Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
Part of 1995 NFL season | |
Duration | December 1994–February 1996 |
---|---|
Also known as | "The Move" |
Cause | Financial constraints within Browns ownership, team value and revenue losses under owner Art Modell, state of Cleveland Stadium |
Participants | Browns ownership, City of Cleveland, Art Modell, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, City of Baltimore |
Outcome | The suspension of the Cleveland Browns franchise after the 1995 NFL season, the transfer of its assets and player contracts to an expansion franchise (the Baltimore Ravens) that begins play in 1996, and the revival of the Browns franchise (restocked via an expansion draft) in 1999 |
The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy—colloquially called "The Move" by fans[1][2]—followed the announcement by Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell that his National Football League (NFL) team would move from its longtime home of Cleveland to Baltimore for the 1996 NFL season.
Subsequent legal actions by the City of Cleveland and Browns season ticket holders led the NFL to broker a compromise in which Modell agreed to return the Browns franchise to the league. The agreement stipulated that the Browns franchise, including its history, records and intellectual property, would remain in Cleveland. In exchange, the NFL agreed to grant Modell a new franchise in Baltimore (which was eventually named the Ravens) and the City of Cleveland agreed to build an NFL-caliber venue to replace the aging Cleveland Stadium.
Since it was deemed infeasible for the Browns to play the 1996 season in Cleveland under such circumstances, the franchise was officially deactivated by the NFL in February 1996. The NFL agreed to re-activate the Browns by 1999 either by way of an expansion draft or by moving an existing team to Cleveland. In lieu of holding both a dispersal draft for the Browns and an expansion draft for the Ravens, the NFL allowed Modell to effectively transfer the Browns' existing football organization to the Ravens. As such, the Ravens are officially regarded by the NFL as an expansion team that began play in 1996. By 1998, the NFL had ruled out moving any of the league's then-30 teams to Cleveland, committed to stocking the roster with an expansion draft, and sold the Browns franchise to Al Lerner, a former minority owner of the franchise under Modell, for $530 million.[3] The re-activated Browns acquired players through this expansion draft and, in 1999, resumed play in a new stadium that replaced the demolished one.
This compromise, which was unprecedented in North American professional sports, has since been cited in franchise moves and agreements in other leagues, including ones in Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL).
Dissatisfaction with Cleveland Stadium
In 1975, knowing that Municipal Stadium was costing the city more than $300,000 a year to operate, then-Browns owner Art Modell signed a 25-year lease in which he agreed to incur these expenses in exchange for quasi-ownership of the stadium, a portion of his annual profits, and capital improvements to the stadium at his expense.[4] Modell's new company, Stadium Corporation, paid the city annual rents of $150,000 for the first five years and $200,000 afterwards.
Modell had originally promised never to move the Browns. He had publicly criticized the
In 1990, voters approved a ballot measure to build a new sports complex, the
Financial considerations
Due to the massive and relatively consistent increase in the value of NFL franchises since the league's founding in 1920, the league has a long history of owners whose net worth is largely accounted for by the value of their football teams. Even today, many of the league's clubs are owned by businesspeople (or their heirs) who, while relatively well-off by the standards of the time, founded or purchased a football team which has since appreciated in value at a far higher rate than whatever other business interests they might have originally been involved in. However, even with those considerations in mind, Modell's net worth had always been relatively meager compared to most other principal owners in the NFL, despite his long influence in league circles.
The Browns' capitalization problems dated to their founding as a charter All-America Football Conference (AAFC) franchise by legendary coach Paul Brown. Modell was recruited in large part because the NFL was desperate to avoid any perception of franchise instability within its ranks, especially in the face of competition with the then-fledgling (but well-financed) American Football League (AFL). As Cleveland had been decisive in ensuring the AAFC's relative success and eventual partial merger with the older league, the NFL was keen not to lose the market to a rival league—as it had in 1946 when it allowed the Cleveland Rams to move to Los Angeles. Modell's purchase of the team was thus approved by the NFL under conditions that the league might otherwise have rejected. It was among the most heavily leveraged purchases in league history: most of the funds used to purchase the team were borrowed.
