Nick Mileti, the former owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and founder of the NBA franchise, died Wednesday at the age of 93, the team said. In 1970, Mileti became the founder and owner of the Cavaliers, paying $3.7 million for the expansion team.
The Cavaliers played their first season in the NBA in the 1970-71 season. Mileti remained part of the ownership group until 1980, when he sold his 20 percent stake in the group for $1.4 million.
The Cleveland Cavaliers went 305-434 and made the playoffs three times under founder and owner Nick Mileti.
During his tenure as team owner, the Cavaliers posted a 305-434 (.413) record and made the playoffs three times. In the 1975-76 season, the Cavs won the conference semifinals against Baltimore. However, Cleveland went on to lose to the Boston Celtics in the conference finals.
That was the closest the Cavs came to winning the NBA championship under Mileti. “That was my biggest regret,” Mileti said later, “not winning an NBA title.” He was inducted into the Cavaliers Wall of Honor in 2019.
The Richfield Coliseum was another success for Mileti.
We are saddened to hear of the passing of Nick Mileti, a beloved founder whose passion and vision ignited the spirit of Cavaliers basketball in our great city. A true pioneer in the world of sports, Nick was not only a leader; he was a dreamer who turned that dream into… pic.twitter.com/mw6QifgGEL
– Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) August 22, 2024
As politicians were divided over building a new downtown stadium, Mileti bought land in Richfield, between Cleveland and Akron. He later approved the construction plans for the Richfield Coliseum, the largest stadium in the country at the time. It was opened on October 26, 1974.
According to Bob Dolgan of Cleveland.com, the Coliseum was sold out that first night. A crowd of 21,082 bought tickets at $25, $15, and $10. Hockey seats were approximately 18,544.
The Coliseum served as the home of the Cavs until 1994, when the team moved to what is now the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Ted Stepien was the owner at the time.
Joe Tait, the late play-by-play radio host for the Cavaliers, once said, “Nick was good for Cleveland. He did many things with other people's money, but at least he did them. And it was good stuff. He was brilliant for a short time and burned out.”
Mileti was also the owner of the MLB at that time, the Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League, and other teams.
Another group led by Nick Mileti bought the then MLB Indians of Cleveland in 1972 for ten million dollars from Vernon Stouffer. His partnership that bought the Indians included Howard Metzenbaum and Ted Bonda.
In late 1972, Mileti founded Ohio Communications with veteran radio executive Tom Embrescia, who acquired WKYC AM/1100 and FM/105.7 from NBC. They were renamed “3WE” WWWE-AM and “M105” WWWM-FM.
Mileti then moved the rights to the Indians and Cavaliers radio play-by-play, in addition to sports talk host Pete Franklin's Sportsline, to WWWE.
In addition, Mileti also founded and became the principal owner of a short-lived CFL team, the Las Vegas Posse, in 1994. He managed the Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League and the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association as well.
During his retirement, he published three books: Closet Italians: An Amazing Collection of Famous Italians with Non-Italian Names (2004), Beyond Michaelangelo: The Deadly Rivalry between Borromini and Bernini (2005), and Dishonest: Scams, Evil, Deception and Poisonous Fraud in the Fine Arts (2009).
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