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Cleveland Browns relocation controversy

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Cleveland Browns relocation controversy
Part of 1995 NFL season
DurationDecember 1994–February 1996
Also known as"The Move"
CauseFinancial constraints within Browns ownership, team value and revenue losses under owner Art Modell, state of Cleveland Stadium
ParticipantsBrowns ownership, City of Cleveland, Art Modell, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, City of Baltimore
OutcomeThe suspension of the Cleveland Browns franchise after the 1995 NFL season, the transfer of its assets and player contracts to an expansion franchise (the Baltimore Ravens) that begins play in 1996, and the revival of the Browns franchise (restocked via an expansion draft) in 1999
Location of the home fields for the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens
Cleveland
Cleveland
Baltimore
Baltimore
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Location of the home fields for the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens

The Cleveland Browns relocation controversy—colloquially called "The Move" by fans[1][2]—followed the announcement by Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell that his National Football League (NFL) team would move from its longtime home of Cleveland to Baltimore for the 1996 NFL season.

Subsequent legal actions by the City of Cleveland and Browns season ticket holders led the NFL to broker a compromise in which Modell agreed to return the Browns franchise to the league. The agreement stipulated that the Browns franchise, including its history, records and intellectual property, would remain in Cleveland. In exchange, the NFL agreed to grant Modell a new franchise in Baltimore (which was eventually named the Ravens) and the City of Cleveland agreed to build an NFL-caliber venue to replace the aging Cleveland Stadium.

Since it was deemed infeasible for the Browns to play the 1996 season in Cleveland under such circumstances, the franchise was officially deactivated by the NFL in February 1996. The NFL agreed to re-activate the Browns by 1999 either by way of an expansion draft or by moving an existing team to Cleveland. In lieu of holding both a dispersal draft for the Browns and an expansion draft for the Ravens, the NFL allowed Modell to effectively transfer the Browns' existing football organization to the Ravens. As such, the Ravens are officially regarded by the NFL as an expansion team that began play in 1996.[3] By 1998, the NFL had ruled out moving any of the league's then-30 teams to Cleveland, committed to stocking the roster with an expansion draft, and sold the Browns franchise to Al Lerner, a former minority owner of the franchise under Modell, for $530 million.[4] The re-activated Browns acquired players through this expansion draft and, in 1999, resumed play in a new stadium that replaced the demolished one.[5][6]

This compromise, which was considered unprecedented at the time in North American professional sports, has since been cited in franchise moves and agreements in other leagues, including ones in Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). While there have been other subsequent franchise moves with various franchise agreements, there have been two times when there was a compromise virtually identical to the Browns–Ravens agreement: when the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS suspended operations from 2006 and 2007 while their organization transferred to the new Houston Dynamo, and when the Arizona Coyotes of the NHL suspended operations in 2024 while their organization transferred to the new Utah Hockey Club.

Dissatisfaction with Cleveland Stadium

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Cleveland Stadium, where the Browns played until 1995.

In 1975, knowing that Municipal Stadium was costing the city more than $300,000 a year to operate, then-Browns owner Art Modell signed a 25-year lease in which he agreed to incur these expenses in exchange for quasi-ownership of the stadium, a portion of his annual profits, and capital improvements to the stadium at his expense.[7] Modell's new company, Stadium Corporation, paid the city annual rents of $150,000 for the first five years and $200,000 afterwards.

Modell had originally promised never to move the Browns. He had publicly criticized the Baltimore Colts' move to Indianapolis, and had testified in favor of the NFL in court cases where the league unsuccessfully tried to stop Al Davis from moving the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles. However, Modell refused to share suite revenue with the Cleveland Indians, who also played at Cleveland Stadium at that time, even though some of the revenues were generated during baseball games.

