RIP Art Modell

Actually, some of it was explained to you. You just don't accept the answer.

Pro sports franchises do add to a city's identity, to how it the residents and people from outside of town see it. It is a way for residents to connect with one another, part of their shared experience.

It is a status symbol, even for those who never go to a game.

Those things matter. They can help keep people or even help draw new residents to a city. They can also help attract business. Execs like to be able to have a luxury box at the game to take clients to, to show off. Or just as a perk for themselves.

I'm not saying it all makes sense, but in some cases, as with the old Browns in Cleveland, the people develop a tremendous attachment to their team. If you don't understand that, you should just bail on the thread because you're never going to get it.

 

Cleveland sued to retain the name and colors.

 

Ralph Wilson is int he HOF because:

1. He was an original founder of the AFL. For a while he was a silent partner int eh Raiders to keep them afloat.

2. And so far he has managed to keep the NFL in Buffalo, a much smaller metropolitan area than Cleveland for 52 years.

 

By that standard New York State legislature should be inducted into HOF.

 

When Modell took over Municipal Stadium it was quite likely because he thought he could make a lot of money on the lease.

Modell, at the end of his run in Cleveland, owned 51% of the Browns. Lerner owned something like 37% and a family who's name I forgot (maybe McManus) owned the other 12%. That family had owned an interest in the Browns since the 40's. That family felt Modell was screwing them over as minority shareholders and spend a lot of time in the 80's suing him.

But when Modell took over the Municipal Stadium lease, after threatening to move to the suburbs, he set up a separate stadium corporation, that he maintained about 95% control over. He then subleased the stadium to the Browns and Indians.

Therefore, to believe Modell was magnanimous in staying at Municipal Stadium you have to believe that Modell set up a separate corporation in which he had a larger ownership in order to absorb a larger portion of the losses and spare his partners.

I believe instead that Modell said that wow, I can make a lot of money off the revenue streams from the Indians, who still drew 800,000 or so a year, and set the corporation up so he could cut his partners out out of the assumed windfall.

One reason I believe the latter is I once read a book Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football. The title is sensationalistic and most of the book was basically repeating speculation. But the author was from Northern Ohio and for some reason spent a large part of the book on the fight between Modell and the minority owners (and even I don't think Modell was part of organized crime). But one could draw the conclusion from the book that Modell was a slimeball.

 

Lancey:
Good posts.
I would not be shocked if Modell had some ties to organized crime.
I will check out the book.

 

Sounds like you have absolutely nothing but guesswork to base that on. Way out of line.

 

shocking.

 

All these answers beg the question.

I keep asking why sports are special. I keep getting the same answer: "Sports are special because sports are special."

Let's try this:

Does having a "big league" franchise make a "big league" city? For example, were Jacksonville or Charlotte thought of differently (by residents and/or nonresidents) once they got NFL teams?

Conversely, when a city loses a big league team, does it stop being a big league place? I.e., were Clevelanders more worried about the actual departure of the Browns - or about what the departure of the Browns implied about the city of Cleveland.

 

Sorry, the Sociology of Sports class I took 20 years ago just didn't stick that well in my memory and I left my ability to read the minds of Cleveland residents in my other pants, so I can't help you there. Well, that or I'm just bored with trying to answer your ridiculous questions.

Just to clarify one thing. You didn't ask why sports are special. You asked how it was different if a sports team leaves than if it is just another business. Now you are basically asking why my answers are true, and honestly, if you don't understand that, you're beyond help.

 

Spare us the sass, oop.

You specified a few pages back that Modell wasn't just moving a business.

That statement depends upon the premise that sports are somehow a different kind of business. Or not really a business at all, but more of a public trust. And yet you're unable to specify how, except as a series of generalizations that could just as easily apply to a city's philharmonic or art museum.

Your argument also defines why people might be loyal to a team, but in no way reveals why a team should reciprocate that loyalty.

Why are you so loyal to the Steelers? Why should the Steelers be loyal to you?