Dems seek to allow fan ownership of sports teams

Two House Democrats on Thursday afternoon will introduce legislation that would ban professional sports leagues from putting up obstacles to fan ownership of teams.

One of the bill's co-sponsors, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), indicated on the House floor Thursday morning that the bill is a reaction to this week's news that the Los Angeles Dodgers will be put up for sale by owner Frank McCourt. 

The team filed for bankruptcy in June, and aside from shoddy management, McCourt has reportedly been accused of looting the team of nearly $200 million, in part to pay for a divorce settlement worth about $130 million to his ex-wife.

"It's another chapter in the sad war against fans ... the very people who make these multibillion dollar enterprises possible in the first place," Blumenauer said of the Dodgers situation.

Blumenauer also targeted the New York Yankees as another franchise that has taken advantage of taxpayer subsidies to boost the value of the teams' owners, notably George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010.

"There are some critical appraisals that have suggested that it would have been cheaper for New York to simply buy the New York Yankees outright for the value of the team than submit to the outrageous demands from Steinbrenner to keep them there," Blumenauer said.

Blumenauer said the only professional team that allows fan ownership is the Green Bay Packers, and said this arrangement has allowed the Packers to remain in a very small market.

"It's the only franchise in all of major league sports that doesn't have to worry about some billionaire egomaniac running the franchise into the ground or being tired of it and selling it off to another city, or just the community being held hostage by obscene demands for even more revenue, more sacrifice from its fans in the community," he said. "There's something to be said for the approach of the long-term success of the Green Bay Packers, but sadly, the billionaires who run the NFL and other professional sports franchises have decided otherwise."

However, he said that all leagues prohibit public ownership (the NFL outlawed it in 1961, but grandfathered fan ownership of the Packers).

Blumenauer will introduce his bill Thursday afternoon with Janice Hahn (D-Calif.).

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