On March 28, 1984, Bob Irsay (1923-1997), owner of the once-mighty Baltimore Colts, moves the team to Indianapolis. Without any sort of public announcement, Irsay hired movers to pack up the team's offices in Owings Mills, Maryland, in the middle of the night, while the city of Baltimore slept.Submitted by DfcukinLite t3_1266gy4 in baltimore
M3g4d37h t1_je8fgj5 wrote
Reply to comment by MFoy in On March 28, 1984, Bob Irsay (1923-1997), owner of the once-mighty Baltimore Colts, moves the team to Indianapolis. Without any sort of public announcement, Irsay hired movers to pack up the team's offices in Owings Mills, Maryland, in the middle of the night, while the city of Baltimore slept. by DfcukinLite
.. And to add to this, Cleveland more or less pulled the same act on Modell. His team was the big draw in Cleveland, and he watched as they built new venues for everyone else, and denied him. As I understand it, the Rock 'n' Roll HOF was the straw that broke the camel's back - But to his credit, he gave them the name, which he didn't owe them - The Irsays floated a $30M price to Baltimore in order for Baltimore to retain the team name.
MFoy t1_je8i5ia wrote
Actually, in Cleveland, he asked for $175m or else he would move the team. The initiative was put on the ballot, and then 48 hours before the vote, he announced he was moving the team anyways, no matter what happened with the money.
The ballot passed, and the team left, so the city used the money from the ballot to build a new stadium.
M3g4d37h t1_je8ijox wrote
Good. Why wait for strike 4? Jacobs Field, the FieldHouse , and the RNRHOF were all built while he was putting asses in the seats. I guess they were more worried about that one fucking guy who was at the Indians games with his big tom-tom drum.
Cleveland treated him like a red-headed stepchild.
hymie0 t1_je9bno9 wrote
He didn't "give them the name." The NFL interfered. They wouldn't let him take the name. They declared the Cleveland Browns to be a still-existing but temporarily-dormant team, and called the Ravens a new expansion team.
hachachachacha t1_jeatj95 wrote
Cleveland sued, keeping the name and getting a new team was part of the settlement the NFL agreed to so it wouldn't go to trial.
vintage2019 t1_jee1bgq wrote
I feel like that is the right procedure with any relocating franchises.
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