Team relocations
doubledragon
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What are some of the biggest sports team relocations of all time?
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The first one that comes to mind for me is the Baltimore Colts pulling up stakes in the middle of the night in 1984, and the famous images of the Mayflower truck.
Why did the Colts leave Baltimore? Blame Al Davis
Looking back at a controversial moment in NFL history
The Baltimore Colts were a well-loved team in the National Football League (NFL) with a deep-rooted fan base. The mayor loved the team, the fans were consumed by it, the governor was a big fan and the NFL needed Baltimore to have a pro football team. The club had a winning history in the league going to four championship games while taking home three NFL titles.
With all of this, then why did the franchise move to Indianapolis? The truth? Because of the Oakland Raiders.
Throughout the annals of the history of the NFL, the team owners voted on everything that involved not only the league, but also franchise matters. In 1943, Cleveland Rams owner Dan Reeves wanted to relocate his club to Los Angeles, but the owners voted no. After the 1945 season, Reeves brought the matter up again and this time he was approved.
Enter Al Davis — owner of the Raiders.
Throughout the middle 1970s, the now Los Angeles Rams repeatedly tried to get the stadium they were renting - the Los Angeles Coliseum - to upgrade and modernize. The Los Angeles Coliseum Commission (LACC) owned the stadium and performed only minimal upgrades although the field was always in top condition. When the Rams moved again to Anaheim, California, the LACC filed a lawsuit against the NFL. At the time, league bylaws required that any relocation by an existing club to an area which already had a team required a unanimous vote by the owners. This blocked any existing franchise the opportunity to relocate to Los Angeles. The Rams were not in favor of another club moving into their domain and would certainly block any move.
The LACC maintained that a unanimous vote was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act; which eliminates one business from exerting complete control within a certain market.
Yeh, yeh. What does all of this have to do with the Colts relocating? Well, everything.
The NFL owners met in a special session to discuss the lawsuit. The league’s commissioner, Pete Rozelle, offered a bylaw amendment which required only a three-quarter positive vote; to which the amendment passed.
Davis himself was having issues with his own stadium deal which was set to expire in 1979. Oakland was the second smallest NFL city, and Davis thought that the direction of television broadcasts were going the direction of pay TV. With this, the larger cities would garner the most funds. When the offer from the City of Oakland was rescinded regarding stadium improvements and such, in March of 1980 Davis announced that the Raiders would be moving to Los Angeles and become the new tenants of the Coliseum. This brought the Raiders immediately into the LACC’s lawsuit as a co-plaintiff. The NFL owners met again and voted against Oakland’s relocation. The biggest issue was not that the Raiders were moving, but that Davis was about to move his team without the league’s consent. A restraining order granted to the NFL prevented the franchise from moving for two years.
And the Colts? At this time, they were still playing in Baltimore.
In May of 1982, the courts ruled in favor of the LACC as well as the Raiders. Although the league appealed, the Raiders began immediately playing in Los Angeles. In 1983, the club won Super Bowl XVIII as the Los Angeles Raiders. In the end, the NFL settled with $20 million awarded to the Raiders.
With the lawsuit victory of the Raiders, the NFL had a new stance with relocation of teams. It concluded that team matters were for each team to decide - not the league.
Robert Irsay had owned the Colts since 1972. He wanted a better stadium deal with the City of Baltimore plus extensive renovations since Memorial Stadium was an aged facility built in 1921. The stadium was considered to be the ashcan of the NFL. And he wanted the city to pay for the improvements to which they offered little to his demands. Baltimore had come off five losing seasons and then was rejected by first overall pick John Elway. Attendance was down and the franchise had to endure the exploits of quarterback Art Schlichter (who would be suspended for gambling). Improvements to the stadium were needed and was small by NFL standards.
All around things just didn’t look good.
Throughout the league new stadiums were popping up. Texas Stadium opened in Dallas in 1971, Arrowhead Stadium (76,416 capacity) was built in 1972 in Kansas City, 1975 opened the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, the 80,242 seat Giants Stadium set off the year 1976 in New Jersey, while Buffalo crowned the 71,870 seat Rich Stadium in 1973. All of these new digs offered comfortable seating, larger and nicer locker rooms, increased restroom facilities, spectacular scoreboards and video replay screens, better food areas, and most importantly – skybox suites.
