The controversy of the Cleveland Browns relocation , sometimes referred to by fans as " The Move ", was a decision by then-Browns Art Modell owners to relocate the Cleveland National Football League (NFL) Browns from his old residence in Cleveland to Baltimore during the 1995 NFL season. Subsequent legal action by seasonal season ticket holders of Cleveland and Browns caused the NFL to be a compromise broker who saw Brown's history, records, and intellectual property remain in Cleveland. In return, Modell was allowed to move his organization to Baltimore where he founded the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens were officially considered by the NFL as an expansion team that started playing in 1996. Cleveland City agreed to tear down the Cleveland Stadium and build a new stadium on the same site, and the NFL agreed to reactivate Browns in the 1999 season through either the expansion draft or the relocated franchise. The Browns was officially reinstated in 1998 through the process of expansion and re-playing in 1999.
The compromise between Cleveland, NFL, and Modell is the first in North American professional sports. The compromise has been cited in steps and franchise agreements in other leagues, including Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League.
Video Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
Dissatisfaction with Cleveland Stadium
In 1975, knowing that the Municipal Stadium spent more than $ 300,000 annually to operate, then-Browns owner Art Modell signed a 25-year lease in which he agreed to spend these fees in exchange for the quasi-ownership of the stadium. Under the terms of the lease, he agrees to refund some of the profits to be realized annually, and also agrees to make capital increases to the stadium at their expense. The newly formed Modell Company, Stadium Corporation, pays an annual rent of $ 150,000 for the first five years and $ 200,000 thereafter to the city.
Modell initially promised not to move Browns. He has publicly criticized the Baltimore Colts' move to Indianapolis, and has testified in favor of the NFL in a court case in which the league failed to try to stop Al Davis from moving the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles.
However, Modell declined to share a revenue suite with Indian Cleveland, who also played at the Cleveland Stadium, although much revenue was generated during baseball games and football matches.
In 1990, the Indians won over local governments and voters and convinced them to build their own facilities where they controlled the suite's income. Modell, mistakenly believed that his earnings were not threatened, decided not to participate in the Gateway Project that built Jacobs Field for Indians and Gund Arena for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Modell's assumptions proved to be untrue, and the Stadium Corp's suite of earnings declined sharply as the Indians moved from the stadium to Jacobs Field in 1994. The rising salaries of players and deficits put additional financial pressure on Browns owners. Modell claims to have lost $ 21 million between 1993 and 1994.
Maps Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
Announcing removal
After Modell realized how much income was missing from Indians who moved from Cleveland Stadium, she asked for a problem placed on the ballot to provide $ 175 million in tax dollars to renew the outdated and downhill Cleveland Stadium.
On the pitch, Brown, coached by Bill Belichick, came from a playoff season in which the team finished 11-5 and progressed to the second round of the playoffs into the 1995 season. Sports Illustrated even predicted Browns would represent the AFC in Super Bowl XXX at the end of the season. However, the team disappointed many fans by losing three straight games after starting the season 3-1.
On 6 November 1995, with the team sitting at 4-5, Modell announced in a press conference at Camden Yards that he had signed an agreement to relocate Browns to Baltimore in 1996 - a move that would return the NFL to the city since the Colts moved to Indianapolis after the 1983 season. The reason Modell chose to move to Baltimore is because he says he feels the city of Cleveland has no funds or political will to build a first-class stadium. The next day, on November 7, Cleveland voters strongly approved the tax issues mentioned above to overhaul the Cleveland Stadium.
Initial reaction
The city of Cleveland sued Modell, Browns, Stadium Corp., Maryland Stadium Authority, and the director of authority, John A. Moag Jr., in Cleveland City v. Cleveland Browns, et al. , Cuyahoga County Court of the Common Pleas Case No. CV-95-297833, for violating Brown's lease, which required the team to play its home game at the Cleveland Stadium for several years after 1995, filed an order to keep Browns in town until at least 1998. Several other lawsuits were filed by fans and ticket holders. The United States Congress even held hearings on this issue.
Actor/comedian Drew Carey returned to his hometown in Cleveland on 26 November 1995, to host "Fan Jam" in protest at the proposed move. A protest was held in Pittsburgh during a Browns game there against Pittsburgh Steelers, but ABC, the broadcasting network of the game (as well as the home of new sitcom Carey recently served), refused to cover up or mention the protests. The game is one of the few examples that made Steelers fans and Browns fans supportive of each other, as Pittsburgh fans felt that Modell robbed their team of their old rivalry with Browns. Brown fans reacted angrily to the news, wearing hats and T-shirts that read "Muck Fodell".
On the pitch, Browns stumbled to a 5-11 finish after the announcement, ahead of the expansion of Jacksonville Jaguars, to whom they lost twice, at AFC Central, becoming the first team in the modern era of the NFL to lose twice for the first year-expansion team. Almost all team sponsors withdrew their support, leaving the Cleveland Stadium without advertising during the team's final weeks. The last game the team played at Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a 26-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, their first and only victory since the relocation announcement. The game itself is blacked on television locally, but NBC broadcast pregame coverage extensively from Cleveland.
Settlement
After long talks between the NFL, Brown, and the two city officials, Cleveland accepted a legal settlement that would preserve Brown's heritage in Cleveland. On February 9, 1996, the NFL announced that Browns would be 'disabled' for three years, and that the new stadium would be built for a new Browns team, either as an expansion team or a team move from another city, which would start playing in 1999. Modell later will be awarded a new franchise (NFL franchise 31), for Baltimore, retaining current player and personnel contracts. There will be a reactivated team for Cleveland, where Brown's name, color, history, notes, awards and archives will remain in Cleveland. The only NFL team currently to stop operations without joining others is the Cleveland NFL team before, Rams, during the 1943 season at the height of World War II.
