Art NEVER gave Cleveland an ultimatum or said build me a stadium or else. If you do any homework, you will find that Art took on ownership of the Cleveland Stadium Corp from the city in the seventies which ran the old stadium, in order to run it’s buisness and capture it’s profits like leasing to the Indians. In the early nineties, Art had the opportuntity to be a part of the gateway complex with the Cavs and Indians, but as a similar leased tenant. Art did not want to give up control and thought he could make do with future upgrades to his stadium, which was on of many bad business decisions.

Later, as the stadium was found to be crumbling, he knew money had been allocated within Cleveland without him now, and was up a creek and took a sweetheart deal instead of selling to local interests.

As for leaving the name, colors, and history, I feel for you Colts fans but Art was forced to do so as part of the settlement agreement and to drop the lawsuits against him.

Learn the truth like you did with Irsay. You will be surprised what you find.

Excuse me? Have you looked at the record of the Browns before Modell bought the team? Do all those AAFC titles in the Forties and NFL titles in the Fifties (I believe seven in all, but I’m too lazy to look it up) constitute “nothing”? Paul Brown founded the team and made it one of the league’s powerhouses, with fans among the most loyal in all of football.

I may be a Steelers fan and therefore conditioned to hate the Browns, but I don’t. While the Browns thrived and drew 80,000 a game, when I was a kid the Steelers were drawing 30,000 to mostly empty Pitt Stadium and losing consistently. The Browns were the class of the league before Modell arrived, and except for the wart at the top of the organization, they were a class operation even when their football success declined.

“Cleveland had not won anything until Art bought the team.” Facepalm and head shake.

RIP Art.

Go Browns.

bmorethansteel, you, sir, are incorrect. The fans of Cleveland made sure they’d get a team. I called and left messages or faxed every team in the league in 95, including the NFL offices. So did many, many others. Might I also remind you that modell was on the commitee to decide whether baltimore or jacksonville would get an expansion team in 95. He voted for Jacksonville. The colors, name, and records were left due to an agreement with the NFL and Cleveland to drop lawsuits. He sold the Browns franchise to the NFL, and bought the unnamed ‘ravens’ in Feburary of 96 to get the lawsuits dropped.

I personally believe he set up the move at least 3 years in advance, as david modell had the headquarters of the Browns Backers fan club moved to baltimore in 92.

The Colts moved to Indy due to low attendance by the fans of balitmore, so stop the crap about ‘football town’. If it was such a football town, the colts move never would have happened due to low attendance.

I’m sorry but when I think of Modell, it’s never anything good.

He was an ad exec who was a failure as an NFL owner and businessman.

His teams won 2 championships(one each with the Browns and Ravens) Sounds like a pretty good owner to me.

Cleveland had won 4 championships in the AAFL and 3 in the NFL before modell bought them. The revisionist history here is astounding. Cleveland did more for the NFL than any other team at that time. They turned the NFL on their ears when they won the league championship in their first year in the NFL. You can thank Cleveland and Paul Brown for the ‘West Coast Offense’, which was orignally developed in Cleveland and passed on by a Paul Brown deciple. The fans of Cleveland started the ‘Dawg Pound’, and all other cities copied them (black hole, jungle, blast furnace, etc.) The NFL was a running league with some passing before the Browns came into the league.

RIP Art.

You’re not the only fans that have had their team move, but you are by far the biggest WHINERS!

RIP Art.

GO BROWNS.

To my friends in Baltimore – you won’t change our minds. He’s a horrible man and he’s still banned from Cleveland. No spirits or ashes or anything – STAY AWAY.

We already mourned a long time ago. Baltimore can now take over.