Skyboxes allow fans and corporate entities the ability to elevate their game involvement. Air conditioned booths are catered with exclusive bathroom facilities, larger seating, TV replays, parking vouchers, different menus than regular stadium fare, open bar, special entrance points and lounge areas not available to regular ticketholders. And teams are allowed to charge a premium for this game experience and keep all of the proceeds.
Profits from almost everything in the NFL is split equally amongst all franchises. Although the gate is split 60-40 (with the home team making the greater split), teams do not share revenues generated within the confines of the stadium. Yes, all proceeds are split when a patron buys a jersey or a hat, but concessions, programs, stadium advertising, parking and skybox suites are all examples of revenue streams for the home team’s coffers. A club with zero skyboxes is at a financial disadvantage than another that has 67 suites priced at $48,000 for a single season.
With Irsay’s patience exhausted about the Baltimore stadium issues, during the 1984 season he began dialogue with several cities about the possibility of the Colts moving. He had trips to Jacksonville, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Memphis and Oakland. Upon his arrival from a trip to Phoenix, he was met by Governor William Schaefer and several media members. Irsay told them he had no intention of moving the team.
Rozelle and Irsay later convened for a meeting. In the minutes, it was noted that Irsay stated he would like to move his team to Phoenix and wished to have the blessing of the other owners. The NFL realized they did not want another costly court battle, and the minutes concluded that it would be out-of-the-question to treat a possible Colts relocation as a league issue. This gave Irsay a green light without the consent of the other owners.
Talks with Phoenix fell through and Jacksonville was too small of a market for Irsay. The same stadium issues he was involved with in Baltimore were some of the same problems in Oakland as well as Memphis. He toured the brand new 60,127 seat Hoosier Dome in downtown Indianapolis in February and made his decision to relocate to Indiana, but was secretive about his decision.
Meanwhile, the City of Baltimore tried to get the Maryland state legislature to condemn the Colts franchise in order for another group to step up and keep the franchise in the city. What the state legislature did instead was to pass a provision of eminent domain on March 27. This was designed to legally bind the Colts to the city of Baltimore. All that was needed was the governor’s signature.
Upon hearing this information, Irsay realized he had to act quickly. At noon on March 28 he called up the Indianapolis-based Mayflower Transit Company. About a dozen moving vans arrived at nine that evening to cart off a portion of the club’s belongings until early the next morning amidst a cold, snowy night. The timing was horrible as most franchises were in pre-draft mode and yet here were all the coaches and front office involved in a major move. A less than favorable traveling route was chosen. The fear was that if it was readily known what was going on, state troopers might pull over the moving vans and possibly impound the Colt’s belongings.
The mayor and the city council of Baltimore sued to condemn the franchise anyway, but lost in court.
Today if you visit the Colts headquarters on West 56th street in Indianapolis, behind a door with a digital lock security there are various game-worn jerseys, signed footballs, championship paraphernalia and two Super Bowl trophies.
And sitting next to all of this fabled history and valuable assets is a toy Mayflower truck.
The Baltimore fans protested the move.
The new Colts.
Yes, the image of that Mayflower truck on the road have haunted me over the years, sometimes I see that truck in my dreams, on the road heading to Indianapolis, very sneaky like.
The Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants both move to California.
"On this Date: May 28, 1957"
Baseball Owners Allow Dodgers and Giants to Move
I thought you might enjoy the following story regarding the Dodgers and Giants being allowed to move from New York to California on this date, May 28, back in 1957.
It was sent to us by Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, ASA Advisory Board member and Spanish language announcer for the LA Angels of Anaheim, and originally appeared on the History Channel website.
Lou Schwartz
President
On May 28, 1957, National League owners vote unanimously to allow the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, at the mid-season owner’s meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
There were, however, conditions attached to the owners’ decision. First, either both teams had to move or neither could, which meant that if one team reconsidered, the other would have to change their plans as well. Second, both teams had to announce their plans before October 1, 1957. In the end, both teams did move: The Giants hosted a farewell party at a game on September 29, and the Dodgers formally announced their move on October 8. West Coast baseball fans were overjoyed, and the people of New York City were heartbroken.
