It's Time For Baltimore To Move On

[chrisfarley]

bob irsay was more sleezy than his eclectic son. all is well in B-town.

[mammo]

My favorite part of that movie was Jim Irsay, he even knew his dad was out of his mind. I love him telling the story of how he was in Indianapolis and called his dad and his dad was like what are you there for and he said um you sent me...

yeh, 'your drunk dad... go to indy son!' next day, hey dad im in indy, what exactly am i doing here? Your in Indy?!? Yeah... you told me to come... No i didnt! uhh dad you drunk...

[mammo]

Yeah the problem for Irsay was he was going to lose his rights to his own business in the following morning it appeared and the City wasn't willing to help him resolve any of the issues with the stadium until after the city/state took over the business. It sounded like he really had no choice but to negotiate a deal behind the scenes and move his franchise out in the middle of the night. Whatever the real behind the scenes story is/was, I would have done the exact same way if a governmental agency told me they were assuming my business because they could.

I am pretty sure that the city knew Irsay was trying to move the team after finding out about the eminent domain issue and the lack of desire to help build a new stadium for the Balt Colts but they kept on the pursuit of taking his team. Robert Irsay may have been the biggest, meanest, rudest uncarring, egomaniac, drunken owner, but nowhere in the reports did the reports say he wasn't paying his bills on time and meeting his obligations. He was a pee poor manager of his team but there are a lot of them, but you can't take a persons business just because you can as a government branch.

The last thing is, I seen the documentary a few years back and I can certainly understand the people's issues on losing their team. It is always the people who suffer for governments actions and a lot of people gave their souls to follow their favorite team but I do think in this case, the anger was misdirected at the Irsay's when it should have been squarely placed on the mayor/governor for puling the tactics they did that forced Irsay to make the choice he did. You don't see a Sony or Pfizer or any other business leave town and the building behind but allow someone else to keep their name and clients etc... The only way that happens is if you buy the company and the turn key operation including name, business and everything as it was. The Indy Colts should have the name and all the stuff that comes with it from Balt and it should not even be a question. The team left behind what the city/state owned, the stadium and the parking lot. I wished they would have brought the band along with em too just to keep that tradition alive of the team but oh well...

Oh ok, thanks for that. so that maybe why baltimore didnt get another team for so long? when the nfl were doing expansions and they were left out?

[LUVTHESHOE]

yeh, 'your drunk dad... go to indy son!' next day, hey dad im in indy, what exactly am i doing here? Your in Indy?!? Yeah... you told me to come... No i didnt! uhh dad you drunk...

Not cool, Jim is a good owner. Odd at times, but good for the city.

[Fx Stryker]

To be fair Mr. Irsay wasn't the only owner who threatened to leave Baltimore. Rosenbloom threatened to leave in '72 if the Colts didn't get a new stadium. Rosenbloom even offered to contribute I think it was $15 million of his own money. Memorial was just a dilapidated stadium, and hardly fit one franchise. Let alone both the Oriels and the Colts. Irsay waited twelve years for a new stadium he was told he would get. Even after the city canceled the "Baltodome" he asked for money to fix the less than average seating and plumbing, but was denied.