In 1990, voters approved a ballot measure to build a new sports complex, the Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex, which included a new baseball-only stadium and an arena.[8][7] Modell, believing that his revenues were not endangered, decided not to participate in the Gateway Project that built Jacobs Field for the Indians and Gund Arena for the Cleveland Cavaliers.[9] Modell's assumptions proved incorrect, and Stadium Corporation's suite revenues declined sharply when the Indians moved to Jacobs Field in 1994.[7] Soaring player salaries put additional financial pressure on the Browns' owner. Modell claimed to have lost $21 million between 1993 and 1994.[10]

Financial considerations

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Art Modell in 1980

Due to the massive and relatively consistent increase in the value of NFL franchises since the league's founding in 1920, the league has a long history of owners whose net worth is largely accounted for by the value of their football teams. Even today, many of the league's clubs are owned by businesspeople (or their heirs) who, while relatively well-off by the standards of the time, founded or purchased a football team which has since appreciated in value at a far higher rate than whatever other business interests they might have originally been involved in. However, even with those considerations in mind, Modell's net worth had always been relatively meager compared to most other principal owners in the NFL, despite his long influence in league circles.

The Browns' capitalization problems dated to their founding as a charter All-America Football Conference (AAFC) franchise by legendary coach Paul Brown. Modell was recruited in large part because the NFL was desperate to avoid any perception of franchise instability within its ranks, especially in the face of competition with the then-fledgling (but well-financed) American Football League (AFL). As Cleveland had been decisive in ensuring the AAFC's relative success and eventual partial merger with the older league, the NFL was keen not to lose the market to a rival league – as it had in 1946 when it allowed the Cleveland Rams to move to Los Angeles. Modell's purchase of the team was thus approved by the NFL under conditions that the league might otherwise have rejected. It was among the most heavily leveraged purchases in league history: most of the funds used to purchase the team were borrowed.

On the one hand, the eventual negotiation of a merger with the AFL ended the prospect of expensive bidding wars for players in an era when true free agency did not exist, thus allowing the Browns to remain competitive on the field despite a tight budget. Nevertheless, Modell spent most of his tenure as Browns owner in financial difficulty, especially as interest rates soared and the costs of operating an NFL team escalated with the value of the league's franchises. As the 1960's came to a close, the Browns appeared in the NFL's final pre-merger championship game, yet Modell's finances were so perilous that they were a major factor in his decision to lobby for the Browns (along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Colts) to be moved to the American Football Conference upon completion of the merger in 1970 in exchange for financial compensation from the other NFL and AFL owners. However, the $3 million payout (equal to approximately $24 million today) ultimately proved woefully insufficient to clear the team's growing debts.

The Browns' financial situation led Modell to take legally questionable measures to remain solvent. For example, he tried to transfer liability for several personal bad loans to the Browns organization, prompting one of his minority partners to sue him. As early as 1983, Modell concluded that he would never be able to pay all of his debts before his deal with the city expired.[11] The loss of revenue from the Indians hit Modell especially hard. After realizing how much revenue was lost from the Indians moving out of Cleveland Stadium, he requested a referendum be placed on the ballot to provide $175 million in taxes to refurbish the outmoded and declining Cleveland Stadium.[12]

Announcing the move

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On December 12, 1994, Modell told his board that he did not believe a referendum to raise the sin tax would pass, as the proceeds would have been used to either fund a renovated Municipal Stadium or a new stadium. Modell then informed them that if the referendum failed, he would be finished in Cleveland, and would have no choice but to move the Browns.[11]

Entering the 1995 season, the Browns, coached by Bill Belichick, were coming off a playoff season in 1994 in which the team finished 11–5 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Sports Illustrated predicted that the Browns would represent the AFC in Super Bowl XXX at the end of the 1995 season, and the team started 3–1, but they then lost their next three games.[13][14]

While this was happening, Browns minority owner Al Lerner was privately prodding Modell to consider moving to Baltimore. He urged Modell to contact John Moag, the newly installed Maryland Stadium Authority chairman. Earlier in the year, the league had told Moag that Baltimore would get a team (either an expansion team or an existing team that would be moved from another city) if a stadium were already in place.