In 1957, the Dodgers were in the midst of an impressive run; they had won five pennants and one World Championship in eight years. The team was profitable, and regularly packed all 32,000 seats at Ebbets Field. They were also splitting a massive radio and television pie with their rival Giants and the hated Yankees, who had beaten them in the World Series six times in seven tries. However, their owner, Brooklyn lawyer Walter O’Malley, still wanted to move his team west, where the city of Los Angeles had agreed to build him the new stadium that Brooklyn would not.
The Giants were an up-and-down team leading up to 1957, both fiscally and on the field. In spite of winning the World Series in 1954, the team could not draw fans as consistently as their Brooklyn rivals did. Owner Horace Stoneman thought the relocation to San Francisco would revitalize the team, but they continued to suffer from inconsistent play and attendance even after the move. On their final day at the Polo Grounds in Coogan’s Bluff, after fans stormed the field, former baseball writer and the Giants PR man Garry Schumacher chided, “If all the people who will claim in the future that they were here today had actually turned out, we wouldn’t have to be moving in the first place.”
Although the Giants and Dodgers continued to face each other some 20 times each season, for many the storied rivalry just wasn’t the same. Once just a subway ride away, the teams were now separated by 382 miles. Meanwhile, back in New York, fans consoled themselves by following the National League’s Mets, added as an expansion team in 1962. The Yankees and Mets did not face each other as the Giants and Dodgers had until inter-league play began in 1997. In 2000, the two teams faced off in the World Series, the first “subway series” since the Dodgers and the Yankees met in 1956. The Yankees prevailed, four games to one.
The Minneapolis Lakers move to Los Angeles.
The History Rat
From Minneapolis to LA: The Birth of the Lakers
The LA Lakers, now considered one of the NBA’s best teams, began their history as the Detroit Gems, a team in the National Basketball League which was disbanded in 1947 after just one season following what many consider to be the worst record of any professional basketball team in existence at the time, with a win-loss record of only 4-40. At that time three men from Minnesota, movie theater owner Ben Berger, local sports writer Sid Hartman and Sports promoter Morris Chalfen, bought them for $15,000.
When they bought the Gems, all they had was the team’s equipment, as all of its players had gone to other basketball teams. So they had to rebuild the team from scratch, getting first choice in the League’s Draft that year, they managed to get famous 6’10 center George Mikan, a college basketball star from DePaul University, who had just recently defunct on a PBLA team, the Chicago American Gears. When both the team and the league folded, Mikan was selected to be the newest center for the Lakers. The team was renamed the Lakers after Minnesota’s nickname, the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
George Mikan
With this new team, including coach John Kundla who was from St. Thomas College in St. Paul, general manager and future founder of the NFL Minnesota Vikings Max Winter, legendary forwards Vern Mikkelsen and Jim Pollard, as well as Bob Harrison and Slater Martin-and Clyde Lovellette joining in the 1953-54 season, they would become a powerhouse in the first years of the NBA, with a team that would be full of players that would later become hall of famers. They won the NBL championship in the 1948 season, which was their very first season, and the following year they moved to the Basketball Association of America along with three other teams. The Lakers would remain there until the National Basketball Association was formed out of a merger of the two leagues in 1950. As the NBA considers the BAA their direct predecessor, the 1948 NBL championship is not recognized as a victory by the NBA today.
In ’49 and ’50 they won the Championship again with Mikan scoring a 27.4 point average in the ’51 regular season and 31 in the playoffs, and then lost in the 1951 Western division playoffs to the Rochester Royals(now the Sacramento Kings) 4 games to 1. The NBA tried to slow Mikan down by doubling the foul lane’s width to its present width of twelve feet in the 1951 offseason, which actually made his game better, and the Lakers won the championship again from 1952-54, making them the first of the NBA’s true dynasties and the first NBA three-peat championship winners. But that was the last of the Minnesota Lakers’ heydays.
After the 1954 season Mikan retired due to knee injuries, and also due to disagreements concerning the new players’ contract, replacing Max Winter as the Lakers’ new General Manager. That same year the NBA introduced the 24-second shot clock partially in response to a 1950 game that the Lakers played against the Fort Wayne Pistons that still ranks as the lowest scoring game in NBA history with a score of 19 to 18. This a now a key component of the game, but at the time these changes forced the Lakers to play their game in an entirely new and alien style to them.
