Modell Receives Tentative OK to Go

The NFL and the city of Cleveland agreed Thursday night on terms that will allow Art Modell to move the Browns to Baltimore.

Owners will vote today to ratify the agreement.

The agreement was reached in talks involving two NFL committees containing 12 owners. League spokesman Joe Browne said all 12 had agreed, meaning 11 more votes are needed when the proposition goes before all 30 teams.

Under the proposal, a new team would be in place in Cleveland by 1999, with the Browns immediately moving to Baltimore while leaving behind their name and colors.

The league also would provide around $48 million to Cleveland as a loan to help build a new stadium, said New York Giants co-owner Robert Tisch. And while that didn’t seem to be a sticking point in the negotiations, it could be in the owners’ meeting.

The approval of the Browns’ move to Baltimore would come on the eve of a trial scheduled to begin Monday in Cleveland on a suit the city filed against Modell seeking to keep the team in town.

Maryland Stadium Authority executive director Bruce Hoffman said the announcement allows Baltimoreans to feel easier about the team coming to Maryland.

“There’s not a person in Baltimore that wasn’t rooting for Cleveland. Having lost our own team once, we feel the pain that Cleveland went through. Nobody was proud of that.”

Even Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who believes owners can do what they want without league interference, said, “I’m concerned about how meaningful my vote is, because I don’t think we can keep them from moving.”

And Pittsburgh’s Dan Rooney, who is likely to vote against the move, said “the league has a problem legally with what it can do.” That was a reference to various court decisions that have held that a team is an individual business rather than part of an association that can control movement.

Several owners noted that if the money were provided to Cleveland, which already has $175 million from “sin taxes,” it should also be provided to other cities with stadium problems.

One of those cities, Chicago, appeared to have a stadium problem solved Wednesday when Gov. Jim Edgar and the Bears agreed on a plan to build a domed stadium in downtown Chicago. It would be part of an entertainment and convention center estimated to cost $465 million, for which the Bears might put up as much as $175 million.

Mike McCaskey, the team’s president, said some of that money would come from permanent seat licenses.

The meeting began on an ironic note. Shortly after the owners gathered to discuss if they had any power over franchise moves, the electricity went out in the meeting room. First they brought in flashlights, then they moved to another room.

But most of the day was spent on the collective bargaining agreement, which has been approved by the NFL Players Assn. but stalled by the owners because of concerns over revenue sharing. The new agreement extends the current one three years until 2002.

The owners’ meeting comes amid growing concern among fans about the stability of the NFL in light of franchise moves. In the past year, five of the 30 teams have either relocated or announced plans to relocate.

Besides the move by the Browns, the Rams and Raiders left Los Angeles last year, the Oilers are moving from Houston to Nashville, and the owner of the Seattle Seahawks said last week he was moving his team to Los Angeles. Seattle’s move is expected to be discussed, but no action will be taken until the meetings next month in Palm Beach, Fla.