Nick Mileti

Nick James Mileti

• School Bowling Green State University
• High School John Adams High School (Cleveland)

• Born April 22, 1931 in Cleveland, OH USA
• Died August 21, 2024 in Rocky River, OH USA

Biographical Information

Attorney Nick Mileti headed a group that bought the Cleveland Indians from Vernon Stouffer in 1972 for $9.7 million, outbidding local businessman George Steinbrenner. He sold the team to minority partner Ted Bonda in 1975. United States Senator Howard Metzenbaum was the third partner in the 1972 deal.

The son of immigrants from Sicily, Mileti worked his way through Bowling Green State University and got his law degree from Ohio State University. He was the original owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA when they joined the circuit via expansion in 1970, and of the Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League and later the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association. He also owned radio stations WKYC and WMJI in Cleveland, and the Cleveland Arena. He was responsible for the construction of the Richfield Coliseum in nearby Akron, OH, where the Cavaliers played from 1974 to 1994.

Mileti moved to California in 1979 where he was a film and theater producer and owned the Las Vegas Posse of the Canadian Football League during the brief period when the CFL expanded into the U.S. in the 1990s. He later wrote three books: Closet Italians: A Dazzling Collection of Illustrious Italians with Non-Italian Names, published in 2004; Beyond Michelangelo: The Deadly Rivalry between Borromini and Bernini, published in 2005; and The Unscrupulous: Scams, Cons, Fakes and Frauds that Poison the Fine Arts, published in 2009.

Further Reading

• David Bohmer: "Cleveland Indians team ownership history", Team Ownership History Project, SABR. [1]
• George M. Thomas: "Richfield Coliseum founder Nick Mileti dies", Akron Beacon Journal, August 22, 2024. [2]

Related Sites

• Author bio
• Obituary from the Associated Press