In 1955, the Lakers had their worst season since coming to Minnesota, losing the Western Division playoffs to the Fort Wayne Pistons, and combined with the age of the teammates now averaging between 26 and 30, making them some of the oldest in the league at the time, George Mikan was convinced to come out of retirement for the next year while Jim Pollard retired.
Elgin Baylor
The injuries he had sustained to his knees and his ankles during his glory days had taken their toll however, and his play wasn’t what fans expected or hoped for. So, in 1956, Mikan retired from the sport in the midst of the season, never to return as a player. Attendance at games dropped sharply and never recovered, worsened by the fact that there wasn’t a single home venue for the team. Instead, they leapfrogged between two coliseums in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In 1957 after the team lost the playoffs twice to the St. Louis Hawks, the team was nearly sold and moved to Kansas City, and was only kept in Minneapolis after a group of roughly 100 Twin Cities area businessmen, led by trucking executive Bob Short, bought the team from Berger for $150,000. Short himself became the Team’s president and owner.
George Mikan did return however as head coach in 1958 while Kundla became Manager for the team, but it wasn’t long before both the team and Mikan himself discovered how completely unsuited he was to the task. He quit midseason with a dismal win-loss record and Kundla returned, too late to keep the team from suffering a crushing 19-53 record, putting them in last place in the NBA standings and giving the Lakers their worst seasonal record in Minnesota. This last place finish however turned out to be a lucky break, as it gave them first pick in the following year’s NBA Draft, and they were able to pick up 6’5 Elgin Baylor as their new star forward.
In 1959 with his help, they made it to the playoffs, and Baylor himself became the NBA Rookie of the year, but they were beaten by the up-and-coming Boston Celtics in the league’s first four-game sweep, starting a classic rivalry that lasts to this very day despite the Lakers’ change of address. In 1959, Kundla retired as head coach and was replaced by Elgin Baylor’s old coach at Seattle University, John Castellani. He left mid-season because of his lackluster win-loss record and was replaced by former player Jim Pollard, who himself fared any better. 1960 was their last season in Minnesota, and although they made it to the playoffs with a 25-50 record and Baylor continued to be the team’s shining star, they were once again beaten by the St. Louis Hawks.
During this last season in Minnesota, Short noticed how well the Brooklyn Dodgers did after becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958, the first Baseball team on the west coast. Their attendance was higher, the team played better than they had done in years and the team was consequently making money, a sharp contrast to the Lakers at the time. The Twin Cities were turning toward professional Hockey as their sport of choice. With low attendance (despite Baylor revitalizing the team) and severe and worsening financial problems in the Twin Cities, Short tried to move the team to either Chicago or San Francisco before moving the team in Los Angeles in 1961 making them the first NBA team on the west coast. Despite the lack of natural lakes around the city, Short decided to keep the name Lakers. Minnesota, meanwhile, would have to wait 28 years before they got another NBA team of their own, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
NBA Buffalo Braves to San Diego as the Clippers. Later moving to La.
When in Buffalo they had Bob McAdoo and coaching legend Jack Ramsey.
There goes that masked phantom, still on the road!
The New Orleans Jazz move to Utah. I have watched Pete Maravich highlights many times, and he played for the New Orleans Jazz when he dropped 68 on the Knicks back in 1977. He just went off on the Knicks. I've read books about Maravich and he was a true basketball genius, there will never be another Pete Maravich, he was as great as anyone who ever played the game. Here is the video, shot by shot, of his 68 point game.
The Utah Jazz once made the playoffs in 20 consecutive seasons. However, Utah's foray into major pro sports did not happen until New Orleans lost the Jazz after five lean years in the '70s. The Jazz roved between venues that did not end up suiting them, including the Superdome, and never won 40 games in a season. However, the New Orleans Jazz deployed legendary scorer Pete Maravich in all five seasons. The LSU product won the 1976-77 scoring title. Otherwise, the Jazz's pre-Utah stay was largely forgettable
The Houston Oilers move to Tennessee.
All Sports History
What Happened To The Houston Oilers?
The Houston Oilers were a founding member of the American Football League, a rival of the NFL. The team would become an iconic part of sports culture in Houston. So what exactly led to the team leaving the city they called home for 36 years? In today’s video we’ll look back at how one man’s obsession with wanting to build a new stadium led to the team packing up and leaving.