On the one hand, the eventual negotiation of a
The Browns' financial situation led Modell to take legally questionable measures to remain solvent. For example, he tried to transfer liability for several personal bad loans to the Browns organization, prompting one of his minority partners to sue him. As early as 1983, Modell concluded that he would never be able to pay all of his debts before his deal with the city expired.[8] The loss of revenue from the Indians hit Modell especially hard. After realizing how much revenue was lost from the Indians moving out of Cleveland Stadium, he requested a referendum be placed on the ballot to provide $175 million in taxes to refurbish the outmoded and declining Cleveland Stadium.[9]
Announcing the move
On December 12, 1994, Modell told his board that he didn't believe a referendum to raise the sin tax would pass, as the proceeds would have been used to either fund a renovated Municipal Stadium or a new stadium. Modell then informed them that if the referendum failed, he would be finished in Cleveland, and would have no choice but to move the Browns.[8]
Entering the 1995 season, the Browns, coached by Bill Belichick, were coming off a playoff season in 1994 in which the team finished 11–5 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Sports Illustrated predicted that the Browns would represent the AFC in Super Bowl XXX at the end of the 1995 season, and the team started 3–1, but they then lost their next three games.[10][11]
While this was happening, Browns minority owner Al Lerner was privately prodding Modell to consider moving to Baltimore. He urged Modell to contact John Moag, the newly installed Maryland Stadium Authority chairman. Earlier in the year, the league had told Moag that Baltimore would get a team (either an expansion team or an existing team that would be moved from another city) if a stadium were already in place.
Elected officials in Baltimore and Maryland were still smarting from the
Negotiations continued in secret until September, when Moag told Lerner that if the Browns were serious about moving, "you need to act and act now." A few days later, Lerner, Modell and Moag met at Lerner's
Soon afterward, Modell told
On November 6, 1995, with the team at 4–5,
Despite this, Modell ruled out a reversal of his decision, maintaining publicly that his relationship with Cleveland had been irrevocably severed. "The bridge is down, burned, disappeared", he said. "There's not even a canoe there for me."[15] In truth, Modell had been brought to tears when he signed the memorandum of understanding in September: he had even told Moag that signing it was "the hardest thing I've ever done" and meant "the end of our life in Cleveland." Years later, longtime Browns general counsel Jim Bailey told The Athletic that Modell was "an emotional wreck" when he signed the memorandum.[8]
Initial reaction
The City of Cleveland sued Modell, the Browns, Stadium Corp, the Maryland Stadium Authority, and the authority's director, John A. Moag Jr., in City of Cleveland v. Cleveland Browns, et al., Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV-95-297833, for breaching the Browns' lease, which required the team to play its home games at Cleveland Stadium for several years beyond 1995, filing an injunction to keep the Browns in the city until at least 1998. Several other lawsuits were filed by fans and ticket holders.[14][16] The United States Congress even held hearings on the matter.[17][18]
Comedian
On the field, the Browns stumbled to finish 5–11 after the announcement, ahead of only the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, to whom they lost twice, in the AFC Central, becoming the first team in the NFL's modern era to lose twice to a first-year expansion team.[11] Virtually all of the team's sponsors pulled their support,[14] leaving Cleveland Stadium devoid of advertising during the team's final weeks. After the announcement, the team lost all their home games except the final, in which they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26–10.[20] The game itself was blacked out on television locally on WKYC, but NBC did broadcast extensive pregame coverage from Cleveland.
Settlement
After extensive talks between the NFL, Modell, and officials of the two cities, Cleveland and Modell accepted a legal settlement that would keep the Browns legacy in Cleveland, in exchange for dropping its lawsuit.
While a number of parties had already expressed interest in acquiring the Browns by this point, it soon became clear that no viable owner would be ready to operate a football team on such short notice; even without that to consider, the NFL had insisted on the replacement of Cleveland Stadium, whereas the city had no other venue that met NFL requirements for even temporary use.
Thus, on February 9, 1996, the NFL announced that the Browns franchise would be "deactivated" for three years, and that a new stadium would be built for a new Browns team, as either an expansion team or a team moved from another city, that would begin play in 1999, while in exchange Modell would be granted a new franchise - the 31st NFL franchise - for Baltimore.
Modell was permitted to retain the current contracts of players and other football personnel although notably, Belichick was fired. Ironically, his successor Ted Marchibroda's two previous head coaching stints had both been with the Colts, the first being in Baltimore in the 1970's and the second being in Indianapolis immediately prior to being hired by Modell's still-unnamed Baltimore team. The name of Modell's holding company was changed from Cleveland Browns, Inc. to Baltimore Ravens, Inc.,[21] however Modell is typically reckoned to have moved the football organization, but not the franchise itself. The transaction was remarkably similar in some respects to the establishment of Baltimore's preceding NFL team (the 1953-83 Colts) as in that case, Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom was awarded the player contracts and related football assets of the moribund Dallas Texans. The difference then was that the Texans were dissolved and their history is not claimed by the Colts, the Dallas Cowboys or any other extant franchise.
