Cleveland Browns Unveil New Uniforms

[leopard88]

24 minutes ago, Claystation360 said:

Fast forward talking to people that were in the league at the time and with more knowledge about it then myself, The NFL had zero interest in expanding at the time since they had just added Charlotte and Jacksonville. They were worried of it "diluting the talent pool."  Relocation was their first choice but ultimately they had to settle for expansion since their options had new stadiums deal or relocated to cities not named cleveland.

 

 

 

The other part of this is that expansion left the league with 31 teams until another expansion team was added.  That led to the addition of the Texans in 2002.

 

If memory further serves me, the league really wanted Team No. 32 to be in Los Angeles.  However, no one in LA could get their $&%$ together, so the team wound up in Houston.

[OnWis97]

15 minutes ago, leopard88 said:

 

The other part of this is that expansion left the league with 31 teams until another expansion team was added.  That led to the addition of the Texans in 2002.

 

If memory further serves me, the league really wanted Team No. 32 to be in Los Angeles.  However, no one in LA could get their $&%$ together, so the team wound up in Houston.

Yeah...I think time was their primary objective...that 31-team league, complete with byes in weeks 1 and 17, was not good for the long haul.

[Claystation360]

44 minutes ago, leopard88 said:

 

The other part of this is that expansion left the league with 31 teams until another expansion team was added.  That led to the addition of the Texans in 2002.

 

If memory further serves me, the league really wanted Team No. 32 to be in Los Angeles.  However, no one in LA could get their $&%$ together, so the team wound up in Houston.

Yeah, you're right. if i recall they had 3 stadium proposals but  they were all disorganized and that is how Houston got 32. 

also, I guess Cleveland was shooting for a similar thing. 

"The deal, finally struck at 8 EST last night, capped a long day that began with NFL officials trying to persuade Mr. Modell to sell or turn over his team to Clevelanders and accept an expansion team in Baltimore in two years.

Mr. Modell and Mr. Moag forcefully rejected that idea, sending the bargainers back to the table, and, eventually, to agreement.

"I think they hoped Maryland would give a little more, but our agreement is our agreement. The state of Maryland has stepped up to the plate," Mr. Moag said.

Mr. Modell's team -- to be renamed through a fan contest -- will play this season and next at Memorial Stadium while a $200 million stadium is built adjacent to Oriole Park. The team will move into the stadium in 1998." 

 

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bal-modell020996-story.html

[Glover]

16 hours ago, Ice_Cap said:

Maybe Cleveland Browns fans should get over themselves and stop acting like the most hard-done-by fans in sports.

Not all Browns fans act this way. Many of us are beyond thankful to have a football team and recognize other fanbases were not as lucky. Please do not lump the entire fanbase into one strawman position. 

[LMU]

The two main stadium proposals in LA in 1999 were the "Hacienda" in Carson

and essentially a Soldier Field-ish renovation of the Coliseum. 

A third proposal to go back to the Hollywood Park well that Al Davis pursued (ironically where SoFi is being built) came in at the last minute but the expansion bid was reopened and McNair outbid the Hacienda plan.

 

Of course, nobody ever answered why the Hacienda plan decided to copy the bell tower of the San Diego mission.

 

 

[raz]

52 minutes ago, LMU said:

The two main stadium proposals in LA in 1999 were the "Hacienda" in Carson

 

Of course, nobody ever answered why the Hacienda plan decided to copy the bell tower of the San Diego mission.

 

A great look for a new NFL stadium in San Diego! 

[hawk36]

4 hours ago, leopard88 said:

If memory serves me, Cleveland was guaranteed a team by 1999 (in addition to being given assistance for stadium funding).  The only unknown was whether it would be a relocated team or an expansion team.

EDIT:

 

The Washington Post backs me up on this (from February 10, 1996)..

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1996/02/10/owners-approve-move-of-nfl-team-to-baltimore/62005513-0215-46f0-9236-2eefbaae9583/

I'll never forgive Seattle politicians for not doing this with the Supersonics. The ground work was all there and they took a payoff to drop their lawsuit. Needless to say that payoff money was most likely gone by the end of that year and 10+ years later the Supersonics still aren't back in Seattle. 

[OnWis97]

5 minutes ago, hawk36 said:

I'll never forgive Seattle politicians for not doing this with the Supersonics. The ground work was all there and they took a payoff to drop their lawsuit. Needless to say that payoff money was most likely gone by the end of that year and 10+ years later the Supersonics still aren't back in Seattle. 

Didn't Seattle have some deal where if they got a team by some number of years (7 or so?) that they'd get the Sonics history, etc.?  Not trying to re-open the debate...I just kinda feel like I remember this. On the other hand, I could be totally making it up.

