He was offered a new one and refused.
The story of the stadium snub for years has left us asking: Why didn't leaders just offer to build Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell a new stadium along with the others?
www.cleveland.com
As I recall it, Modell was offered to be part of a 72,000 seat domed stadium to be shared with the Indians on equal footing. At that time, Modell was selling 82,000 seats at Cleveland Municipal Stadium and was taking total advantage of the Indians in controlling Municipal Stadium, skimming a share of their gate as the controlling interest and providing atrocious amenities. Art was the Indians’ slumlord, enabled by the City contract.
Modell did not want to give up 10,000 tickets a game, and like the atrocious businessman he was, began an extensive remodel of the loges at Municipal Stadium financed at an exorbitant interest-rate - just because he was jealous of the other owners. No patience to work a better deal with the City instead. These remodel loan payments were what was breaking him.
Meanwhile, tax abatement was ending on the Colosseum in Richfield, the Indians ballpark would obviously be smaller than a "football, too" mixed use stadium, and the Gateway Development Corporation had already accumulated enough land to build both an arena and a ballpark. Why not take the opportunity to get 40+ games of NBA basketball downtown when Art backed out of the project ? Gateway's Board wasn't going to let Art playing chicken kill the whole project. Reboot, with the Cavs instead of the Browns. Then, of course, Modell started moaning, “What about me?!?!”
A friend was involved in an extensive off-season survey of the old Municipal Stadium building, including digging down around the footings a dozen feet deep or more in several locations. The building was a WPA project built on a landfill. Municipal Stadium was literally falling apart. Idiot Art broke his own back financially, and he was polishing a turd. He was an idiot with the gift of gab and a great desire to look like a good guy all the time. He threw money around and played the role, but all he was really any good at was self-promotion.
Once the City made the poor decision to rebuild a football stadium on the same site, that guaranteed three dead years. The team either had to shut down, relocate, or play in temporary home stadium.
We could have built a new stadium, entering from where Cleveland Black Oxide is, on the top of the valley where the container rail yard is, but the Millers and Ratners of Forest City Development - Mayor White’s OWNERS - would not permit it. They demanded a new stadium be built on land that they owned - more jealous greed. White’s only out was to stay on the same site, and Al Lerner saw that as an opportunity to go from minority owner to sole owner and pushed the deal that the new team ended up with.
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