Just a couple of other points:
- In 1995 when Modell decided to move the team to Baltimore, the team still had 3 years to go on its lease on Cleveland Stadium. Cleveland Stadium was owned by the city of Cleveland, but management of the stadium was done by an entity known as Stadium Corp., which was wholly owned by Art Modell. Stadium Corp leased the stadium from the city of Cleveland for $1 per year, and enjoyed rent from the Indians and revenue from loges. So that when Modell complains that the stadium wasn’t being maintained, what he’s really saying is that he, or more correctly his own company, didn’t maintain it. Modell took the rent and loge revenue Stadium Corp received as his own profit, rather than reinvesting it into the facility. The Indians wanted their own facility so that they could control the loge income their facility generated, rather than having it go to Modell. Prior to Jacobs Field opening Modell was receiving $50K per year per loge unit at Cleveland Stadium, which entitled the loge tenant to 81 Indians games and 8 Browns games. After Gateway opened Modell kept trying to get $50K per loge per year, even though he was only selling 8 Browns games without 81 Indians games. Naturally, his loge sales dropped, and he blamed the Indians and the City, instead of his own foolishness in not adjusting the price he charged for loges.
-When Modell’s Browns moved to Baltimore, they breached their lease. The City sued the Browns, Modell and the NFL for breaching the lease. The suit was settled without trial, and part of the settlement was that Modell agreed to leave the team name, history and records in Cleveland, with a new team. At the time of the settlement, the new team could’ve been an expansion team, or another moved team. Tampa Bay and Denver, for instance, both used the threat of moving to Cleveland to coerce new taxpayer financed stadiums out of their residents.