Elected officials in Baltimore and Maryland were still smarting from the Colts moving to Indianapolis after the 1983 season, and refused to commit any money towards a new stadium unless the Stadium Authority secured a deal with a team. With this in mind, Moag made several calls to Modell that went ignored for much of 1995. Finally, in late July, Modell allowed Lerner to meet with Moag, provided that Lerner stress that Modell was not serious about moving. At that meeting, Moag laid out an offer in which the Browns would get the rights to a new, $220 million stadium if they moved to Baltimore. However, Moag told Lerner to take the offer back to Modell only if he was serious about considering a move.[11]

Negotiations continued in secret until September, when Moag told Lerner that if the Browns were serious about moving, "you need to act and act now." A few days later, Lerner, Modell and Moag met at Lerner's Midtown Manhattan office. At that meeting, Moag presented a memorandum of understanding that was almost identical to what he'd offered the Cincinnati Bengals a few months earlier: a deal that ultimately led Cincinnati voters to pass a referendum that built what would become Paul Brown Stadium. Indeed, some paragraphs still referred to "Cincinnati" rather than "Cleveland." Modell still had some trepidation about the deal, but signed after Moag assured him that Baltimore fans would hail him as a hero.[11]

Soon afterward, Modell told San Francisco 49ers president Carmen Policy that he was moving the Browns to Baltimore. Policy had been well aware that relations between Modell and Cleveland had become rather strained, and was secretly working with Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney to keep the Browns in Cleveland. Policy urged Modell to sit down with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in hopes of resolving the situation, but Modell rejected it out of hand.[11]

On November 6, 1995, with the team at 4–5,[14] Modell announced in a press conference at Camden Yards that he had signed a deal to move the Browns to Baltimore for the 1996 season.[7][15] The team would play at the Colts' former home (Memorial Stadium) while the new stadium was being built. Modell said he felt the city of Cleveland did not have the funding nor political will to build a first-class stadium.[16] The very next day, on November 7, Cleveland voters overwhelmingly approved the aforementioned tax issue to remodel Cleveland Stadium.[17]

Despite this, Modell ruled out a reversal of his decision, maintaining publicly that his relationship with Cleveland had been irrevocably severed. "The bridge is down, burned, disappeared", he said. "There's not even a canoe there for me."[18] In truth, Modell had been brought to tears when he signed the memorandum of understanding in September: he had even told Moag that signing it was "the hardest thing I've ever done" and meant "the end of our life in Cleveland." Years later, longtime Browns general counsel Jim Bailey told The Athletic that Modell was "an emotional wreck" when he signed the memorandum.[11]

Initial reaction

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The City of Cleveland sued Modell, the Browns, Stadium Corp, the Maryland Stadium Authority, and the authority's director, John A. Moag Jr., in City of Cleveland v. Cleveland Browns, et al., Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV-95-297833, for breaching the Browns' lease, which required the team to play its home games at Cleveland Stadium for several years beyond 1995, filing an injunction to keep the Browns in the city until at least 1998. Several other lawsuits were filed by fans and ticket holders.[17][19] The United States Congress even held hearings on the matter.[20][21]

Comedian Drew Carey returned to his hometown of Cleveland on November 26, 1995, to host "Fan Jam" in protest of the proposed move. A protest was held in Pittsburgh during the Browns' game there against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but ABC, the network broadcasting the game (and also the home of Carey's new sitcom that had just premiered), declined to cover or mention the protest. That game was one of the few instances that Steelers fans and Browns fans were supportive of each other, as fans in Pittsburgh felt that Modell was robbing their team of their long-standing rivalry with the Browns.[17] Browns fans reacted with anger to the news,[19] wearing hats and T-shirts that read "Muck Fodell".[22]

