Done Deal: Browns Sold To Lerner

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 8, 1998 / 10:02 PM EDT / CBS Sportsline

NFL owners on Tuesday picked Alfred Lerner to be the owner of the new Cleveland Browns, handing him the task of bringing one of the league's signature franchises back to life.

Lerner, who helped Art Modell move the original Browns to Baltimore, paid $530 million for the new team with $54 million going to stadium costs. It is the most expensive pro sports team in U.S. history, surpassing the $350 million Rupert Murdoch paid for the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this year.

Owners met for nearly five hours Tuesday and took four ballots before Lerner, who teamed with former San Francisco 49ers president Carmen Policy, eliminated Larry and Charles Dolan, who were teamed with Hall of Fame coach Don Shula.

Lerner, 65, becomes the fourth owner in Browns history.

The NFL expansion committee met for about 90 minutes before all the owners met and considered offers from Lerner, the Dolans and New York real estate magnate Howard Milstein. The committee unanimously endorsed the Lerner-Policy team, and the final vote among the 30 owners was unanimous with one abstention -- Oakland's Al Davis.

The unanimous vote followed a motion by Modell to make the decision unanimous, commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. Dolan's bid was $500 million with the stadium money factored in, and Milstein's was "substantially less," Tagliabue said.

Lerner's price also surpassed the previous record of $140 million for an expansion team, set by Carolina and Jacksonville in 1993.

The new Browns begin play next season in a $280 million, football-only stadium on the same spot where old Cleveland Stadium stood. The new owner gets millions in revenue from luxury boxes and club seats, plus the sale of 41,000 personal seat licenses.

It has yet to be decided when the Browns get money from the league's $18.6 billion TV contract.

But some experts doubt the Browns can be a money-making venture at such a high price. Cleveland Indians owner Richard Jacobs and Cleveland toy manufacturer Thomas Murdough dropped out of the bidding, saying a profit could not be made if the price went above $450 million.

Modell bought the Browns for $4 million in 1961, but left Cleveland and renamed the team the Ravens because he believed he couldn't work out a deal for a new stadium.

Tagliabue said Modell spoke in favor of the Dolan group, but not against Lerner.

"Other clubs spoke in favor of the Dolan group," Tagliabue said. "It was a very respectful, thoughtful, positive decision process."

After Modell's departure in 1996 left some of football's most loyal fans without a team, the city of Cleveland struck a deal with the NFL that guaranteed a replacement team by 1999.

The NFL owners decided to make it an expansion team in February, and gave the Browns a favorable stocking plan in July. The Browns get 30 veteran players from other teams and 14 extra draft picks including the first overall next year.

But the decision means the league will have an unblanced schedule with 31 teams and puts pressure on owners to expand again with no team in Los Angeles. If a team goes for this much in Cleveland, how much would someone pay to be in Los Angeles?

Joe Mack, assistant general manager for the expansion Panthers in 1994, has been working for several months as the Browns' personnel director in charge of a scouting staff picked by the league and retired New York Giants general manager George Young.

"They're moving along," said Young, unsure of his role with the new owner. "They're scouting and all the personnel stuff is being done."

Now that the Browns have an owner and the beginnings of a front office, it is time for "Dawg Pounders" to start thinking about a coach - and the draft. With plenty of revenue coming out of the new stadium, Lerner's Browns stand a good chance of quickly becoming better than Modell's last few teams.

The Browns made the playoffs once in the 1990s and haven't won an NFL championship since 1964.

Cleveland fans still remember that it was on Lerner's jet that Modell struck the deal to move the Browns. During the bid for the new team, Lerner said he was only "helping a friend in need" as he tried to shake his image problem.