Formation & Early Success (1960-1970)
By the late 1950s the NFL had become increasingly popular due to events like the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, also known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played”. This increase in popularity drew a lot of interest in potential buyers of teams. One such team, the struggling Chicago Cardinals attracted two separate offers from two businessmen, Bud Adams and Lamar Hunt. Unfortunately for them, both offers were rejected. That didn’t wouldn’t stop either of them, as Bud Adams then tried to convince the NFL to expand into Houston and create a new franchise there, while Lamar Hunt also tried to sway the NFL into expanding into the Dallas area instead. But once again, both attempts to bring the NFL into Texas failed.
In a lesson of great determination, Lamar Hunt came up with the idea of starting their own football league, one that would rival the NFL. Hunt then approached other businessmen who had also made failed attempts to buy an NFL team, and asked them to join his league instead. Hunt planned to start a team in Dallas, and thought it would be perfect for Bud Adams to have a team in Houston, creating a natural rivalry between the two teams. On August 3, 1959 in Bud Adams boardroom, the brand new team owners got together (seen here about to break into a touchdown dance) to announce the formation of the American Football League.
Bud Adams new team in Houston would be known as the “Houston Oilers”. For most of the team’s history the Oilers colors were, “columba blue”, “scarlet red, and white, with their main logo depicting a simple oil derrick. The team name, “The Oilers” not only has a special connection to Bud Adams the owner but the area surrounding Houston as well. The Oilers can be referenced back to the Texas oil boom of the early 20th century. Oil was discovered in Beaumont, Texas (less than 100 miles away from Houston) in 1901, which became home to the first major oil field in the United States. The amount of oil that was found was massive, and spurred rapid development of commercial and industrial business throughout the region. Texas soon became one of the leading oil producing states in the country, with the city of Houston building the largest concentration of refineries and petrochemical plants in the world. Essentially, oil helped turn Houston from a small rural town in the early 1900s into one of the largest cities in the US by the 1950’s.
Bud Adams having grown up in an oil family, his father was chairman of Phillips Petroleum company for 25 years, would later start his own business, ADA (or ada) Oil company in 1947 (now known as Adams Resources & Energy, Inc.)
Jumping back to early years of the franchise, The Oilers achieved immediate success appearing in the first three AFL championship games. They defeated the San Diego Chargers in back to back championships, in 1960 and 61. But they lost their third championship attempt to the Dallas Texans in 1962.
In 1968, the Oilers became the first football team to play in a domed stadium when they moved into the newly built Astrodome. Prior to that, the team had played at the University of Houston from 1960 to 64 and Rice University from 1965 to 67.
Merger with the NFL (1970-1993)
In 1970 the NFL merged with the AFL, dividing the teams up into two new conferences. Three original NFL teams, the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers, agreed to join the old AFL teams in the newly formed American Football Conference within the NFL. Each conference was also split into three divisions (east, central, and west), with the Oilers joining the AFC central division. After the merger, the team would struggle in the standings finishing last place in the AFC central division four seasons straight between 1970 and 1973. The team’s fortunes would begin to change starting in the late 1970’s, when they drafted future hall of fame running back Earl Campbell out of The University of Texas. He would go on to win rookie of the year in 1978, and would help the Oilers make the AFC championship game two years in a row. However, they were defeated both times by the eventual Super Bowl winners the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The 1980’s began on a promising note, with Earl Campbell dominating the league by rushing for 1934 yards and winning both the league’s rushing title and offensive player of the year. The Oilers finished the 1980 season 11-5 and made the playoffs as a wild card team. The Oilers season would end in disappointment however when they lost once again to eventual Super Bowl winners the Oakland Raiders in the first round, 27-7.
Things after that quickly began to spiral downward. The next few seasons would be disastrous as the team only won 11 games over the span of three seasons. Some of that was in part due to a strike shortened season in 1982, but the team struggled to build on the AFC championship runs from a few years prior. Earl Cambell had become frustrated with his reduced playing time, and demanded to be traded towards the end of the 1983 season. After the Oilers lost the first six games of the next season, Campbell was traded to the New Orleans Saints for a first round draft pick. However, he would only play one full season with the Saints in 1985, after which he decided to retire. The Oilers on the other hand went 3-13 without Campbell that season.
