The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy was the decision by then Browns owner Art Modell to move a National Football League team from its longtime home of Cleveland, Ohio, to Baltimore, Maryland, for the 1996 NFL season. Subsequent legal actions saw a unique compromise that would later set a precedent in professional sports: Modell would be able to keep the Browns' existing player and staff contracts, but his team officially would be an entirely new franchise in Baltimore, later named the Baltimore Ravens. Meanwhile, the Browns' name, history, and archives would stay in Cleveland, and a new Browns team would begin play in 1999 after a three-year period of "deactivation".