cleveland browns owned the colts when they left baltimore.
cleveland browns owned the colts when they left baltimore.
who owned the colts when they left baltimore?
cleveland browns
although the colts had been successful since arriving in baltimore for the 1953 nfl season, memorial stadium was claimed to be inadequate for both them and major league baseball's baltimore orioles. in may 1969, the city of baltimore announced it would seek a substantial increase in memorial stadium rental fees from colts owner carroll rosenbloom and the team itself. rosenbloom had already called memorial stadium "antiquated" and had threatened to move all colts home games out of the stadium unless improvements were made. rosenbloom even considered using $12–20 million of his own money to help fund the building of a new football-only stadium on land in adjoining baltimore county. by november 1971, rosenbloom announced that the colts would not return to memorial stadium when their lease ran out following the 1972 season and that he was not interested in negotiating with the city anymore. he wanted out of baltimore for several reasons—team revenue, problems with baltimore orioles ownership relating to memorial stadium revenues, a running feud with the baltimore press, and his new wife's desire to move to the west coast. real estate investor will keland was originally slated to buy the colts from rosenbloom. keland could not generate the necessary funds to purchase the team, but his golfing buddy robert irsay, who originally was slated to own only 1 percent of the team, did possess the necessary funds and moved in to make the purchase. on july 13, 1972, irsay became owner of the colts. under the terms of the arrangement, he bought the los angeles rams for $19 million, then traded them to rosenbloom for the colts and $3 million in cash.
baltimore colts relocation to indianapolis
prior to an nfl team moving to baltimore, there had been several attempts at a professional football team prior to the 1950s. most were minor league or semi-professional teams. the first major league to base a team in baltimore was the all-america football conference (aafc), which had a team named the baltimore colts. the aafc colts played for three seasons in the aafc (1947, 1948, and 1949), and when the aafc folded following the 1949 season, moved to the nfl for a single year (1950) before going bankrupt. three years later, the nfl's dallas texans would itself fold, and its assets and player contracts purchased by an ownership team headed by baltimore businessman carroll rosenbloom, who moved the team to baltimore, establishing a new team also named the baltimore colts. during the 1950s and 1960s, the colts were one of the nfls more successful franchises, led by pro football hall of fame quarterback johnny unitas who set a then-record of 47 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. the colts advanced to the nfl championship twice (1958 & 1959) and super bowl twice (1969 & 1971), winning all except super bowl iii in 1969. after the 1983 season, the team left baltimore for indianapolis in 1984, where they became the indianapolis colts.
baltimore