Really? Read this thread: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=155575 My summary of events as I posted in that thread: The Astrodome is owned by Harris County The prior owner of the Astros sold the team to Drayton McLane prior to the 1992-93 season. With the team, McLane also got the entire lease to the Astrodome - every venue that uses the Dome, including the rodeo, the Oilers, Monster Trucks... ANYTHNG...had to pay rent to McLane, who was subletting the dome to those venues. Now, Mclane's cost to lease from the county was unbelievable low: $808,728.47 per year (plus, 30 days after each lease year, either $125,000 or 2 percent of parking revenue, whichever is greater). The rent that Adams was having to pay McLane was more than double that - he was not only paying McLane's Dome rent for him, he was putting millions of dollars of cash into McLane's pocket. THAT'S why Adams wanted a new stadium. He wanted to pay rent directly to the county instead of getting raped by McLane year after year. But guess who blocked the new football stadium? Drayton McLane (of course!). to quote him, "The Astrodome is still a magnificent facility. It was the first one ever built. If we are allowed to remodel it -- the cost would be about $95 million -- we can make it the premier sports facility in the world." .... well of course he wants to fix up the dome instead of build a new football stadium. He'd lose the Oilers' rent, the rodeo rent... of course he'd want to block that. Here are some direct quotes from McLane: "One thing I know is for sure: No city in the world needs two domed stadiums for athletic facilities." (brilliant, eh? ) "Sure, [the Oilers are] a big part of our income. [But] if they build another stadium, it's not just the loss of the Oilers. They would attract other events that we have now. We would probably lose 30 to 40 percent of our business. It's just not fair for them to build another domed stadium to play basically football in, and have it competing with the Astrodome." Oh, and by the way: every time you ate a hot dog or drank a beer or parked at an Oilers game... that money went to Drayton McLane. Bud Adams had three options: 1) Continue to let McLane rape him on the rent (and concessions!) at the dome, eating away at his team's income 2) try to sell the team to some other poor sap who will soon discover that he's being raped by McLane... which wouldn't happen - nobody would be stupid enough to buy the team knowing the messed-up lease situation. 3) move the team to a city that will deal directly with his ball club. What would you have done?
Beltran. It is a small bit of satisfaction to me that the dude has not had any real success since he made us all love him as a city, only to let Boras lead him by the nose into oblivion in NYC. Colts leaving Baltimore, that was awful. What Belichek did in that whole coaching fiasco with the Jets I think it was, that was classless. Oh and Sosa & McGwire bringing baseball back from death's door based on a big lie. Just... dirty.
Taken the $295 million outdoor stadium that Bob Lanier offered him. But Bud didn't want the outdoor football-use only stadium that he was offered. Have you forgotten the Bud Dome? Before you cry for poor, poor, poor Bud Adams remember that he was so upset at the injustice foisted upon him by Drayton, that he desperately tried to lasso Les Alexander into a similar deal in which Bud (and his 2-14 & 7-9 Oilers) lined his pockets with cash from Les (and his back-to-back World Cahmpion Rockets) as landlord of a mixed use domes stadium that he would share with the Rockets. I guess it's Drayton's fault Bud signed a "messed-up" lease...which he broke, by the way. The same way he broke EVERY lease he ever signed in Houston (with HISD at Jeppeson and with Rice to move into the 'Dome). Of course, he didn't have to sign such a "messed-up", but he was more concerned with trying to get something for nothing from the Judge when the 'Dome was built. He was fine with letting Hofheinz and the Astros do all the work (and pay all the bills) to get the 'Dome, but expected to reap the benefits of the 8th Wonder of the World. And let's not forget, why did we lose the greatest scoreboard in the history of sports? Why to put more seats in cuz Bud threw a tantrum. Still paying for that, by the way...23 years later. No, there's one man and one man only for the Oilers leaving Houston. Bud Adams.
I might have a little sympathy for Bud Adams if this was the only Adams incident, but he has been an ass since I was a little kid and that was a long time ago. (And I think he had more options than that if he had been willing to work with people... when they didn't bow and scrape right away, he used the lease as an excuse to take his ball and go to TN.) If it had been a mere dispute over a lease, why was he so damn vindictive about taking the Oilers name and all the Oilers stuff and essentially trying to erase the Oilers from the memory of Houston? If it was just business, it seems he would have been a little more gracious to the fans... but he gave a huge middle finger to everyone in Houston by the way he handled it. I can honestly say Bud Adams is one of the few people on this Earth that I hate unconditionally. I can count those people on one hand and he has the honor of having a digit. Bud Adams sucks. And I'll end with the line I always include in any Bud Adams post: I hope the Titans win the Super Bowl the day after he dies.
