So.
Yesterday’s Modell piece got some traction.
Trajectory not sustainable.
.
Many thanks to the friends* who retweeted and mentioned it and of course to Cleveland Frowns and Cleveland Reboot for promoting the post on their blogs. And Zac Jackson:
I love that Bon Scott is the photo twitter randomly used.
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And most very cool to find support from the NY Post and these national writers:
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The goal is and remains: to provide a handy link of accurate and documented data points for people who know in their gut that “Art Modell, HOF” is not right but would like to have more substantial talking points for their case.
I’ll continue to update the post if new info is presented to me** and also to correct errors.*** Any help from any source is welcomed. (See tmoore’s comments for some other good (but hard to verify) points.)
Thanks again. Be back later with something new.
___
* Thanks guys for helping the snowball grow: @TDDeBord, GrandRapidsRustlers, @cpmack, @exiledclevelndr, Chris Dain, Rich Swerbinsky, Bill Hudnutt (ELYRIA WHAT’S UP!), @Cledawg.
** For example, Bart Hubbuch reminded me of two points today: MNF was not Art and in 1992 Art was going to rebate the networks over $200 million until Jerry Jones stopped it.
*** Can anyone lock down whether Modell’s rent was $1/yr or $150k/yr? I have more sources saying $1 but need a non Wiki link confirming it. thx.
Link to the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision of GRIES SPORTS ENTERPRISES v. CLEVELAND BROWNS
It doesn’t mention the annual rent, but does outline how Modell bought land for $800,000 in Strongsville in 1972 and 1973 and then had the Cleveland Stadium Corporation buy it from him for $4,000,000; $3,000,000 of which was paid in cash. Nice ROI!
Bob Gries objected to the valuation of the land as well as the valuation of CSC (which was 80% owned by Art) when the Browns bought CSC. Art apparently sold CSC to the Browns for $6M and overvalued it by $4M, but anyone could make that kind of mistake! Gries argued that the overvaluation was done intentionally to allow Art to retire a bunch of debt he had with Cleveland banks and the trial court found that the “acquisition of CSC was not intrinsically fair to the Browns or to the minority stockholders.” and vetoed the sale.
Art appealed, and the ruling was reversed. Ultimately the Ohio Supreme Court sided with Gries. Sorry Art!
#Artout
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&ved=0CIMBEBYwCQ&url=http%3A%2F%2F134.50.70.12%2FPublications%2Fwyndrose%2FCASMAT%2FODLIA%2FGRIES.doc&ei=QLgAUY-SFdHyigKag4GYBA&usg=AFQjCNE-IbsBgId2zk8tSqBkbp_Jqk2YqQ&sig2=c_hCnpsJsauugxy_nCv_YQ&bvm=bv.41524429,d.cGE
thanks so much for this. i was aware of _something_ in strongsville and the gries suit but frankly needed it spoon-fed. perfect this is.
main modell article now updated with Gries. perfect example of corrupt art.
Ugh, I’ve spent too much time trying to track down the annual lease amount. (I bet Tony G knows!)
Anyway, besides those conflicting Wiki’s you’ve found, there really isn’t any other information out there. Except this article states that the lease was $200K minimum/year, but it is from The Baltimore Sun and a Brown’s lawyer at the time of the move, so consider the sources!
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-11-07/sports/1995311130_1_cleveland-stadium-city-of-cleveland-browns
Interestingly, I found this document — J Weinberg’s senior thesis from 2010, looks like he was an OSU grad. it quotes from “Fumble : The Browns, Modell, & the Move” claim that the rent was $1/year and I’d have to believe this book considering the author. It is an interesting document and a lot of the information is all in one place, Props to Thomas (tmoore94) for calling it out first.
https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/45628/seniorhonorsthesis.pdf?sequence=1
Coincidentally, I ordered “Fumble : The Browns, Modell, & the Move” yesterday from Amazon…never read it, sounds like a great read.
Oh yeah — fantastic work hearabouts!. Pretty, pretty, pretty,…pretty good!
#artout
The majority of the info I have found on Modell and the Baltimore move comes from two sources:
Michael Poplar’s 1997 book: Fumble! The Browns, Modell and the Move
and
Jon Morgan’s 1997 book: Glory for Sale: Fans, Dollars and the New NFL
If you are a Browns fan, they are both worth reading.
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