On the field, the Browns stumbled to finish 5–11 after the announcement, ahead of only the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, to whom they lost twice, in the AFC Central, becoming the first team in the NFL's modern era to lose twice to a first-year expansion team.[14] Virtually all of the team's sponsors pulled their support,[17] leaving Cleveland Stadium devoid of advertising during the team's final weeks. After the announcement, the team lost all their home games except the final, in which they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26–10.[23] The game itself was blacked out on television locally on WKYC, but NBC did broadcast extensive pregame coverage from Cleveland. During the broadcast, host Bob Costas noted the "final sad irony" of Brooklyn native Modell moving a beloved franchise much as Walter O'Malley had moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

Settlement

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After extensive talks, the NFL, Modell, and officials of the two cities came to terms – among them, Modell agreed to keep the Browns legacy in Cleveland if the city dropped its lawsuit.

While a number of parties had already expressed interest in acquiring the Browns, it soon became clear that no viable owner would be ready to operate a football team on such short notice; moreover, the NFL had insisted on the replacement of Cleveland Stadium, whereas the city had no other venue that met NFL requirements for even temporary use.

Thus, on February 9, 1996, the NFL announced that the Browns franchise would be "deactivated" for at least three years, and that a new stadium would be built for a revived Browns team, as either an expansion team or a team moved from another city, that would begin play by 1999, while in exchange Modell would be granted a new franchise – the 31st NFL franchise – for Baltimore.[3][24]

Modell was permitted to retain the current contracts of players and other football personnel. He replaced head coach Belichick with Ted Marchibroda, whose previous head coaching stints had been with the Colts: in Baltimore in the 1970s and in Indianapolis just before he was hired by Modell's still-unnamed Baltimore team. Modell also changed the name of his holding company from Cleveland Browns, Inc. to Baltimore Ravens, Inc.[25] Modell is typically reckoned to have moved the football organization, but not the franchise itself. The transaction was similar to the establishment of Baltimore's preceding NFL team, the 1953–83 Colts, whose owner Carroll Rosenbloom was awarded the player contracts and related football assets of the moribund Dallas Texans. The Texans were dissolved and their history is not claimed by the Colts, the Dallas Cowboys, or any other extant franchise.

The settlement stipulated that the reactivated team for Cleveland would retain the Browns' name, colors, history, records, awards, and archives. It was approved by league owners after a 25–2 vote, with three abstentions. The two "no" votes were from Ralph Wilson of Buffalo and Dan Rooney of Pittsburgh.[23][26][27] The three abstentions were from the owners whose teams at the time had most recently moved (the Cardinals, Raiders and Rams), including Raiders' owner Al Davis who had publicly clashed with Modell over franchise moves.

An additional stipulation was that the Browns would be placed in a division with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals to continue the teams' longstanding rivalries.[28] Upon their reactivation in 1999, the Browns were placed in the AFC Central with the Steelers and Bengals, as well as the Ravens, Titans, and Jaguars. The rearrangement put teams from Baltimore, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh in the same NFL division for the first time.

When the NFL reorganized into divisions of four teams for the 2002 season, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Baltimore remained together in the new AFC North, while Tennessee, Jacksonville, Indianapolis (from the AFC East), and the expansion Houston Texans were placed in the new AFC South.

The only other active NFL team to temporarily suspend operations without merging with another was Cleveland's previous NFL team, the Rams, which did not field a team for the 1943 season due to a shortage of players at the height of World War II.[29]

Aftermath and legacy

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The Super Bowl-winning Baltimore Ravens in the White House on June 8, 2001. The Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV just five seasons after the move.

The return of the NFL to Baltimore compelled the departure of the city's existing professional football team: the Grey Cup champion Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Although they had drawn respectable fan support during their two seasons in Baltimore, Stallions owner Jim Speros knew his team could not compete with an NFL team, and in any case would have likely been evicted from Memorial Stadium to make way for the Ravens. Speros opted to re-establish the Montreal Alouettes, a move that effectively ended the CFL's U.S. expansion experiment.[30] The team assumed the name and history of the team that previously played in the city, the Alouettes, which had ceased operations just days before the start of the 1987 season.

