal fees fighting the Modell Law.
The Browns plan to invest more than $1 billion in a dome and entertainment complex, but they are also asking for $600 million from the state.
A decision on state funding is expected late next month.
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