General Discussion

... of the new stadium Cleveland built with tax dollars just a few years before and tearing down Muni (the largest pro venue at the time).

He came here with not a thing (he borrowed money to buy the Browns). Cleveland made him.

wiki

As Municipal Stadium landlord (1973–1995)

Modell took control of Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1973, which had been owned by the City of Cleveland but had become too expensive for the city to operate or maintain. Modell had started the idea of buying land in Strongsville and building a stadium in the Cleveland suburbs. He worked out a 25-year lease deal with the city whereby his newly formed entity, dubbed Stadium Corp., would rent the stadium from the city for $1 per year, assume all operating and repair costs and would sublease the stadium to its two primary tenants, the Browns and the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland's franchise in the American League of Major League Baseball.[10]

As head of Stadium Corp., Modell was also the landlord of the Indians organization. This was a sound business decision even though the Indians played poorly and drew small crowds throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s. The Browns who were paying rent to both themselves and Modell, by constructing loges in the ballpark, generated significant cash flow from the loge rentals not shared with the Indians. Modell later claimed the loge rentals were not profitable as he had financed their construction at the prevailing high interest rates, although he did not explain why the rental income that was earned was not used to offset the debt. [citation needed] The Indians organization became dissatisfied with Modell's Stadium Corp. as its landlord. Modell did not share the loge revenues earned from baseball games with the Indians. Eventually the Indians persuaded City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County voters to fund a new ballpark (which became known as Jacobs Field, later renamed Progressive Field) through new taxes. In turn, Modell was dissatisfied with the Indians' new ballpark because Stadium Corp.'s suite rental revenue decreased once Jacobs Field opened. Many suite customers switched their business from Cleveland Stadium's older suites to Jacobs Field's newer suites, due to the Indians' new-found success and popularity in the mid-1990s and because Modell's Stadium Corp. refused to decrease the annual rent for the suites even though the events for which the suites could be used decreased substantially (81 home games) with the loss of the Indians as a tenant. [citation needed]

In 1979, Stadium Corp. and Modell were implicated in a lawsuit brought by Browns minority shareholder Robert Gries of Gries Sports Enterprises. He had owned 43 percent of the team. He successfully alleged that Stadium Corp. manipulated the Browns' accounting records to help Stadium Corp. and Modell absorb a loss on real property that had been purchased in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville as a potential site for a new stadium that had him claiming it was worth more than when he had sold the land to Stadium Corp. The lawsuit eventually ended in favor of Gries (he would later sell his family interest upon the move to Baltimore).[31][10] Modell was offered a place as a tenant in Cleveland's new Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex. However, he instead asked for improvements to Municipal Stadium. Because Modell's Stadium Corp. still controlled Municipal Stadium, it may have made more business sense for Modell to try to keep the Indians at Municipal, particularly as the baseball team began to show signs of improvement both on the playing field and at the box office. Modell made attempts to make money with the stadium any way he could, which even included a deal to have the Stadium host Northwestern versus Ohio State on October 19, 1991. The game itself, referred to as "The Modell Bowl" was a dud for Northwestern, but they reaped the benefits moreso than Modell, as the game was thousands short of a sellout.[32] Meanwhile, the Indians went on to play in the World Series in 1995 and 1997, and sold out 455 straight games at Jacobs Field from 1995 until 2001. The City of Cleveland agreed to make the improvements to Municipal Stadium which were to be funded through an extension of the sin tax, which was instead used to provide funding for the Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex.


He was an ungrateful piece of shit. No one in Cleveland cried the day he died.