Focus groups, a telephone survey, and a fan contest were held to help pick a new name for Modell's team. Starting with a list of over 100 names, the team's management reduced it to 17. From there, focus groups of a total of 200 Baltimore area residents reduced the list to six, and then a phone survey of 1,000 people trimmed it to three: Marauders, Americans, and Ravens. Finally, a fan contest drawing 33,288 voters picked "Ravens", a name that alludes to the famous poem, "The Raven", by Edgar Allan Poe, who spent the latter part of his life in Baltimore and is buried there.[31] The team adopted purple and black as their team colors, a stark contrast to the Browns' brown-and-orange.[32] The former Colts Marching Band, which remained in Baltimore after the Colts moved to Indianapolis, was renamed the Baltimore's Marching Ravens.[33] The Washington Commanders are the only other NFL team with an official marching band.

Modell's move to Baltimore came amid an unprecedented flurry of similar threats – and actual moves – [34][35] that fueled 12 new stadiums throughout the NFL. The Seahawks, Buccaneers, Bengals, Lions, Cardinals, and Bears used the threat of moving to coerce their respective cities to build new stadiums with public funds.[34][35] Modell's team was one of four that actually moved between 1995 and 1997: Los Angeles lost both of its teams for the 1995 season, as the Raiders moved back to Oakland and the Rams moved east to St. Louis (the Rams would later move back to Los Angeles in 2016); and the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee in 1997, where they became the Tennessee Titans two years later.

As with all other moves, NFL football continued to air on local television in Cleveland due to the league's television contracts. During the three years the Browns suspended operations, the NFL ordered its broadcast partners to air games featuring the Browns' two biggest rivals, the Bengals and Steelers, on Cleveland's local stations. Two official secondary markets the Browns share with another team – Columbus and Youngstown – both primarily aired games from the teams the Browns shared those markets with, with Columbus airing Bengals games and Youngstown airing Steelers games. Erie, Pennsylvania, which is officially a secondary market for the Buffalo Bills but airs many Browns games due to Erie's close proximity to Cleveland, aired more Bills home games as well as Steelers games whenever it didn't come in conflict with the Bills away schedule.

After several NFL teams threatened to move to Cleveland to become the reactivated Browns (most notably the Tampa Bay Buccaneers[36]), the NFL decided in 1998 to make the reactivated Browns an expansion team;[5] while temporarily giving the league an odd number of teams (causing at least one team to be off in each of the 17 weeks of the NFL season from 1999–2001), this also eliminated any possibility of an existing franchise giving up its own identity for the Browns and thus prevented more lawsuits. In an ironic twist, Al Lerner – who helped Modell move to Baltimore – was granted ownership of the reactivated Browns;[37] his son Randy took over ownership after Al's death in 2002 before selling the team to Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam in 2012.

From its beginning, the odd number of teams and the ensuing awkward scheduling was considered a temporary arrangement pending the addition of a 32nd NFL franchise. Although Los Angeles was heavily favored, it was ultimately Houston that was awarded the league's 32nd team for the 2002 NFL season. The 2002 expansion led to a major re-alignment of the NFL into eight four-team divisions. The Jaguars and Titans joined the Texans in the new AFC South along with the Colts, Baltimore's former team, who moved from the AFC East. The Browns and Ravens' division was rebranded as the AFC North. Finally, to keep the conferences equal in size, the Seattle Seahawks (who had played their inaugural season in the National Football Conference) moved from the AFC West to the NFC West.

Following Houston's return to the NFL, Los Angeles became the favored destination for owners threatening to move their teams until the St. Louis Rams finally returned to Los Angeles for the 2016 season,[38] followed by the San Diego Chargers (who had previously called L.A. home in the early days of the American Football League) one year later.[39]

Two of the players from the Browns' 1995 roster returned to Cleveland in 1999. They were Antonio Langham, who spent the 1998 season with the San Francisco 49ers and was claimed by the Browns in the expansion draft, and Orlando Brown, who played for Baltimore until 1998 and signed with Cleveland as a free agent. Each player would play only the 1999 season in Cleveland. They were ultimately the only two players to play for the Browns under both the Modell and Lerner organizations.

