Cavaliers founder Nick Mileti dies at 93: Cleveland native also owned Guardians, minor league hockey team

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced that the team’s founder and former owner, Nick Mileti, died Wednesday at 93 years old. Mileti was also a former owner of the Cleveland Guardians of MLB and was a Cleveland native who became involved in the sports industry after buying the minor league hockey team. He first acquired the Cleveland Barons in 1968 and the Cleveland Arena, the home of the Barons. Mileti pushed for an NBA expansion team in Cleveland to share the arena with the Barons, and two years later, he was awarded for his efforts with the Cavaliers 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 during the 1970-71 season, and Mileti remained part of the ownership group until 1980, when he sold his stake in the team for $1.4 million. During his tenure as team owner, the Cavaliers posted a 305-434 record and made the playoffs three times.

“There was no magic to this. The city of Milwaukee, the city of Phoenix had NBA teams and Cleveland, the eighth largest city in America, didn’t have one,” Mileti said in 2019 of bringing an NBA team to Cleveland. “It didn’t take a genius to figure out it had to get one.”

The Cavaliers posted this memorial video of Mileti on Wednesday:

Two years after selling his stake in the Cavaliers, Mileti also headed a group of investors that purchased Major League Baseball’s Cleveland franchise. After initially having his winning bid denied by the remaining American League club owners, Mileti was able to earn approval and complete the transaction in March of 1972 by looping in additional minority partners. 

For a variety of reasons, Mileti continued to have cash-flow issues during his tenure as majority owner. Those problems were exacerbated when George Steinbrenner purchased the New York Yankees in 1973 and brought in two of Mileti’s minority investors, Gabe Paul and Steve O’Neill. To join the Yankees’ new ownership group, Paul and O’Neill were required by the league to sell their shares of Mileti’s Cleveland franchise, which put Mileti in even more desperate straits. He brought in other investors but was gradually forced to cede his lead-owner status to Ted Bonda. By 1975, Mileti had been bought out entirely.

Mileti was honored by the Cavaliers in 2019 as an inaugural member of the “Wall of Honor,” an annual ceremony to honor those who have played an important role in the team’s history. During the ceremony, Mileti was awarded a championship ring from the team’s 2016 title run, and he spoke proudly about his time with the Cavaliers and his association with the team.

“In this building right now is some of the greatest talent in the history of sports,” Mileti said. “All I can say is it’s been an honor to be associated with people with this much class.”