The settlement stipulated that the reactivated team for Cleveland would retain the Browns' name, colors, history, records, awards, and archives. It was approved by league owners after a 25–2 vote, with three abstentions. The two "no" votes were from Ralph Wilson of Buffalo and Dan Rooney of Pittsburgh.[20][22][23] The three abstentions were from the owners whose teams at the time had most recently re-located (the Cardinals, Raiders and Rams), thus notably including Raiders' owner Al Davis who had earlier publicly clashed with Modell regarding franchise moves.
An additional stipulation was that in any future realignment plan, the Browns would be placed in a division with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals due to long-standing rivalries with those two teams.[24] Upon their reactivation in 1999, the Browns were placed back in the AFC Central with the Steelers and Bengals, as well as the Ravens, Titans, and Jaguars: this arrangement put teams from Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh in the same division for the first time in NFL history.
When the NFL realigned into divisions of four teams for the 2002 season, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Baltimore remained together in the new AFC North, while Tennessee, Jacksonville, Indianapolis (from the AFC East), and the expansion team, Houston Texans were placed in the new AFC South.
The only other active NFL team to temporarily suspend operations without merging with any other was Cleveland's previous NFL team, the Rams, who did not field a team for the 1943 season due to a shortage of players at the height of World War II.[25]
Aftermath and legacy
The return of the NFL to Baltimore compelled the departure of the professional football team already in Baltimore at the time, the
Focus groups, a telephone survey, and a fan contest were all held to help select a new name for Modell's team. Starting with a list of over 100 possible names, the team's management reduced it to 17. From there, focus groups of a total of 200 Baltimore area residents reduced the list of names to six, and then a phone survey of 1000 people trimmed it down to three, Marauders, Americans, and Ravens. Finally, a fan contest drawing 33,288 voters picked "
Modell's move to Baltimore came amid an unprecedented flurry of similar threats — and actual moves —
As with all other moves, NFL football continued to air on local television in Cleveland due to the league's television contracts. During the three years the Browns suspended operations, the NFL ordered its broadcast partners to air games featuring the Browns' two biggest rivals, the Bengals and Steelers, on Cleveland's local stations. Two official secondary markets the Browns share with another team--Columbus and Youngstown—both primarily aired games from the teams the Browns shared those markets with, with Columbus airing Bengals games and Youngstown airing Steelers games. Erie, Pennsylvania, which is officially a secondary market for the Buffalo Bills but airs many Browns games due to Erie's close proximity to Cleveland, aired more Bills home games as well as Steelers games whenever it didn't come in conflict with the Bills away schedule.
After several NFL teams threatened to move to Cleveland to become the reactivated Browns (most notably the Tampa Bay Buccaneers[32]), the NFL decided in 1998 to make the reactivated Browns an expansion team; while temporarily giving the league an odd number of teams (causing at least one team to be off in each of the 17 weeks of the NFL season from 1999–2001), this also eliminated any possibility of an existing franchise giving up its own identity for the Browns and thus prevented more lawsuits. In an ironic twist, Al Lerner—who helped Modell move to Baltimore—was granted ownership of the reactivated Browns;[33] his son Randy took over ownership after Al's death in 2002 before selling the team to Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam in 2012.
From its beginning, the odd number of teams and the ensuing awkward scheduling was considered a temporary arrangement pending the addition of a 32nd NFL franchise. Although Los Angeles was heavily favored, it was ultimately
Following Houston's return to the NFL, Los Angeles became the favored destination for owners threatening to move their teams until the
Two of the players from the Browns' 1995 roster returned to Cleveland in 1999. They were Antonio Langham, who spent the 1998 season with the San Francisco 49ers and was claimed by the Browns in the expansion draft, and Orlando Brown, who played for Baltimore until 1998 and signed with Cleveland as a free agent. Each player would play only the 1999 season in Cleveland. They were ultimately the only two players to play for the Browns under both the Modell and Lerner organizations.
The reactivated Browns have had only four winning seasons since returning to the NFL in 1999, with records of 9–7 in 2002, 10–6 in 2007, 11–5 in 2020, and 11–6 in 2023, earning wild card berths in the playoffs in 2002, 2020, and 2023. Meanwhile, the Ravens have been more successful, reaching the playoffs 15 times since 2000 and winning Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XLVII, to the dismay of Browns fans.[20][36] Longtime placekicker Matt Stover was the last remaining Ravens player that played for the Modell-owned Browns—he departed the Ravens following the 2008 season when the team chose not to re-sign him, finishing his career with the Indianapolis Colts.[37] General manager and former Browns tight end Ozzie Newsome (who was in a front-office role under Modell in Cleveland) remained with the Ravens until his retirement in 2018.