The reactivated Browns have had only four winning seasons since returning to the NFL in 1999, with records of 9–7 in 2002, 10–6 in 2007, 11–5 in 2020, and 11–6 in 2023, earning wild card berths in the playoffs in 2002, 2020, and 2023. Meanwhile, the Ravens have been more successful, reaching the playoffs 15 times since 2000 and winning Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XLVII, to the dismay of Browns fans.[23][40] Longtime placekicker Matt Stover was the last remaining Ravens player that played for the Modell-owned Browns – he departed the Ravens following the 2008 season when the team chose not to re-sign him, finishing his career with the Indianapolis Colts.[41] General manager and former Browns tight end Ozzie Newsome (who was in a front-office role under Modell in Cleveland) remained with the Ravens until his retirement in 2018.

The move would also have an effect in Pittsburgh. Steelers owner Dan Rooney was one of two owners (alongside Ralph Wilson of the Bills) to oppose Modell's move to Baltimore because of a mutual respect for the team and the fans. Because of the move, the Browns–Steelers rivalry, arguably one of the most heated rivalries in the NFL, has somewhat cooled in Pittsburgh due to the new Browns' lack of success. The Ravens–Steelers rivalry is considered the spiritual successor by some fans in Pittsburgh and is one of the most heated current rivalries in the NFL.[42] Since returning to the NFL, the Browns–Steelers rivalry has been largely one-sided in favor of Pittsburgh; although the rivalry is not as intense in Pittsburgh, Browns fans still consider it their top rivalry despite the Browns' recent struggles against the Steelers. However, the rivalry began to heat up on the Pittsburgh side when the Browns defeated the Steelers 48–37 in the 2020 Wild Card playoff round.[43]

Modell continued to struggle financially even after the move. Like several other owners who had acquired their teams prior to the AFL–NFL merger Modell's net worth by the end of his tenure was primarily derived from the appreciation of his team's value, and he had relatively little outside wealth to help underwrite his club's expenses. Because of such continual financial hardships, the NFL directed Modell to initiate the sale of his franchise. On March 27, 2000, NFL owners approved the sale of 49 percent of the Ravens to Steve Bisciotti.[44] In the deal, Bisciotti had an option to purchase the remaining 51 percent for $325 million in 2004 from Art Modell. On April 8, 2004, the NFL approved Steve Bisciotti's purchase of the majority stake in the club.[45]

Although Modell later retired and had relinquished control of the Ravens, he is still despised in Cleveland, not only for moving the Browns, but also for his firing of head coach Paul Brown (who eventually founded the future arch-rival Bengals in 1968) in 1963. Some consider the Browns' move and subsequent lawsuits as having cost Modell a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which is in Canton, Ohio, 60 miles south of Cleveland and part of the Cleveland television market and Browns' territorial rights.[46][47] Modell died in 2012, having never returned to Cleveland.[10] The Browns were the only home team that did not acknowledge, much less commemorate, Modell's death the following Sunday. The team opted not to do so at the request of David Modell, Art Modell's stepson, who feared that the announcement would be met with anger by Browns fans still upset about the move.[48]

Effect on teams in other sports leagues

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Major League Baseball

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  • The Minnesota Twins, when they signed their deal with Hennepin County, Minnesota for Target Field in 2006, agreed to a provision that was signed into law, allowing the state of Minnesota the right of first refusal to buy the team if it is ever sold. Also, it requires that the name, colors, World Series trophies, and history of the team remain in Minnesota if the Twins are ever moved out of the state. The deal is similar to what Modell agreed to with the city of Cleveland during the move.
  • After the Oakland Athletics announced their move to Las Vegas in 2023, they attempted to acquire a three-year lease extension at the Oakland Coliseum until their new stadium in Las Vegas is finished. However, Oakland mayor Sheng Thao included a provision in the lease extension that would require the Athletics to keep the team name and history in Oakland for use by a potential expansion team if the Oakland A's were to play at the Coliseum for three more years. Ultimately, the A's rejected the lease extension and will play their last season in Oakland in 2024, before temporarily moving to Sacramento, California in 2025 (operating as just the A's or Athletics during that period of time),[49] and then permanently moving to Las Vegas in 2028.[50][51]

