CLEVELAND — Clevelanders remember all too well the feeling they had when the Browns left for Baltimore in 1995. Fans showed their anger in many ways, one though former Cleveland Mayor and then State Senator Dennis Kucinich channeled his emotions into writing in the form of a new state law.
"Ohio Revised Code 9.67," Kucinich recalled proudly.
Three paragraphs signed into law in 1996 put restrictions on any professional sports team owner that uses a tax-supported facility from relocating unless it's mutually agreed upon with the host city or they give the host city six months' notice, and he added: "most importantly local investors or the city itself would have a chance to purchase the team."
The sole purpose, he said, was to prevent a repeat of 1995. "Where the team broke our hearts up and left, left the taxpayers holding the bag, we were without a team. That will never happen again because of the law that I passed."
Cleveland City Councilman Brian Kazy just cited the law as a warning to the Browns should they opt to build a new stadium near the airport, outside of the city.
"This ensures that 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 them to Brook Park or to Lakewood or to any other state," Kazy said.
Kucinich agrees the law is clear if the team physically leaves the city limits, even by a few hundred yards, these provisions apply. I asked if this should lock a team permanently into a stadium even after the agreed-upon lease expires, which the Browns do in 2028. He said yes.
"This law is a conditioned precedent, this law is not conditioned on a lease. If you're in the city and you have a team there and you've accepted the tax revenues, you have an obligation to that community," Kucinich said.
So does he believe that this law then supercedes any lease a professional sports team might have now or in the future? "It would have to because it is the fundamental right of taxpayers, if you're taking taxpayers money you can't turn around and say the lease is gone goodbye, no."
"The team owners gave up something, what they gave up was the ability to have total control over a move," he said.
The law was only challenged in court once. That was in 2018 when the Columbus Crew soccer team owner wanted to move the team, and it was upheld, allowing, ironically, the Haslams to buy the soccer team and keep them in Columbus. "Of course the Haslams are fully aware of how powerful this law is," he said. "I don't think there's any place else in America that has this protection for the taxpayers and the sports fans."
Kucinich said at the bare minimum the law gives the city greater leverage in their negotiations with the Browns.
