The Harrisburg Senators are owned by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which paid $6.5 million in 1995 to acquire the AA Senators, who were planning to move to a new taxpayer-financed ballpark in Massachusetts. Instead of buckling and offering a new stadium of his own, Mayor Reed and the city of Harrisburg did something a bit more bold--they bought the team for a cool $6.7 million. It was a steep price to pay, as the private owners had bought the team only six months earlier for just $4.1 million, but the team was popular and the city had made the stadium the center of a redevelopment initiative. Citing the ballpark as the major link in his downtown revitalization project, when asked how he could afford the hefty price tag, Mayor Reed responded by asking, "How could we not?"

More:

• Harrisburg Senators 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.