I might have made it seem like Bud's an angel, and that's certainly not how I feel. But I disagree with you that it was "one man only for the Oilers leaving Houston". I think it was a combination of Adams, McLane, and Lanier, all clamoring over money. In the end, they all won, and the fans got screwed. Ya gotta love Bob McNair, though, eh?
i don't think the favre one applies because the packers didn't want him back. i tried to bed one of my ex's biggest rivals from college after she left me, but i don't consider that betrayal.
When the first deal fell thru, work out a better deal to keep the team in the city. Like Les did with the Rockets. The first basketball stadium vote fail at first. Bud could have work with the county to get HIS stadium. Remember, his lease was not up when he left. He had more than enough time to re work a stadium deal, but (knowing that the fans were saying f** off) he sulked and ran to Tenn..
Correct... not betrayal, but sweet, sweet revenge. (Though it sounds like you failed... probably because the rival knew you weren't still with your ex... I bet you could of scored while you were with your ex. Meow!)
I don't know how Lebron can be considered a betrayal. The way he handled it absolutely was classless. But for 2+ years now, he's been talking about free agency. It's not like he pretended he was going to stay with Cleveland or was even leaning towards Cleveland and then suddenly left. He gave no indications, ever, than he was planning to stay. The fans knew when they lost in the playoffs, that there was a pretty good chance he was gone. This was just an unsurprising conclusion to his nonsensical attention-seeking drama. But I can't see how he betrayed them. He didn't even say anything negative about them on the way out.
You certainly do. And please don't take this as me harping on you personally (I DID get a little snarky in my other post and I apologize), I can agree to disagree on what, in the grand scheme of things isn't life or death. But, Bud Adams MADE NO ATTEMPT AT ALL TO KEEP THE OILERS HERE. McLane certainly didn't help, but it wasn't really his job to do Bud's work for him. Same with lanier and Les. Rimrocker sums up Bud very well. The only way he would keep them here was if everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, did exactly what Bud wanted, no questions asked. City, county, Drayton, Les, Lanier, the fans, EVERYBODY. He did nothing but take from Houston and gave NOTHING back. Literally. He could have kept them here if he'd even made a slight effort. Read "Loser Takes All" by Ed Fowler. It sums up Bud Adams perfectly. The story of his meeting with former mayor Kathy Whitmire during yet another of his temper tantrums is telling.
i blame it on actually never finding her. she was a girl i had actually graduated high school with, so it was a pretty small world that they ended up hating each other in college. this was pre-facebook and all that, so i was never able to get in touch with her. bummer.
Just last week he said that Cleveland was the front runner. Apparently, a bald-faced lie. By the same token, he never told them he was leaving...and he apparently knew he was leaving two years ago. Betrayal may NOT be the right word, but with last night's complete farce and the fact that both Bosh and Wade hired camera crews to document their free agent meetings, it's pretty much the crappiest way an athlete has ever left a team. Throw in that it's his hometown team... Art Modell is the happiest man in Ohio today.
I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the Seattle Sonics. Clay Bennett buys the team with a contract that includes a promise to make a good faith effort to negotiate a new stadium deal to stay in Seattle. He goes on to make ridiculous demands on Seattle to make sure they cannot be satisfied so he can move the team to his hometown, Oklahoma City, with his loose-lipped minority partner admitting to reporters that it was the plan all along. I doubt it's the biggest betrayal, but it should be in the list. It's actually pretty surprising to see so many candidates.
Pretty much my answer too, I couldn't even imagine waking up one day and finding out that your NFL team, um, took off....
Agree. There are betrayals and then there is sneaking out in the middle of the night and screwing over your fans. The Browns leaving Cleveland wasn't good but at least they let the city keep the name, logo and history.
that's what i meant and why i posted it as rockets/olajuwon. op's poll was presented as person or group doing the screwing over/person or group that was screwed over.
Mind summing this up for us? I'm not terribly familiar with the Colts saga, but I'm aware that it was terrible. As a Houstonian though, it's Bud and the Oilers for me.
If you're asking about the Adams-Whitmire meeting, I can't recall which of his tantrums he threw, but he was unhappy and had a meeting with Mayor Whitmire in his office. She asked if there was anything she and the city could do for him and he told her that he had a fold-out coach in a back room of his office if she wanted to discuss it. Fowler mentions it in his book. For the Colts story. Keep an eye out on one of the many ESPN for a rebroadcast of the "30 for 30" documentary "The Band That Wouldn't Die". it focuses on the Baltimore Colts Pep Band staying together and continuing to perform after the team left (they're now the Baltimore Ravens Pep Band) but, they talk a bit about what led up to the Colts literally sneaking out in the middle of the night including then owner Bob Irsay's impromptu drunken press confrerence at BWI. That whole situation was really bad.
