Is the city of Baltimore no better than the Irsays?

This is a very interesting thread.

I hate to make this my first post, but I guess it will have to do.

There definitely seems to be a lot of vitriol towards Baltimore in this thread when it comes to the Colts leaving. Part of the defense is the attendance figures for the last few years before Irsay moved.

For those who bring that up, I have a question: what is your opinion of the situation with the Charlotte fans and the NBA? They had a fine arena that was selling out every night, but as George Shinn kept making threats to the city and started publicly looking elsewhere, they stopped coming.

When they made the playoffs after the move was announced, the stands were barely half-full.

Of course, the NBA was smart enough to realize that the attendance was the owner's fault and not the fans', and gave them an expansion team (which Washington Redskins season-ticket holder and Jack Kent Cooke's best friend Paul Tagliabue was trying to avoid at all costs in Baltimore).

If Charlotte had been forced to steal, say, the Indiana Pacers or Cleveland Cavaliers (just for comparison's sake) instead of getting the deserved expansion team, would you be killing those fans as well?

 

Charlotte had every right to run Shinn out of town. He fought for the Charlotte Coliseum and then wanted a brand new building 15 years later.