Major League Soccer

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  • In December 2005, the San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston to become the Houston Dynamo. At the time, it was announced by the league that while players and staff would move with the team, the team name, colors, logo, and records (including two championship trophies) would stay in San Jose for when a new expansion team arrived.[52][53] In 2008, the Earthquakes returned under the ownership of Lew Wolff.
  • The Browns move in 1995 had a direct effect on a proposed move of the Columbus Crew to Austin, Texas; the Modell Law, which was implemented in Ohio in 1996, prohibits sports teams that benefited from public facilities or financial assistance from moving to another city without a six-month notice and an attempt to sell the team to a local ownership group. A lawsuit was filed by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and the city of Columbus. Rather ironically, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy and Dee Haslam, along with other investors, offered to buy the Columbus Crew to keep them in Columbus.[54] The deal sold the operational rights of the Crew to the Haslams, while previous Crew owner Anthony Precourt kept his equity stake in MLS, and was granted ownership of a new franchise in Austin.[55] The sale of the Crew to Haslam's ownership group was announced as agreed to on December 28, 2018, and was completed in January 2019. As part of the deal, the lawsuit against Precourt was dismissed that day; the Modell Law remains untested as a result.[56]

National Hockey League

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  • After the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 to become the Colorado Avalanche, the franchise's retired numbers, name, and logos remained in Quebec City and are expected to be used by any future Quebec City NHL franchise that may be established or move there. Upon arrival at Denver, the Nordiques' retired numbers were placed back into circulation.
  • In 2011, a team took the name of a city's previous team (as the Baltimore Stallions did when the Ravens forced their move to Montreal). That saga began in 1996, when the Winnipeg Jets left Manitoba for Phoenix, Arizona, and become the Phoenix (later Arizona) Coyotes. Thirteen years later, the Coyotes went bankrupt and were taken over by the league. Winnipeg-based True North Sports & Entertainment offered to buy the team and return it to Winnipeg, where it presumably would have re-assumed the Jets' name and history. The NHL turned down that proposal – they were still looking for an owner to operate the franchise in Phoenix, whose municipal government had agreed to subsidize the team's financial losses – but said that moving the team back to Winnipeg was their preferred backup option. But when the Atlanta Thrashers came up for sale a year later, the league decided that there was no chance of finding an owner to operate a franchise in Georgia, so they arranged for True North to purchase the Atlanta franchise and move it to Winnipeg for the 2011–12 NHL season. The league decided to let True North and the new Jets use the identity of the old Winnipeg team, but not its history, which remained in Arizona with the Coyotes. The new Jets organization highlighted this change by quickly re-issuing the team's #9 jersey – retired by the old Jets in honor of superstar Bobby Hull – to forward Evander Kane, who had worn the number in Atlanta. Forward Bryan Little, however, switched to #18 from his original #10 in respect to Dale Hawerchuk, often considered the greatest original Jet. While the new Jets were unable to reclaim the franchise records of the original franchise from 1972 to 1996, they did reclaim its logos and trademarks; since 2016, the current franchise honored the original incarnation by wearing throwback jerseys and pay tribute to its iconic players by establishing the Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame. While the new Jets retain the history and records of the Thrashers, the Atlanta Spirit Group, retained the rights of the name and logos for the Thrashers, which are expected to be used by any future Atlanta NHL franchise that may be established or move there.[57]
  • Under the deal that sold the Arizona Coyotes to Ryan Smith, the team moved their hockey operations to Salt Lake City after the 2023–24 season. The Coyotes franchise was marked "inactive" and the Utah franchise considered an expansion team. Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo remained part of the NHL Board of Governors and retained the rights to the Coyotes brand, history, and records (including the history and records of the 1972–1996 Winnipeg Jets); had Meruelo built a new arena in the Phoenix area by 2029, he would have received an expansion franchise that would have acted as a "reactivated" Coyotes.[58][59][60] In June 2024, Meruelo relinquished the rights to the Arizona Coyotes after a planned land auction for a parcel that was intended for a new arena was canceled, causing the franchise to effectively cease operations.[61] However, the NHL has yet to decide whether to effectively fold the Coyotes franchise for good or to effectively transfer the history of the Coyotes to the Utah Hockey Club (as well as transfer the original history of the Winnipeg Jets to the current Winnipeg Jets franchise).

