Whether it’s expensive stadium tickets or inequitable budgets, sports teams prioritizing revenue consistently undercuts fans. When profit becomes the most prominent presence on the pitch, supporters’ passion and necessities are left behind. Wealth bleeds sports culture dry. Owners abuse fan devotion not only through small acts, such as needlessly increasing seat prices, but also when they force cities to fork over billions of dollars by threatening to relocate their teams. This manipulation makes Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar’s proposal to prevent owners from hastily moving their teams essential.
Teams relocating over minor financial issues has happened all too often. Over the past decade, all three of Oakland’s major league teams have left the city. These departures include the Athletics, an MLB team that moved to Las Vegas after the city offered it $380 million in public funding for a $1.75 billion stadium. While the stadium will be grand, it remains a mystery how the undertaking will fix the city’s crippling water shortage.
Oakland and Las Vegas are far from the only cities pitted against each other. When major teams leave a city, they also take culture and civic pride with them. Teams know cities and fans will do almost anything to keep them, and owners take full advantage. Most recently, local residents approved a new arena for the San Antonio Spurs through Project Marvel. While Project Marvel now keeps the Spurs in San Antonio for 30 more years, it came at the cost of burning $800 million in public funding for a new arena. This decision came after many feared that the team would move to Austin — a manipulation that was ever present for residents, but plausibly denied by the team.
San Antonio is the most impoverished metropolitan city in Texas. Rather than coughing up more money than the city’s entire 2026 bond amount for an unnecessary sports arena, San Antonio could have further invested in itself and its citizens.
Under Sanders and Casar’s proposed legislation, teams would be required to give their communities notice before they intended to leave. During that time, communities could purchase the team at a “fair price” or negotiate alternate terms. Local communities could also offer to buy their team without a proposed relocation. This change would return sports to their original purpose: entertaining fans.
While a community-oriented system may feel odd, it is already how much of the world operates. This system is also how the Green Bay Packers function. The Packers are publicly owned and operate as a nonprofit. Their organizational structure means the team’s new $1.5 billion stadium comes at no cost to taxpayers and is funded by the team itself and private investors. Green Bay never fears losing its team and can better support fans instead of a single corporate interest.
The time to draft performance over profits has come. End the corporate hegemony.
