3 ms·
Do any cities own their own teams? I was thinking about this the other day, and as someone who doesn't really follow sports I think I'd actually be more support
by ashark 11y ago
Do any cities own their own teams? I was thinking about this the other day, and as someone who doesn't really follow sports I think I'd actually be more supportive of things like stadium building if the city were involved more heavily—namely, if the city owned the team(s), or at least a controlling share.
I'd also be way more likely to care about and cheer for "our" team if they couldn't just pull up stakes and move to another city if we don't bribe them enough to keep them. Fan loyalty to commercial teams that don't have any real ties to the home city (they don't even have to give up their name if they leave!) strikes me as bizarre.
- cadlin 11y agoThe Green Bay Packers aren't owned by their city, exactly, but they're publicly owned and no individual can have more than 4% of the shares. They have 360,584 owners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers#Community_ownership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers#Community_ow...
- AnimalMuppet 11y agoIf I understand correctly, the Green Bay Packers cut up the ownership of the team something like 3,000 different ways. They did this deliberately so that the team could never move, because it would be impossible to get a majority in favor of moving. When the (first) Cleveland Browns moved, the city negotiated that they had to use a different name. They became the Baltimore Ravens, and Cleveland was able to call the new franchise the Browns.
- wadetandy 11y agoThe Baltimore Browns probably also didn't play very well from a PR perspective.