Browns stadium plan: Let the lawsuits commence!

The funding is in place for the team’s domed stadium in Brook Park. But a few lawsuits are still lingering.

The Cleveland Browns are full steam ahead on the plan for a domed stadium and entertainment complex in Brook Park.

The plan hit a major milestone last week when Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed the latest state budget, which included a $600 million commitment from the state to help fund what is estimated to be a $2.4 billion construction project.

DeWine had originally proposed increasing the state’s tax on sports-betting companies operating in Ohio as the funding source for the newly created Sports and Culture Facility Fund, from which the $600 million will officially come. However, state legislators rejected that plan, and the funds will now come from the state’s Unclaimed Property Fund.

That hit a snag on Monday, however, as former state lawmakers Jeffrey Crossman and Marc Dann filed a class action lawsuit seeking to block the state from taking money out of the Unclaimed Property Fund to support stadium projects.

The lawsuit contends that the state taking the money violates both the U.S. Constitution and Ohio’s Constitution in a variety of ways, according to cleveland.com. But the article also points out that this is not the first time the state has dipped into the Unclaimed Property Fund, and that residents have up to 10 years to claim their funds before the state takes them.

The Browns are also still dealing with a lawsuit from the City of Cleveland over the so-called Modell Law, which seeks to stop professional sports teams from leaving their taxpayer-supported stadiums unless they receive permission from city leaders or provide an opportunity for locals to buy the team.

Late last week, Dennis Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor and author of the Modell Law when he was an Ohio senator, joined the city’s legal battle by filing a legal brief and offering the court his perspective on how to interpret the law, according to cleveland.com.

The state budget that DeWine signed updated the law’s wording to clarify that it now only applies to a team looking to leave the state, and as long as the team fulfills its stadium lease, the team would be considered compliant. The Browns are only moving about 13 miles away, and team ownership has said it plans to play out its current lease at Huntington Bank Field, so Kucinich and the city appear to be fighting a losing battle on this front.

To most fans, the ongoing legal battles over the project are a bit tiresome. With the funding in place, the Haslams have purchased the land for the new site, and the ceremonial shovels are being polished for the photo op when the site finally breaks ground.

It is also nice to think that someone is trying to protect the public’s money, but it is hard to see these lawsuits doing much of anything to stall the project at this point.