The move would also have an effect in
Modell continued to struggle financially even after the move. Like several other owners who had acquired their teams prior to the AFL–NFL merger Modell's net worth by the end of his tenure was primarily derived from the appreciation of his team's value, and he had relatively little outside wealth to help underwrite his club's expenses. Because of such continual financial hardships, the NFL directed Modell to initiate the sale of his franchise. On March 27, 2000, NFL owners approved the sale of 49 percent of the Ravens to Steve Bisciotti.[40] In the deal, Bisciotti had an option to purchase the remaining 51 percent for $325 million in 2004 from Art Modell. On April 8, 2004, the NFL approved Steve Bisciotti's purchase of the majority stake in the club.[41]
Although Modell later retired and had relinquished control of the Ravens, he is still despised in Cleveland, not only for moving the Browns, but also for his firing of head coach
Effect on teams in other sports leagues
This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2024) |
Major League Baseball
- The Minnesota Twins, when they signed their deal with Hennepin County, Minnesota for Target Field in 2006, agreed to a provision that was signed into law, allowing the state of Minnesota the right of first refusal to buy the team if it is ever sold. Also, it requires that the name, colors, World Series trophies, and history of the team remain in Minnesota if the Twins are ever moved out of the state. The deal is similar to what Modell agreed to with the city of Cleveland during the move.
- After the Oakland mayor Sheng Thao included a provision in the lease extension that would require the Athletics to keep the team name and history in Oakland for use by a potential expansion team if the Oakland A's were to play at the Coliseum for three more years. Ultimately, the A's rejected the lease extension and will play their last season in Oakland in 2024, before temporarily moving to Sacramento, California in 2025,[45] and permanently to Las Vegas in 2028.[46][47]
Major League Soccer
- In December 2005, the Lew Wolff.
- The Browns move in 1995 had a direct effect on a proposed move of the Columbus Crew to Austin, Texas; the Modell Law, which was implemented in Ohio in 1996, prohibits sports teams that benefited from public facilities or financial assistance from moving to another city without a six-month notice and an attempt to sell the team to a local ownership group. A lawsuit was filed by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and the city of Columbus. Rather ironically, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy and Dee Haslam, along with other investors, offered to buy the Columbus Crew to keep them in Columbus.[50] The deal sold the operational rights of the Crew to the Haslams, while previous Crew owner Anthony Precourt kept his equity stake in MLS, and was granted ownership of a new franchise in Austin.[51] The sale of the Crew to Haslam's ownership group was announced as agreed to on December 28, 2018, and was completed in January 2019. As part of the deal, the lawsuit against Precourt was dismissed that day; the Modell Law remains untested as a result.[52]
National Hockey League
- After the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 to become the Colorado Avalanche, the franchise's retired numbers, name, and logos remained in Quebec City and are expected to be used by any future Quebec City NHL franchise that may be established or move there. Upon arrival at Denver, the Nordiques' retired numbers were placed back into circulation.
- In 2011, a team took the name of a city's previous team (as the Baltimore Stallions did when the Ravens forced their move to Montreal). That saga began in 1996, when the Winnipeg Jets left Manitoba for Phoenix, Arizona, and become the Phoenix (later Arizona) Coyotes. Thirteen years later, the Coyotes went bankrupt and were taken over by the league. Winnipeg-based True North Sports & Entertainment offered to buy the team and return it to Winnipeg, where it presumably would have re-assumed the Jets' name and history. The NHL turned down that proposal — they were still looking for an owner to operate the franchise in Phoenix, whose municipal government had agreed to subsidize the team's financial losses — but said that moving the team back to Winnipeg was their preferred backup option. But when the Atlanta Thrashers came up for sale a year later, the league decided that there was no chance of finding an owner to operate a franchise in Georgia, so they arranged for True North to purchase the Atlanta franchise and move it to Winnipeg for the 2011–12 NHL season. The league decided to let True North and the new Jets use the identity of the old Winnipeg team, but not its history, which remained in Arizona with the Coyotes. The new Jets organization highlighted this change by quickly re-issuing the team's #9 jersey — retired by the old Jets in honor of superstar Bobby Hull — to forward Evander Kane, who had worn the number in Atlanta. Forward Bryan Little, however, switched to #18 from his original #10 in respect to Dale Hawerchuk, often considered the greatest original Jet. While the new Jets were unable to reclaim the franchise records of the original franchise from 1972 to 1996, they did reclaim its logos and trademarks; since 2016, the current franchise honored the original incarnation by wearing throwback jerseys and pay tribute to its iconic players by establishing the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame. While the new Jets retain the history and records of the Thrashers, the Atlanta Spirit Group, retained the rights of the name and logos for the Thrashers, which are expected to be used by any future Atlanta NHL franchise that may be established or move there.[53]
- As part of the 2024 deal that sold the Arizona Coyotes to Ryan Smith and will relocate their hockey operations to Salt Lake City after the 2023–24 season, the Coyotes franchise will be marked "inactive" and the Utah franchise considered an expansion team. Former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo will remain part of the NHL Board of Governors and retain the rights to the Coyotes brand, history, and records (including the history and records of the 1972–1996 Winnipeg Jets); if Meruelo builds a new arena in the Phoenix area by 2029, he will receive an expansion franchise that will act as a "reactivated" Coyotes.[54][55] If not, the NHL will have the right to fold the franchise permanently.[56]
National Basketball Association
- The museum until such time as a new team arrived to put them on display.[57] The original franchise, now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder, keeps the SuperSonics records, championships, and retired numbers, until a new SuperSonics franchise is brought to Seattle: in effect, both the Thunder and the new SuperSonics franchise would share the original SuperSonics history.
