When the Game Is On the Line: From the Man Who Brought the Heat to Miami and the Browns Back to Cleveland, An Inside Look at the High-Stakes World of Sports Deal Making

Have you ever wondered how a monumental new sports stadium ever gets built? Why a major-league team "moves" from one city to another? How one city beats out a dozen competitors for an expansion franchise? Or what really happens behind closed doors, when billionaire team owners, cagey politicians, and pin-striped lawyers hash out the details that can make or break a city's dreams to attract or keep a team? In When the Game Is on the Line, Rick Horrow pulls back the curtain to reveal the real stories behind the biggest sports deals of the past twenty years, many of which he has brokered, to the tune of some 13 billion in infrastructure investment alone. Since his first battles, squaring off against legendary Dolphins owner Joe Robbie and a backstabbing Miami City Commission, Horrow has tangled with some of the most colorful figures in sports management and civic development, including NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and golf superstar Jack Nicklaus. The results have included new stadiums in dozens of cities (from Boston's FleetCenter to Denver's Invesco Field), off-season training facilities, league expansions-and the bragging rights to go with them. When the Game Is on the Line takes you beyond the bleachers and into the smoke-filled rooms, where big egos clash, coalitions are built, and multi-million-dollar agreements are put in play. For anyone interested in the high-octane world where sports, politics, and business meet, When the Game Is on the Line will be a must-read.