Lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require owners of professional sports teams to give local communities a chance to buy the team before relocating it.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, and Rep. Greg Casar, Texas Democrat, are hoping to protect fans from losing teams and taxpayers from losing subsidies due to sports franchises packing up and moving.
“Unlike large multi-national conglomerates, professional sports teams have been deeply woven into the fabric of communities and families throughout America for generations. Millions of Americans can remember the first time they saw their favorite players hit a home run, score a touchdown or make a last second shot to win a game at a stadium filled with fans,” a letter to co-sponsors reads.
The bill requires professional sports team owners to provide notice a year before moving or terminating a team, and calls for a penalty of $30,000 per day for owners who do not comply.
The sponsors cite the community ownership model of the Green Bay Packers — the only publicly owned, nonprofit franchise in American major professional sports. It has been owned by more than 500,000 fans in a small city of just over 100,000 for over a century.
Team relocation has “plagued communities across America for decades,” the lawmakers said in a statement, citing recent moves such as the Oakland Athletics’ departure for Las Vegas.
The Chicago Bears have threatened to leave over Indiana’s offering massive subsidies and aggressive pursuit. The Kansas City Chiefs plan to move to a $3 billion, 70% publicly funded domed stadium in Wyandotte County, Kansas, in 2031, after Missouri voters rejected stadium tax funding.
Many fans in Baltimore still remember Colts owner Robert Irsay moving the football team to Indianapolis in the middle of the night in 1984.
“The American people are sick and tired of billionaires threatening to move the sports teams they own to different states unless they get hundreds of millions in corporate welfare to build new stadiums,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement. “Professional sports teams should be owned and controlled by the fans who love them, not by the multibillionaire oligarchs who are getting even richer by charging outrageous prices and getting taxpayers to pick up their extravagant costs. You shouldn’t have to be wealthy to take your family to a football game. You shouldn’t have to fear that a multibillionaire will move your favorite team to a different city if taxpayers refuse to subsidize it.”
The bill is to create a level playing field so that leagues work for fans and taxpayers, not just owners, Mr. Casar said.
“Sports in America should be about more than just making billionaire owners even richer,” he said. “Far too many Americans know the pain of losing a team, and far too many communities have had to fork over billions in subsidies just to keep an already profitable team home.”
