Sports, unlike any other business, generates a sense of civic pride
and community identity. New Yorkers don't cluster around the television
to cheer on Wall Street investment bankers; Detroit citizens don't
congregate in bars to watch Ford or GM workers build cars. But rooting
for the Yankees and the Tigers and the Knicks and the Pistons is a
natural communal activity.
At the amateur level,
organized sports, especially with the advent of girls' sports leagues,
involves more active and ongoing citizen involvement than virtually any
other activity, including politics and religion. More communities are
home to a little league team than to a MacDonalds.
But
organized sports is becoming a business, and professional sports has
become a business like any other: corporatized, absentee owned,
increasingly mobile and disconnected from place.
This
web page identifies rules, and models, of organized and professional
sports that allow us not only to root for the home team to win, but to
root the home team in place.
In 1998, Assembly Bill 684 - the New York State Sports Fan Protection
Act - was introduced by Assemblypersons Richard Brodsky and Richard
Gottfried as a means to acquire the Yankees if owner George
Steinbrenner followed through on his threats to move the club to New
Jersey. The bill would establish a State Sports Authority, which could
condemn a franchise through the legal practice of eminent domain and
sell shares of it to the public if either a) the cost of a stadium to
the public exceeded the value of the franchise, or b) the franchise
takes action to move from the state.
More
Examples and history from a handful of community owned sports teams including information on Appleton, WI, Timber Rattlers, Green Bay Packers, Harrisburg Senators, Memphis Redbirds, Rochester, NY, Red Barons, Syracuse, NY, Sky Chiefs
and the Toledo Mud Hens.
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The Carn-Robinson Pennsylvania Sports Facility Authority Act
(H.B.
298) would create a state entity to deal with the issue of stadium and
arena construction. The authority would generate revenue through the
sale of bonds, and receiving a portion and concessions, parking,
television, luxury box, ticket and non-athletic event revenues. Powers
granted to the authority, include regulation of ticket prices and the
right of first refusal if a franchise is put up for sale.
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Numerous bills involving community ownership were introduced during the
Minnesota Twins stadium debate of 1997 and early 1998. Most, however,
were tainted with the inclusion of a publicly funded ballpark.
Representative Phyllis Kahn's House Bill 3348 separated this
controversial issue from the community ownership concept, which
received broad public support. In 2002, Kahn
re-introduced a similar bill H.F No. 2587 which was debated, amended
and passed out of the House Governmental Operations and Veterans
Affairs Policy. The bill stalled after Governor Ventura's
administration put forward a plan to help the Minnesota Twins get a new
outdoor stadium with the help of the state's bonding authority.
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In
response to Major League Baseball's plan to eliminate the Minnesota
Twins from the league, Senator Paul Wellstone introduced legislation in
November 2001 to amend the Clayton Act to make the antitrust laws
applicable to the elimination or relocation of major league baseball
franchises. Current law provides baseball an exemption from antitrust
rules and regulations.
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Initially
introduced in 1997 and re-introduced in 2001 by Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer, The Give
the Fans a Chance Act would forbid leagues from prohibiting community
ownership. If a professional sports league ignores this provision, it
will lose its sports broadcast antitrust exemption.
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