Additional provisions are that in future redesign plans, Browns will automatically be placed in the division with Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, due to the old competition with both teams. After their reactivation in 1999, Brown was placed back at AFC Central with Steelers and Bengals, as well as Ravens, Titans, and Jaguars. This arrangement has the effect of creating - for the first time in NFL history - alignment with teams from Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh all playing in the same division. When the NFL returned to the division of four teams for the 2002 season, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Baltimore stayed together, but in the newly created AFC North. Tennessee, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and the newly formed Texas Texans are deployed in the newly created AFC South.
Aftermath and legacy
The NFL's return to Baltimore forced the departure of the existing professional football team in Baltimore at the time, the Gray Cup champion, the Baltimore Stallions of Canadian Football League (CFL). Although they have generated respectable fan support during their two seasons in Baltimore, Stallions owner Jim Speros knows that his team can not compete with the NFL team and chose to set up a new franchise in Montreal. They then adopted the name of the team who previously played in the city, Alouettes.
Focus groups, phone surveys, and fan contests are all held to help choose a new name for the Modell team. Starting with a list of more than 100 possible names, the team's management reduced it to 17. From there, the focus group of a total of 200 Baltimore residents reduced the roster to six, and then a telephone survey of 1,000 people slashed three, Marauders, Americans and Ravens. Finally, the fan contest draws 33,288 voters choosing "Ravens", a name that alludes to the famous poem, "The Raven", by Edgar Allan Poe, who spent the last part of his life in Baltimore, and was also buried there. The team also adopted purple and black colors as their team colors, in stark contrast to the brown and orange colors of Browns. The former Colts Marching Band, who remained in Baltimore after the Colts moved to Indianapolis, later renamed the Marching Ravens in Baltimore. Together with the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, and Washington Redskins, the Ravens are one of only four NFL teams with an official marching band.
Modell's move to Baltimore occurred at the top of the moved NFL team. This move also triggered the proliferation of 12 new stadiums across the NFL. Some NFL franchises use the threat of relocation to force their own towns to build new stadiums with public funds. The franchises include Seahawks, Buccaneers, Bengals, Lions, Cardinals, and Bears. In the three-year period from 1995-1997, four NFL teams moved. In addition to Modell's move, Los Angeles lost both teams to the 1995 season, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland and Rams moved east to St. Louis. Louis. The fourth and final step saw Houston Oilers move to Tennessee in 1997 to eventually become Tennessee Titans in 1999.
After several NFL teams used Cleveland as a relocation threat to become an active Brown (especially the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), the NFL decided in 1998 to make Brown a reactivated expansion team, which in the meantime gave the team an odd number of leagues (causing at least one team to going in every 17 weeks of the NFL season from 1999-2001), it also eliminates the possibility of existing franchises surrendering their own identity to Browns and thereby preventing more lawsuits. Ironically, Al Lerner - who helped Modell move to Baltimore - granted Brown's re-enforced ownership; his son Randy took ownership after Al's death in 2002 before selling his team to Flying J's Pilot CEO Jimmy Haslam in 2012. From the outset, the odd number of teams and subsequent awkward scheduling were regarded as a temporary arrangement pending the addition of the 32nd rank. NFL franchise - though Los Angeles is well-liked, in the end the Houston Texans were created as the 32nd team to replace the Oilers in Houston, Texas for the 2002 NFL season to give the league once again even some teams. Following this decision, Los Angeles became a favorite destination for owners who threatened to move their team until St. Louis Rams eventually returned to Los Angeles for the 2016 season, followed by the San Diego Chargers (previously called LA homes in the early days of the American Football League) a year later.
The re-activated Brown has had only two seasons of victory since returning to the NFL in 1999: a late 9-7 result in 2002 which also saw the team clinch a wild card in the playoffs, finishing 10-6 in 2007 while narrowly losing playoffs. Meanwhile, the Ravens have been more successful, reaching the playoffs eight times since 2000 and winning the Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XLVII, often becoming anxious to Browns fans. Older Placekicker Matt Stover was the last Ravens player to be played for Modell's Browns - he left the Ravens after the 2008 season when the team chose not to sign him back, ending his career with the Indianapolis Colts. General manager and former tight player Brown Ozzyie Newsome (who is in a front-office role under Modell in Cleveland) remains with the Ravens.
The move will also take effect in Pittsburgh as well. Steelers owner Dan Rooney is one of two owners to challenge Modell's move to Baltimore out of mutual respect for the team and the fans. Because of the move, the Browns-Steelers rivalry, arguably one of the hottest rivals in the NFL, has cooled somewhat in Pittsburgh due to Brown's recent lack of success. The Steelers-Ravens competition is considered a spiritual successor by fans in Pittsburgh and is one of the most heated rivalries currently in the NFL. Since returning to the NFL, the Browns and Steelers rivalry has largely sided with Pittsburgh; although the competition is not so strong in Pittsburgh, Browns fans still regard it as their ultimate rivalry despite Browns' recent struggle against the Steelers.
Due to continuous financial difficulties, NFL directed Modell to start its franchise sales. On March 27, 2000, the NFL owner approved the sale of 49 percent of the Ravens to Steve Bisciotti. Under the deal, Bisciotti had the option to buy the remaining 51 percent for $ 325 million in 2004 from Art Modell. On April 8, 2004, the NFL approved the purchase of a majority stake of Steve Bisciotti at the club.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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