Browns, Cleveland resolve their pending legal issues for $100 million

The Browns announced it as a “ historic agreement .” The truth is that it’s a run-of-the-mill civil settlement.

The Browns and the City of Cleveland have resolved the pending legal challenges to the team’s intended move to Brook Park.

The Browns will pay $100 million in all. The amount includes the estimated $30 million expense of tearing down the existing stadium and leaving Cleveland with a “pad ready” vacancy.

Is $100 million enough? It depends on how the litigation would have gone. But that’s how every settlement goes. The expense, delay, and uncertainty of litigation is replaced with a clear and unambiguous agreement.

The bottom line is that the Browns now have the green light to leave Cleveland (again), and to build a new Factory of Sadness in the suburbs.