There was a bright spot for the Oilers. During the 1984 season Houston won a bidding war to sign eventual Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, who had been playing in the Canadien Football League for several years. Three years later, He would help the Oilers make the playoffs for the first time in seven years, securing a wild card spot. The Oilers faced the Seattle Seahawks in the opening round of the playoffs in 1987, and they held off Seattle to beat them 24-21 thanks to an overtime field goal by Oilers kicker Tony Zendejas. In the next round however, the Oilers would lose to the Denver Broncos 34-10 in the divisional playoffs.
That same year, Bud Adams, seen here trying to find his car in the Astrodome parking lot, actually threatened to move the team to Jacksonville Florida if the stadium wasn’t brought up to date with new renovations. Harris County, where the city of Houston is located, offered to pay for improvements to the Astrodome. At the time, the stadium only seated 50,000 fans, which was the smallest capacity in the NFL. The funds would be paid for through mostly tax increases on properties and hotels. However, Adams had further demands on improvements, which ballooned the estimated cost of renovations to 67 million dollars. The back and forth over the final cost of the renovations would create lasting tension between the Oilers and the city of Houston.
By the early 90’s, the Oilers had started to turn things around. They won their first division title in 25 years, and also their first as an NFL team in 1991. However, they would be defeated in the divisional round by the Denver Broncos. The next year would see another successful regular season end in disappointment when the Oilers became immortalized in the largest comeback in NFL history. During the first half of the AFC Wild Card game, the Oilers dominated the Buffalo Bills with a 28-3 lead at halftime. However, the Bills had a huge second half scoring 35 points while holding the Oilers to only 10 points, forcing the game into overtime. The Bills would end up kicking a gaming winning field goal, shocking Houston with a 41-38 comeback win.
In 1993, the Oilers won the most games ever in franchise history with a record of 12-4, while winning another AFC central division title. But once again, they would lose in the divisional round of the playoffs to the Kansas City Chiefs. Not long after the season ended, Warren Moon was traded to the Minnesota Vikings. This would mark the beginning of the end of the Oilers time in Houston, as the team never again would make the playoffs.
The Last Years (1993-1996)
By the end of 1993, Bud Adams had become fed up with the Astrodome situation. He was never really happy with being a tenant in a stadium he didn’t own, and So he began seriously looking at moving the Oilers into a brand new stadium entirely. The city, which had just spent a large amount of money renovating the Astrodome had no interest in spending more money to build a new stadium. Adams hoped to build a domed stadium that could also be the home for the Houston Rockets, similar to the Alamo dome in San Antonio with the Spurs. He also offered to pay 25 percent of the building costs. But after some time trying to convince the mayor of Houston Bob Lanier (LA-NEAR) to publicly support the plan, Adams realized he needed to start looking elsewhere. Adams then secretly met with Nashville’s mayor Phil Bredsen about potentially relocating to Tennessee, and the city of Nashiville promised to pay 144 million towards building a new stadium plus another 70 million to cover ticket sales.
Around this time, the city of Houston was in a tough position because all of it’s major sports franchises were in need of new stadiums and arenas.The Astros, who shared the Astrodome with the Oilers, had also become frustrated with the Astrodome’s lack of luxury boxes and modern amenities. They proposed building a new baseball only stadium in downtown Houston, and even threatened to move to North Virginia if a new stadium wasn’t built. The Rockets were also looking to leave their aging arena, the Summit which only seated 16,000 fans in order to build a newer larger arena for basketball (and with also the hope of potentially attracting an NHL team).
When it became clear that Bud Adams wasn’t going to get the funding necessary to build a new stadium, the Oilers announced just after the 1995 season that they would be officially moving to Nashville, Tennessee prior to the 1998 season. Once the announcement was made, Houston understandably had little interest in supporting the Oilers anymore. Ticket sales for the 1996 season cratored, with the team attracting more than 30,000 fans only three times that season. Even the local radio stations that broadcasted games would routinely cut the games off before they finished in order to broadcast Houston Rocket preseason games instead. The last home game of the 1996 season, on December 15, attracted the smallest attendance in franchise history with just over 15,000 fans showing up.
Making matters worse, the NFL had a blackout policy that required teams to sell out home games in order for them to broadcasted live in the home market. So fans in Houston couldn’t even watch the games on TV even if they wanted to. The Oilers, and the NFL not happy with the attendance situation reached a deal with the city of Houston to be let out of their lease a year early so that they could move to Nashville.