[Gothamite]

39 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:

Didn't Seattle have some deal where if they got a team by some number of years (7 or so?) that they'd get the Sonics history, etc.?  Not trying to re-open the debate...I just kinda feel like I remember this. On the other hand, I could be totally making it up.

 

It was actually 5 years.  Was due to expire in 2013, but we don't know if the option was ever extended.

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/nba/seattle-and-oklahoma-city-will-share-the-sonics-franchise-history/

 

Quote

For now, the two parties agree to share the history of the team that played 41 years in Seattle. The Oklahoma City team will refer to Sonics records, statistics and history as its own.

 

According to the agreement, if Seattle is granted an expansion team in the next five years, that franchise will share the Sonics’ history with the Oklahoma City team.

 

If Seattle lands a team through relocation of an existing franchise, most likely the Oklahoma City team will retain sole possession of the Sonics history.

 

I also found this interesting:

 

Quote

During negotiations, both parties learned the NBA owns the names and intellectual properties of teams and licenses them to owners. The league prohibits owners from giving away their team’s names to anyone other than another owner.

 

Sounds a lot like the MLS model.  I didn't realize other leagues centrally controlled the IP of current, existing franchises.

 

But this is just bonkers:

 

Quote

The NBA also didn’t want a team playing in Oklahoma City without a past history.

 

Um, why not?  How is a lack of past history any less preferable than this confusing mess?

 

[JPDesign]

All of that may be true, but in practical application, the Thunder never refer to the Sonics history, nor hang their championship banner in the arena, nor discuss past great/retired numbers/etc.

 

While it is technically a maintained history, it is practically treated as a new franchise.

[Gothamite]

28 minutes ago, JPDesign said:

All of that may be true, but in practical application, the Thunder never refer to the Sonics history, nor hang their championship banner in the arena, nor discuss past great/retired numbers/etc.

 

While it is technically a maintained history, it is practically treated as a new franchise.

 

This part of the article speaks to that:

 

Quote

The settlement allows Bennett to replicate and use copies of Sonics memorabilia, including the 1979 NBA trophy, championship banners and the team’s six retired jerseys.

 

Bennett described the memorabilia as “assets,” which he intends to use to market and promote the Oklahoma City team. And while he retains possession of the Sonics name, logo and colors, he agreed not to use them.

 

Additionally, he owns the Sonics’ original championship trophy, banners and retired jerseys and is permitted to periodically display them in Oklahoma City. For most of the year, the items will be kept in Seattle at the Museum of History and Industry. Bennett agreed to return their ownership to Seattle should an NBA franchise emerge here.

 

Do they have any standing tributes to their Seattle days at all?

[JPDesign]

7 hours ago, Gothamite said:

Do they have any standing tributes to their Seattle days at all?

None. I actually interned there as a graphic designer about 10 years ago. They were very intentional about treating it like a clean slate.

[Claystation360]

So i wonder why the NBA was intend on it being a team with history if said team wasn't going to acknowledge it?

[Gothamite]

That’s a strange one, isn’t it?

 

Of course, by this point they are a team with history.  They don’t need the Seattle years, which must feel as far away to them as Rochester does to Kings fans. 

[gosioux76]

3 hours ago, Claystation360 said:

So i wonder why the NBA was intend on it being a team with history if said team wasn't going to acknowledge it?

 

It's possible neither the league nor the ownership knew at the time that they weren't going to lean heavily on the Sonics past.  

 

What this says to me is that the league must have still had some concerns about the Oklahoma City market and wanted to make sure the team had as many marketing triggers it could pull as possible. They likely had enough success marketing the team on its own that it didn't need to emphasize its history. 

 

 

[hawk36]

22 hours ago, Gothamite said:

Do they have any standing tributes to their Seattle days at all?

I had heard that both Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton refused invites to participate in events at OKC games. Not sure if that's just rumor or not but it was discussed on local sports radio here. 

[SFGiants58]

1 minute ago, hawk36 said:

I had heard that both Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton refused invites to participate in events at OKC games. Not sure if that's just rumor or not but it was discussed on local sports radio here. 

 

Maybe he just has a warrant for "failure to pay child support" in Oklahoma.  

[sealbrownandorange]

New Browns Head Coach Kevin Stefanski did an AMA on the Team's Reddit yesterday and indicated that he has seen the new uniforms.  Stefanski said, "they are straight fire - as the kids would say"

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Browns/comments/epnvc0/ama_with_new_browns_hc_kevin_stefanski/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

 

 

[Gothamite]

Well, that is damned discouraging. 

[VDizzle12]

44 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

Well, that is damned discouraging. 

 

I probably wouldn't read too much into it. I mean, I'm sure he'd say that regardless of what he actually thought of them. Although I'd say the "younger" people seem to be loving throwback/classic/retro designs now more than ever.