Soccer Dad

The colts move - 25 years ago

One of the things that gets Baltimore sports fans up in arms, is the departure of the Batlimore Colts for Indianapolis 25 years ago. Given that the anniversary of the move occurred 25 years ago this weekend, not surprisingly there's been some recollection of the move.

The Sun lists many aspects of the story that were mis-remembered. The Sun published the recollections of readers.

Ken Murray recalls how he reported the events at the time.

And David Steel writes that it's time to get over the loss of the Colts.

However in all these articles, there are two words missing from all these recollections: eminent domain.

From what I can tell, there was little chance that Bob Irsay was going to keep the team in Baltimore. However the move that forced his hand was the effort of Maryland's General Assembly to condemn and take control of the team using eminent domain. This is from the Indianapolis Star.

The vans arrived that night in Owings Mills, in suburban Baltimore, and in a late-season snow storm were loaded with business records, official books and equipment and the move to Indianapolis was on, with Mayflower picking up the tab. Once loaded, the vans headed in various directions in an effort to camouflage the move. The dramatic move enraged citizens and officials of Baltimore, and the state of Maryland. Irsay's son Jim said moving the team was a difficult decision, and one his father had hoped not to have to make. The final straw, necessitating the dramatic move, was action by the Maryland legislature to use eminent domain laws to force the franchise to remain in Maryland.

What the Maryland General Assembly was attempting to do was to seize the team from Irsay without any compensation.

Clearly Irsay ran the team into the ground. Apparently he was looking to move and probably would have anyway. But the reason he left when he did and as he did, was because he faced a significant financial loss at the hands of an out-of-control legislature.

Ken Murray's report, by the way, provides an interesting footnote to the story. The Hoosier Dome, the state of the art sports facility built in Indianapolis for $77.5 million with the hope of bringing a sports franchise to the city, is now rubble. Has anyone considered if, in all that time, the city got its money's worth. (I'm not talking about "civic pride," I'm talking about dollars and cents.)