Auggie
Well-known member
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/09/former_cleveland_browns_owner_1.html
All I can say is ding dong...
All I can say is ding dong...
Can't say I'm "happy" about his passing, but in the same breath...can't say I'm sad.
I didn't know he was sick.
Only in a socialist state like Cleveland would people be mad at someone for making great business moves.
Only in a socialist state like Cleveland would people be mad at someone for making great business moves.
Only in a socialist state like Cleveland would people be mad at someone for making great business moves.
Art was one of the last owners who derived the majority of his income from the NFL. This put him in a bad spot in the '90s when the League opened up free agency and before the insane TV $s flowed into the pockets of owners so he had to leverage any source of income and he felt tapped out at the stadium level which at that time was the main source that an owner could derive at the local level. His major flaw was allowing the Baltimore mayor to force him to take or leave that deal instead of using it as leverage to gain what Lerner did 3 years later. If he really loved Cleveland that is what he would have done but alas he needed $s ASAP and the Baltimore deal was his best way of gaining them so he could be competitive in free agency and still make a living. What is ironic is the other owners forced him to sell the team and cut Dave out of the picture in the end because of his bad financial situation. That killed him more then anything else...
As time passes, it becomes more and more evident just how indifferent Mayor Mike White and the powers-that-be in Cleveland were to Modell's call for a new stadium. They took him for granted and he bolted.
This isn't to forgive Modell - hell, I'll NEVER forgive him for leaving - but the all-in blame I assigned to him has been tempered knowing his threats weren't taken seriously. Does this absolve him? Hell, no. He could have stayed, dangled the Baltimore offer as leverage, and likely could have gotten what he wanted.
That being said, he's way over-rated as an owner. Constant sell-outs for over 30 years in an 80,000 seat stadium, and he has to take out a loan to pay Andre Rison?
And I'll reveal my own pettiness here: while I'm not rejoicing that he died, there is a sense of satisfaction that he didn't get elected to the Hall of Fame while he was alive.
Just to clarify....Do you understand how easy it is to make money in the NFL? Do you understand it is even easier when you sellout your stadium and have the largest fan organization in the league?
Just to clarify....
Having the alleged largest fan organization doesn't translate into largest fan base.
I thought he was initially offered a spot at the table when Gateway was still in it's early concepts -- this was way before the final design of Jacobs Field and Gund Arena. The idea was to either build a multipurpose football/baseball facility or two separate places next to each other, ala Kansas City. I remember a quote in the paper, something like "We're not planning to move up there [Gateway]" -- this is what morphed into the Cavs getting a new arena and Modell being 'ignored' by the city.
Just to clarify....
Having the alleged largest fan organization doesn't translate into largest fan base.
The Cavs were always in the Gateway discussion so that it could become a year round destination, Indians in the summer and Cavs/Concerts/Circus/Ice Show in the cold weather months. Out door NFL stadiums are a bad deal for a city because all you get is 11 dates a year for the primary tennant plus maybe a NCAA or HS game and a stadium conert. At most 15-20 dates of use a year.
I agree. The franchise's popularity has always been overhyped. There were not constant sell outs. Even in the Kosar years there were always several home games blacked out. I would guess that the Browns only sold out the old stadium 50% of the games played over the course of their history, and probably only two-thirds of the home games played since the 1970 merger. There are a good number of fan clubs outside of Ohio, but a lot of that is due to how many people have left Cleveland over the years. There is no current waiting list for season tickets, either.
The early Gateway discussions were for an indoor stadium, but by the time things got moving the trend was for baseball-only stadiums, and I don't think Art wanted to move off the lakefront, either.