Footwedge;1266097 wrote:You should have quit while you were ahead. Modell's liquidity problems were his own doing. As I stated 5 flippin times now, he never negotiated in good faith with the politicians that were elected into office by a whole bunch of Browns fans. No, he instead bankrolled a **** move of bolting town, without even mentioning this classless and dispicable move. For that, he is forever villified as the ****in demon he was...and will never smell the halls of Canton, Ohio.

He needed a lot of cash in a hurry in 1995. Did he make poor decisions leading up to that? Absolutely. But once 1995 was here, he had to come up with a large sum of cash quickly to cover his debts. Baltimore agreed to give him a large sum of cash to cover his debt. I highly doubt the city of Cleveland would have paid him a huge sum of cash like that. His other option would be to liquidate his only assest that could generate the needed cash (sell the team). I still believe he could have worked out a deal with the NFL that he would be awarded an expansion franchise in exchage for agreeing to sell the team to someone who would keep it in Cleveland (Learner). Modell ran into cash problems again in Baltimore and had sell most of his ownership of the team.

Footwedge;1266084 wrote:Modell moved his team. Duh...he didn't owe them....legally. Ethically he owed then plenty. The fans made him who he had become...so I hardly think the fans owed him anything more.

Conversely, the American workers collectively made the American Corporations the capital that they are now using to embolden the high enders in China as well as themselves...through extremely amoral labor practices and illegal government subsidies..

You apparently have no problem with that. Well, I do.

Your position is consistent. The ends always justifies the means...no matter who is hurt or violated. You don''t remember your business ethics classes, now do you? Well. when I was in college the course was not an elective.

I have no problem with legal activity. Correct.

Maybe the real problem exists with those that become emotionally attached to an entertainment business.

Ethically he owed them nothing. People chose to engage with him. Their return was the entertainment they received from the team. The people and Modell were even. If someone was hurt, it was because they lost perspective on the role entertainment has in their lives.

The entire thread is subjective. You are quibbling over someone's "right" to do something with their property, and what you all feel is the "right" thing to do.

Y'all need to come back over to the dark side. It seems to me that right is wrong and the only thing left is.... well.... left.

Devils Advocate;1266671 wrote:The entire thread is subjective. You are quibbling over someone's "right" to do something with their property, and what you all feel is the "right" thing to do.

...

I agree completely.

There are legal "right"s and there are subjective action "right"s.

Al Bundy;1266119 wrote:He needed a lot of cash in a hurry in 1995. Did he make poor decisions leading up to that? Absolutely. But once 1995 was here, he had to come up with a large sum of cash quickly to cover his debts. Baltimore agreed to give him a large sum of cash to cover his debt. I highly doubt the city of Cleveland would have paid him a huge sum of cash like that. His other option would be to liquidate his only assest that could generate the needed cash (sell the team). I still believe he could have worked out a deal with the NFL that he would be awarded an expansion franchise in exchage for agreeing to sell the team to someone who would keep it in Cleveland (Learner). Modell ran into cash problems again in Baltimore and had sell most of his ownership of the team.

Art Modell didn't all of a sudden have cash problems crop up out of the blue. Modell's problems stemmed over a 5-7 year period in which time things escalated to where it stood in 95. Again, he had ample opportunity to make things right in Cleveland..by negotiating with the officials. He failed to do so. The truth is, his pride stood in the way of doing the correct thing. He chose not to do the right thing.

So....the bailout man...Al Lerner came to his rescue and behind the scenes money was lined up to bail out his ass. He took the chickenshit road right out of Cleveland into the pastures of hell.

After 34 years, he felt no warmness to the fans who made him what he was. He didn't care. He played on the emotions of another city scourned by another slimeball sports owner, Robert Irsay.

Moreover, as a Browns fan in disbelief, I subscribed to the Baltimore Sun and had their newspaper sent by mail to my home.

By a 4 to 1 margin, the sports writers, editorialists, and the fans that wrote letters to the editor called out Modell for being the slimeball that he was. And this coming from Baltimorians...not Clevelanders.

As for the city of Cleveland 'paying him a large sum of cash like that", I strongly disagree. The officials of Clevelandv would have done "whatever it took to baill out Modell's ass. Art knew, that the bailout would have been scorned by the citizens and the fans, and as such, he tooked the coward's way out.

n my view, he epitimizes everything that I teach my kids not to be. In every sense of the word. In hindsight, I thank him for the valuable lesson that I shared with my kids. You lie, you cheat, you deceive, and you shit on the people you love or should love, your life will turn to crap.

Con_Alma;1266647 wrote:I have no problem with legal activity. Correct.

Maybe the real problem exists with those that become emotionally attached to an entertainment business.

Ethically he owed them nothing. People chose to engage with him. Their return was the entertainment they received from the team. The people and Modell were even. If someone was hurt, it was because they lost perspective on the role entertainment has in their lives.

Well said- sums up the thread pretty well.

So in response to Footwedge's endless rants, what should be done to prevent moves like this in the future?

So should Modell have been arrested, locked up? Beaten publicly? Should his assets have been confiscated by the government? How big and bad do we want the government to be to prevent heinous crimes like this in the future?

jhay78;1266846 wrote:...
So in response to Footwedge's endless rants, what should be done to prevent moves like this in the future?

...

Absolutely nothing. Moves shouldn't be prevented.

It's funny Footwedge thinks Modell's life turned to crap. His life and his family's life improved dramatically when he moved to Baltimore. His debt was eliminated and he sold the team less 1% for a significant amount of money all while implementing a wealth transfer plan that enabled hisfamily to keep more of their assets when he and his wife died.

Footwedge;1266007 wrote:Wut? If Con Alma wants to plead his case to the die hard Browns fans on how wonderfully smart his business move was, he can have at it.

But I will tell you...the success of business is more than what is shown on the bottom line. It really is. Con Alma must have forgotten he had to take at least three credits on Business Ethics. I took mine circa 1978. So...when Sleeper, O-Trap, MB, Gut, Oats and the rest lay claim that the only grade on a report card for the businessman/corporation is his the hard dollar bottom line, they are categorically full of it.

The best grade is market capitalization of a stock. If the company sucks, low Mkt Cap and vice versa. There are exceptions, but that is all a public company should be concerned with at the end of the day.

Corporate citizenship and corporate values are important to the culture and morale, which indirectly does impact the bottom line. But otherwise, for the most part investors and consumers don't pay attention to it.

A lot of people rail on perceived corproate indifference and greed, yet they're loyal Walmart shoppers. Go figure. These people claim to want to support what they perceive as good corporate morality, but thus far the only people able to make any money on it are the likes of Michael Moore.

when art rooney and wellington mara died, they were praised for their efforts to build the nfl and their loyalty to their communities. when modell dies the lead story is his betrayal of cleveland. first he betrayed the founder of the browns and then he betrayed the city.