‘We Sure Know How Cleveland Feels Right Now’

Jack Lindquist, former Disneyland president and Save the Rams co-chairman, visited Cleveland last week and heard the same rumors he had heard a year earlier in Anaheim.

Another NFL franchise was leaving town.

Those rumors moved closer to reality Monday, when Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell announced a deal with Maryland Stadium Authority officials to move his team to Baltimore next season. The deal will need the approval of 23 of 30 NFL owners before it becomes official.

The announcement set off a celebration similar to one in St. Louis when the Rams announced they were moving there last January, leaving Lindquist and Save the Rams without a team to save.

“We sure know how Cleveland feels right now,” Lindquist said. “We’ve been there.”

The Browns’ move to Baltimore, if approved, is expected to have little impact on other cities, such as Anaheim and Los Angeles, competing for an expansion team or trying to attract an existing NFL franchise. Although the Baltimore deal was a lucrative one, it pales in comparison to the guaranteed money and domed stadium St. Louis gave the Rams.

Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, Seattle and Arizona also have been seeking better deals elsewhere, and the Houston Oilers are talking about moving to Nashville.

“This is becoming a game of musical franchises,” Lindquist said, “and we’re still in the game.

“One of the prime markets in America for the NFL is still available. We are talking about the No. 2 TV market in country, and the league will have to put a team here eventually.”

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who set the NFL’s return to Los Angeles as a league priority, discussed the issue with Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner and Dodger owner Peter O’Malley in September.

Disney officials refused comment Monday, but Eisner reportedly is lobbying the league to grant Disney exclusivity for the next NFL team in Southern California. O’Malley previously announced plans to build a football-only stadium in Los Angeles.

Disney reportedly has been holding private discussions with Seattle Seahawk owner Ken Behring about moving the team to Orange County and buying a minority share of the team.

Save the Rams has been pushing for a new football facility in Anaheim that would include an NFL theme park to complement Disneyland and the city’s convention center.

But Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said the city’s first priority is to renovate Anaheim Stadium for the Angels. He said plans will be announced in the next two weeks.

“We’re still evaluating various options as far as a football-only stadium,” Daly said.

The Rams left last January for a deal that guaranteed $75 million in expenses, including operating losses from the previous season. The Browns will get a state-funded, $200 million outdoor stadium, but will not get guaranteed money like the Rams did.

The Maryland Sports Authority will sell up to $75 million in personal seat licenses to pay for the Browns’ moving expenses and the construction of a new practice facility. Any money raised beyond the Browns’ expenses will go back to the sports authority.

“That says a lot for Baltimore’s thirst for pro football,” Daly said, “or something about the wisdom of spending of public dollars in Maryland.”

Unlike the Rams, whose attendance dropped along with the team’s position in the standings in the early 1990s, the Browns drew 568,474 fans last season, filling Cleveland Stadium to 90.5% capacity. The Rams sold 355,000 seats in 1994, their last season in Anaheim Stadium, and lost more than $6 million.

According to Team Marketing Report, Modell’s Stadium Corporation, which operates Cleveland Stadium, currently pays the city a minimum rent of $200,000 a season.

In addition, the corporation pays either 10% of its cut of rent, loge seat sales and scoreboard advertising or the sum of property taxes and debt service on city stadium bonds, whichever is greater.

The Browns have a 25-year lease through 1998 with Cleveland Stadium. To move the team, the Stadium Corporation would owe the city $200,000 minimum annual rent for each remaining year of the lease.

Times staff writer T.J. Simers contributed to this report.