- Similar to the Winnipeg Jets scenario in the NHL, the NBA first entered Charlotte in 1988 in the form of the Charlotte Hornets. That team moved to New Orleans after the 2001–02 season, retaining the Hornets name. The league returned to Charlotte for the 2004–05 season with a new team, the Charlotte Bobcats, and after the New Orleans franchise changed its name to the Pelicans following the 2012–13 season, the Bobcats announced that they would reclaim the Hornets name effective with the 2014–15 season. When the name change from Bobcats to Hornets became official in May 2014, it announced that the Hornets, Pelicans, and the NBA had reached an agreement that all history and records of the original Charlotte Hornets would be transferred to the revived Hornets: thus, the Hornets are now considered to have been established in 1988, suspended operations in 2002, and resumed play in 2004 (as the Bobcats, and changing their name back to the Hornets in 2014), while the Pelicans are now considered a 2002 expansion team.
- In the middle of the 2016-17 NBA season, the WNBA affiliate, the Detroit Shock (now the Dallas Wings), whose three WNBA trophies and all other records were already in possession of the Pistons at the time of the move to Detroit.
National Lacrosse League
- The Rochester Knighthawks of the National Lacrosse League were moved to Halifax in the 2019 NLL season to become the Halifax Thunderbirds. The intellectual property of the Knighthawks was acquired by Terry Pegula in 2019 for the new team while the history and records were transferred to Halifax.
Women's National Basketball Association
- Similar to the Seattle SuperSonics scenario in the NBA, after the Detroit Shock moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2010, the franchise's three WNBA trophies, logo, colors, banners, trophies, and historical statistics remained in Detroit and are expected to be used by any future Detroit WNBA franchise that may be established or move there. However, the history and records remained with the franchise and are to be kept until a new franchise is brought to Detroit. In effect, both the former Shock franchise, which moved to Arlington, Texas, in 2016 and became the Dallas Wings, and a new Detroit franchise would share the original Shock history.
See also
- Relocation of professional sports teams
- Relocation of professional sports teams in the United States and Canada
- Cleveland sports curse
- Browns–Ravens rivalry
- History of the Cleveland Browns
- History of the Baltimore Ravens
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- ^ Wyshynski, Greg (April 15, 2024). "Everything we know about the Arizona Coyotes moving to Utah - How is the transaction going to work?". ESPN.com. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
It's expected that the final transaction will include a clause that allows Meruelo to "reactivate" the franchise as an expansion team -- paying what's expected to be a $1 billion expansion fee if that happens -- between now and 2029 if his arena project is completed. All of the team's intellectual property -- including those iconic Kachina jerseys -- would remain with Meruelo. It's an agreement that evokes the deal made with the city of Cleveland when the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1995.
- ^ "NHL BOG approves establishment of new franchise in Utah". NHL.com. April 18, 2024. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
- ^ "Board Approves Establishment of New Franchise in Utah, Future Reactivation of Arizona Franchise Should Conditions Be Met". April 18, 2024. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
- ^ "THE PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL CLUB, LLC AND CITY OF SEATTLE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT" (PDF) (Press release). City of Seattle, Washington. July 2, 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
Further reading
- Henkel, Frank M. (2005). Cleveland Browns History. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-3428-2.
External links
- Inside the Browns deal. A Los Angeles Times article on the Cleveland Browns' move.
- Cleveland Browns relocation on YouTube on The NFL on NBC pregame show.