However, Nashville wasn’t ready for the Oilers to move in just yet. They were still constructing the stadium that would be their new home, and the largest football stadium at that time in Nashville was Vanderbelt stadium that only seated 41,000. The Oilers then made the decision to play in Memphis, Tennessee at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium for the next two seasons. With the move from Houston to Memphis, the team would officially change its name to the Tennessee Oilers.
The team however, quickly found themselves in the same situation they had when they had left Houston. Fans in Memphis (who had spent years trying to lure an NFL team to their city) had no interest in supporting a team they would lose in two seasons, especially one that was going to be located in the rival city of Nashville. At the same time, fans in Nashville had little desire driving 200 miles just to see their team play. With that, the Oilers once again played in front of the smallest crowds in the NFL. Of the first seven home games in Memphis none of them sold more than 27,000 tickets to a stadium that seated 62,000.
Even with the struggling attendance, Bud Adams was determined to stick it out in Memphis. That would change however, during the last home game of the 1997 season. The Oilers hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers in front of a nearly full crowd of 50,677. The only problem was, most of the 50,000 fans were Steeler fans, some estimating at least three quarters of the crowd were supporting Pittsburgh. Adams was so embarrassed by the situation that he decided to leave Memphis and have the team play at Vanderbelt’s stadium after all.
On November 14, 1998 the Oilers officially changed their name to the “Tennessee Titans”. The team would still hold onto all the Oilers old team records, and history. While the NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue moved to retire the name “Oilers” so that no other future NFL team in Houston could have that name.
Legacy (1996-present)
With the Oilers gone, Harris county established a new sports authority governing body whose purpose is to operate and run stadiums and sports arenas throughout the county. One of their first projects was getting the Houston Astros new baseball stadium, “Enron Field” built (now known as “Minute Maid Park”). They also oversaw a construction of the Toyota Center which became the new home for the Rockets in 2003. Houston also wouldn’t have to wait long for the return of the NFL. In 1999, businessman Robert McNair was granted an expansion franchise that would be located in Houston. In 2002, the team would enter the league as the Houston Texans.
Bud Adams, seen here proudly declaring we’re number one, would continue to own the Tennessee Titans until his death in 2013, at the age of 90 years old. Bud Adams’ family also known as the “Adams Family” (nope not that family) continue to have controlling ownership of the Titans to this day. The team has also paid tribute to the Oilers on several occasions by wearing throwback uniforms, as they did in 2009. And they’ve inducted several former Oilers players into the Titans ring of honor, as a nod to the team’s past. But there are some, especially those in Houston who feel that the Oilers history doesn’t belong to the Titans and it should remain in Houston. While both teams and their history is still a part of Bud Adams legacy, many of the Tennessee Titan fans never watched players like Warren Moon or Earl Cambell play and have no real connection to the Oilers history. But Let me ask you guys ,would you like to see the Titans give back the Oilers history to the city of Houston and the Texans? And what did you guys think about the Oilers moving away from Houston to Tennessee?
There it goes again, wait a minute, get back here!
Art Modell tired of being lied to by the Cleveland politicians telling him they "may" build him a new stadium. Then he packed up at midnight and flew his team to Baltimore - stunned Cleveland!
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
The Angels move from Los Angeles to California.
Art Modell tired of being lied to by the Cleveland politicians telling him they "may" build him a new stadium
let's get this back to reality........................
Modell had a sweetheart deal on Municipal Stadium with the City of Cleveland: he rented it for the princely sum of ONE DOLLAR per year and reaped the benefits of every event held there. he was the Cleveland Indians landlord, they paid him and not the city. every Rock Concert, every High School or College game, anything held at the venue went into his pocket.
during his stewardship nothing was done to the facility, the responsibility of Art Modell. I attended many, many events at Muny Stadium and the bathrooms were a horror to enter. finally, when the Stadium was all but condemned by City Health Inspectors ol' Art decided he needed the City of Cleveland to build him a new facility.
his solution was to sign the deal on the tarmac of Burke Lakefront Airport, about a quarter mile and within sight of the Stadium, to move the Team to Baltimore.
two closing points: it has always struck me as rather odd that the fans in Baltimore could embrace the Team and owner so easily after what had been done to them with the move to Indy. secondly, after everything in Cleveland's history is examined, Art Modell is probably the most despised man tied to that history.