The Browns are preemptively suing the City of Cleveland days after city officials dangled the possibility of a lawsuit over the team’s potential move to Brook Park. 

The NFL franchise is asking a federal judge to rule Ohio’s “Art Modell Law” unconstitutional. Cleveland’s law director this week said he intended to enforce that law, which is meant to give Ohio cities leverage over departing professional sports teams. 

Attorneys for the Browns argued in a complaint filed Thursday that the state law is vague, interferes with the team’s contractual agreements with the NFL and violates federal constitutional protections on interstate commerce.  

Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration has yet to comment on the lawsuit. 

“The statute is so vague and ambiguous that neither the Browns nor any other owner of a professional sports franchise in Ohio has fair notice about what conduct the statute contemplates or forbids,” the complaint reads. 

Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam have said they intend to build a new, roofed stadium in Brook Park – leaving behind the lakefront facility that has been the team’s home since 1999. It’s not yet clear how the team would pay for a $2.4 billion suburban stadium, a proposition that would involve seeking public money. 

Cleveland had offered to contribute $461 million toward renovation costs and upkeep at a $1 billion remake of the current stadium. Bibb this month publicly upbraided the team for turning down the city’s offer. 

“The Haslam Sports Group’s proposal to build a new domed stadium in Brook Park will undoubtedly damage the city, county and region in a multitude of ways,” he said.

City Council and former mayor Dennis Kucinich – a current congressional candidate who wrote the Modell Law – have pushed for the city to use the statute to its advantage in the standoff. Law Director Mark Griffin this week said the city would prepare for a possible court fight over the Browns’ proposed move. 

The team has bristled at comparisons to late owner Art Modell’s 1995 move to take the team to Baltimore – the departure that prompted the law that bears Modell’s name. In a statement, Browns chief operating officer David Jenkins said the team’s lawsuit was meant to take the dispute “out of the political domain.”

“We have no interest in any contentious legal battle but are determined to create a project that will add to Greater Cleveland by building a dome stadium and adjacent mix-used development, a $3-3.5B project, that will include approximately $2B in private investment,” the Browns’ statement about the lawsuit said.