Word: cleveland
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...explain Al Davis moving his Raiders back to Oakland after he cost the N.F.L. $50 million in legal fees and damages by moving them to Los Angeles? How else do you explain Art Modell betraying the most loyal fans in pro football by taking his Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore? How else do you explain the blood on the hands of the Baltimoreans who are giving Modell a $200 million stadium in order to replace the Colts, who were spirited away 11 years ago in moving vans bound for Indianapolis? "Baltimore Browns?" wrote columnist Michael Olesker of the Baltimore...
...hearing gave various Ohio politicians--Senators John Glenn and Mike DeWine, Representatives Louis Stokes and Martin Hoke, and Cleveland Mayor Michael White--an opportunity to show how much they care. White promised that "as long as there is no team in Cleveland, there will be no peace." Glenn and Stokes said they would introduce in their respective Houses a bill called the Fans Rights Act, which would 1) grant a limited antitrust exemption shielding a professional sports league from a lawsuit if the league blocks a relocation, and 2) require a team intending to move to give 180 days' notice...
Modell declined the subcommittee's invitation to appear. But John Moag, the chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority that lured the Browns to Baltimore, did testify. Shedding crocodile tears, Moag said, "Marylanders have tremendous empathy for what Cleveland is going through right now. We have been there; we know the pain all too well." Moag went on to say that fan support was no longer enough to keep a franchise. A city requires "political courage" and a business sense of "what professional athletics means to a community's image and pocketbook." In other words, a brand-new stadium with lots...
...there is one aspect of baseball that Tagliabue would love to have: its antitrust exemption. Major league baseball, in part because of that exemption, hasn't had a franchise move since the Washington Senators went to Arlington, Texas, in 1972. Since then, the N.F.L. has faced 10 moves, counting Cleveland, Houston, Chicago and the two New York City teams to New Jersey. As far back as 1964, N.F.L. Commissioner Pete Rozelle argued that an antitrust exemption was necessary to safeguard "the league's ability to take measures which ensure survival of its weaker franchises...
...Cleveland was stunned when Modell made his surprise announcement at a Nov. 6 press conference in Baltimore. "I'll never forget the kindness of the people and the fan support over the years," said Modell. "But frankly...I had no choice." Modell was heavily leveraged in Cleveland, and he didn't want to sell the team because he wanted to pass it on to his son. But he harbored some resentment against the city for giving new playgrounds to the baseball Indians and the basketball Cavaliers. Still, local voters hoped Modell would change his mind two days after the announcement...