I think that the Green Bay Packers are onto something with their ownership structure but that structure is banned for any other NFL team and is hard to implement for any other professional team.
I think it would be a positive development to force the Astros owners to sell the team in a public offering to Houston residents. The shares would pay no dividends or proffer any rights other than bragging rights (and the right to vote for an unpaid board of directors). All excess profits derived by the team go to local charities. This is what the packers do and I think their structure should be emulated, not banned.
If it turns out the Red Sox cheated, then make them sell their team too. Frankly, I’d like to see this happen with all teams eventually. This makes the whole stadium issue much more palatable and gets rid of shitty owners (which to be honest is most of them).
I think that ownership of sports teams by billionaires that use their franchise to coerce their local governments into subsidizing their ever increasing billions is horrible.
The MLB right now is plagued by several teams that don’t even try. They are constantly cutting payroll and are acting almost like a AAAA farm team for the rest of the league and still making buckets of money with revenue sharing. Their owners are perfectly content to be raking in billions of dollars, the fans would want to win.
If this happens to one of them, it could happen to any of them, and they don’t want that risk.
Sports owners don’t get forced out until they get so bad that they make all the owners look bad. It takes something like the Donald Sterling situation with the Clippers before they’ll take that step.
I think it would be awesome if all pro sports teams had an ownership structure like the Packers. I love the idea and clearly it works for them; they’ve persisted for a century and have even been in the same stadium for more than 50 years. I just don’t see the billionaires giving up their favorite toys for the rabble to inherit.
I know its unrealistic but the next time someone sells a team it should not be to another rich billionaire. Are the Packers especially hard for the NFL to deal with because of their ownership structure?
The Kansas City Royals sold for $1 BILLION last year. The Astros would likely go for a good deal more. How are you going to raise that much money to compensate the owners of the team?
Not as far as I can tell, as a lifelong Packer fan. Their “ownership” is substantially more stable than that of a lot of teams – they don’t get sold to a new owner every so often (see: Browns, Jaguars, Vikings), nor do they plod through years of uncertainty when the owner dies and there winds up being years of uncertainty about how team ownership will play out (see: Broncos, Saints).
They have a board of directors, an executive committee, and a team president, the latter of whom acts in the role of “owner” at league meetings.
Also, I would posit that certain owners (Jerry Jones, Al Davis when he was alive) cause the league a lot more heartburn than the Packers’ senior management ever has.
About the only downside I can picture for the NFL is the fact that, as a public corporation, the Packers publish their financials every year (the only major North American sports team to do so). Those finanicals might possibly give the public a level of insight into the financial operations of the league that the NFL might rather not be public.
On the other hand, if every team was like the Packers, it would be almost impossible to shake down the communities with threats of leaving. Oh, wait; that’s a good thing.
I suggest we imprison all the owners and confiscate their teams. What do we need owners for?
But, but, but, then you don’t get the fun of your team owner’s family producing a pair of hot sister starlets!
The Mara sisters aside, even as a Giants fan it’s hard to argue against the Packers model. It’s clearly superior in every way for everyone except the billionaire owners, yes?
Is there any instance of fan or player or coach or employee or taxpayer experience that is worse or even less good with the Packers because there isn’t an ownership guy or family?
Do the Packers ever have a strong voice in ownership meetings? Take, for example, the Rooney rule. Pretty sure that was pushed for by Rooney himself, thus the name. Do the Packers ever lead the discussion on changes to the game? (Not that the Rooney rule was all that effective at the change it was supposed to make. Cynically, was that the real intent? Appearance of change without changing?)
On first glance, it seems like it would be clearly and obviously better if every team went to the Packers model. Just not for the current owners, of course, so it could never happen.
If so, as a Packer fan, I’m not aware of it. The fans don’t need to worry about threats to move the team (or the uncertainty that comes along with the sale of a team), nor do they need to have to deal with the owner being unpredictable or an egotist (see: Jerry Jones, Al Davis, Dan Snyder). And, the fact that the team is owned by the fans does seem to make Packer fans close-knit.
That’s a good question, and it might illustrate a downside for the ownership model. The Packers’ team president serves the role of “owner” at the league’s owners meetings, but as it’s not a lifelong position, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Packers’ presidents don’t quite have the same stature as some of the league’s elder statesmen have in those meetings (like Rooney and Mara).
On the other hand, the team’s previous president (1989-2008), Bob Harlan, oversaw the team’s transition into one of the league’s more successful franchises, as well as making major improvements to the stadium, so I expect he was well-regarded by the owners. And, the current president, Mark Murphy, used to be an NFL player (defensive back with the Redskins); with Jerry Richardson gone in Carolina, I think that may leave Murphy as the only guy in the owners’ meetings who actually played the game.