The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a class A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, are structured as a non-profit, similar to the Green Bay Packers. There are 240 members of the Appleton Baseball Club, Inc., each of whom bought from one to fifty shares in the Timber Rattlers at $25 per share. They elect a 21-member board of directors, who in turn elect an eight-member executive committee. The Timber Rattlers generate more revenue in merchandise sales than any other minor league team in the country, and in 1995 sold 209,000 tickets, a 133,000 jump over the 1994 number. Because it's a non-profit, all this cash is in turn pumped back into the team and the stadium.

More:

• Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Home Page has a section with Team History

Other Resources:

• Roots, Roots, Roots for the Home Team: Community-Owned Professional Sports by Daniel Kraker and David Morris. ILSR.
• Don't Bribe 'Em. Buy 'Em: A strategic proposal on how New Yorkers can create--and control--a minor baseball league of their own - by Daniel Kraker and David Morris. ILSR.
  Executive Summary
• Rooting the Home Team: Why the Packers Won't Leave--and Why the Browns Did - by David Morris and Daniel Kraker, from The American Prospect magazine, September-October 1998. ILSR.
• City Baseball Magic - designing baseball parks as if community matters.