Non-Custodial Moving Out of State

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Ohio

My wife has a 9 year old son for whom she is the non-custodial parent. She and her ex both live in Ohio at the moment, and that's where their divorce took place. After a lengthy job hunt, I accepted a position in Florida. She is still in Ohio because she wants to get their custody agreement changed to a shared parenting agreement purely so she can sign forms and whatnot in case of an emergency. Currently, she gets him on weekends, 1 major holiday, and the summer. She wants to be able to move to Florida with me, and still get the holiday and summer with her son (forfeiting weekends if need be). We would have a comfortable income, a nice home environment, and would pay for all travel expenses. The father was fine with this agreement until his son mentioned that he wanted to move to Florida with us. Now he is threatening to hire lawyers and fight any change to the custody agreement. His family is incredibly wealthy (although he and his girlfriend are broke and currently on welfare), and I am afraid this is a legal battle we can't win. To me it seems that the father is only interested in winning, and has no consideration for his son's own interests (although that's probably an emotional response on my part). I feel our requests are well-within reason. What recourse do we have, and can anyone recommend our next step to take?

You are indicating that at present your wife has no legal rights in relation to her child? He can visit her, but she can't even take him to a doctor without dad's permission? Then there is a hornet's nest of facts in the background that affect the answer to your question, and your wife needs to be consulting a lawyer.

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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You are indicating that at present your wife has no legal rights in relation to her child? He can visit her, but she can't even take him to a doctor without dad's permission? Then there is a hornet's nest of facts in the background that affect the answer to your question, and your wife needs to be consulting a lawyer.

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While I do not disagree with this, mom's current visitation schedule is generous enough that I doubt that mom's lack of legal custody has anything to do with fitness.

That being said, a standard long distance schedule would almost be guaranteed if it went to court and there were no fitness issues that could be proven. That would be somewhere along the lines of every other Thanksgiving, 1 week at Christmas, every or every other Spring Break and anywhere between 1/2 and 3/4's of the summer.

Again, if there are no fitness issues this is not a battle that wealth would win.