Cleveland, OH, United States (AHN Sports) – Browns fan and Cleveland businessman Ken Lanci filed a lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Friday against his hometown team and the rest of the NFL over the league’s labor lockout.

Lanci claims the lockout violates his private seat license contract as a season ticket holder and is asking the court to prohibit the lockout that threatens to cancel the 2011-12 NFL season.

“What tipped the scale for me is the labor issue between millionaires and billionaires and the fact they can’t settle it when the country is in a recession,” Lanci told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Worse yet, they have to rub this in our faces.”

The 60-year-old millionaire and nearby Gates Mills resident ran an unsuccessful campaign for Cuyahoga County executive last year. He has owned 10 PSLs, which is the right to purchase a season ticket for a specific seat in a stadium, since 1997.

“The owners and players can’t decide what to do with an extra billion dollars between them,” Lanci said. “I have the perfect solution. That one billion should go to all cities that gave them money to build football stadiums they couldn’t afford to build. This would give these cities badly needed tax relief.”

The NFL Player’s Association recently decertified as a union following several weeks of stalled negotiations and went on to file separate lawsuits against the league trying to prevent the lockout.

There were no such things as PSL’s during the last NFL players’ strike in the shortened 1982 season. In a league packed with a number of brand new stadiums and hefty expenses, now 20 of the 32 teams offer them.

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