National Basketball Association

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  • The Seattle SuperSonics' move to Oklahoma City in 2008 included an agreement that the SuperSonics' name, logo, colors, banners, trophies, and history would all be left in Seattle, kept in a museum until such time as a new team arrived to put them on display.[62] The original franchise, now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder, keeps the SuperSonics records, championships, and retired numbers, until a new SuperSonics franchise is brought to Seattle: in effect, both the Thunder and the new SuperSonics franchise would share the original SuperSonics history until further notice.
  • Similar to the Winnipeg Jets scenario in the NHL, the NBA first entered Charlotte in 1988 in the form of the Charlotte Hornets. That team moved to New Orleans after the 2001–02 season, retaining the Hornets name. The league returned to Charlotte for the 2004–05 season with a new team, the Charlotte Bobcats, and after the New Orleans franchise changed its name to the Pelicans following the 2012–13 season, the Bobcats announced that they would reclaim the Hornets name effective with the 2014–15 season. When the name change from Bobcats to Hornets became official in May 2014, it announced that the Hornets, Pelicans, and the NBA had reached an agreement that all history and records of the original Charlotte Hornets would be transferred to the revived Hornets: thus, the Hornets are now considered to have been established in 1988, suspended operations in 2002, and resumed play in 2004 (as the Bobcats at the time before changing their name back to the Hornets in 2014), while the Pelicans are now considered a 2002 expansion team that briefly was forced to temporarily move to Oklahoma City due to Hurricane Katrina (and by extension, briefly rename themselves the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets for a couple of seasons) before properly returning to New Orleans as the Hornets again in 2007 before changing their team name to the Pelicans in 2013.
  • In the middle of the 2016–17 NBA season, the Detroit Pistons organized a deal to move the team out of The Palace of Auburn Hills and into the new Little Caesars Arena in Downtown Detroit, which was to open the following season: the deal was successful, and the Pistons moved into the arena the following season. When they moved back downtown, Palace Sports and Entertainment (the organization that owns the Pistons) made an agreement similar to the Supersonics' deal: if the team were ever to move out of Detroit, the team's name, colors, history, and records, including the team's NBA championship trophies, would remain in Detroit. This also includes all history, records, logo, colors, banners, and trophies of the Pistons' former WNBA affiliate, the Detroit Shock (now the Dallas Wings), whose three WNBA trophies and all other records were already in possession of the Pistons at the time of the move to Detroit.

National Lacrosse League

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Women's National Basketball Association

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  • Similar to the Seattle SuperSonics scenario in the NBA, after the Detroit Shock moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2010, the franchise's three WNBA trophies, logo, colors, banners, trophies, and historical statistics remained in Detroit and are expected to be used by any future Detroit WNBA franchise that may be established or move there. However, the history and records remained with the franchise and are to be kept until a new franchise is brought to Detroit. In effect, both the former Shock franchise, which moved to Arlington, Texas, in 2016 and became the Dallas Wings, and a new Detroit franchise would share the original Shock history until further notice.

See also

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References

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Further reading

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