Cleveland Returning To Nfl League Awards Expansion Franchise; New Browns To Begin In 1999 Season

Round up the Dawg Pound. The Cleveland Browns are back. The NFL approved an expansion team for Cleveland on Monday, returning the Browns to the field in 1999 in an unprecedented move that restores one of football’s storied franchises.

After a three-year hiatus, one of the league’s signature teams will be back on the field wearing the orange and brown.

“A number of owners made very strong statements in favor of expansion, including Art Modell,” said NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, referring to the former Browns owner, who moved the team to Baltimore after the 1995 season.

With unanimous support from owners, the league will expand to 31 teams for the 1999 season, easing the blow from one of the most emotional franchise relocations in sports history.

“After two years of not having a team and feeling that our hometown had been slighted, we’re now over the hump,” said Laura Martinez Massie of the Browns Fans Worldwide Network. “If we had not voiced our opinions, the owners would have thought we’d take anything.”

The Browns will return to the AFC Central, playing in a new stadium being built on the site as old Cleveland Stadium, which was torn down after the move.

The $247 million, 72,000-seat stadium is expected to be completed in time. It even features a replica of that famous section in the Cleveland Stadium end zone known as the Dawg Pound, where the most rabid Browns rooters roamed.

Tagliabue also announced the league hired Joe Mack as player personnel director of the Browns. Mack held that position with the Washington Redskins form 1989-94 and helped build the Carolina Panthers expansion team as assistant general manager in 1994.

The front office will be assembled by George Young, retired general manager of the New York Giants and now a league vice president.

The league will now focus on taking applications for an owner and setting a franchise fee, which is expected to be in the $350 million range. Owners decided not to let those unsolved issues delay the Cleveland announcement any longer.

“There was so much speculation about teams possibly moving there, I think we need to put that behind us,” said Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford Jr., at the meetings for the first time in years.

Although expansion was the expected option for Cleveland, the swift approval came as a surprise because a few owners, including Jerry Jones of the Cowboys, apparently were not sold on the idea.

“I was one of the people who wanted to get this done,” said Modell, reviled in Cleveland after the move.

Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who toured Cleveland’s new stadium, also made a strong pitch for expansion.

“Two things definitely came through to us,” Richardson said. “How strongly Cleveland wanted an expansion franchise and how they wanted a decision sooner rather than later.”

The league had a Nov. 15 deadline to grant Cleveland a team. The agreement between the city and league calls for the new Browns to maintain their colors and history, including records and statistics.

Tagliabue said he expects the Browns to get a full share of revenue from the league’s new $18 billion TV contract.