Teams that finish last get the first draft picks. Those can be used to get new, good players and also can be traded for multiple late first and early second round picks. The system give poorly performing teams an opportunity to draft new and better players.
The NFL, NHL, and NBA have salary caps, and revenue sharing. So no team is really hurting for spending money. The could spend it if they wanted to.
I don’t know which team, the Washington Senators or the St Louis Browns were mediocre or worse for longer, but there was a saying when I was a kid: Washington – first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League. (the original referred to George Washington and the final item was originally first in the hearts of his countrymen)
Some team owners are hobby owners, they own a team because they like it and want to win. A lot of them are just business owners, “winning” means “the team is making money”. The league itself is firmly the second type, they are not going to interfere with a team just because it loses.
Leagues in the US are owned by the team owners. You’re asking them to kick out one of their own and the owners are very slow to do that. In the NBA, the league essentially banned Donald Sterling for making racist remarks and forced him to sell the team. IIRC, Snyder and DeBartolo weren’t forced out (although DeBartolo was suspended for a year) but things were headed in that direction.
Agreed, and that’s why I said “essentially” – IIRC, in both cases, the writing was on the wall, and they “voluntarily” sold/divested themselves of their teams, knowing that the next step could well have been being forced to do so.
I think it’d be more relevant if the club was losing money. I watched the Chicago Cubs make money hand over fist for years while either not making the playoffs or leaving early. (Mike Royko once wrote raising your child to be a Cubs fan should be considered abuse.) The fans simply didn’t care, and filled the stands anyway.
If the team were losing money, and it was leading to them potentially being insolvent (i.e., can’t cover payroll, can’t pay their bills), then, yeah, the league would likely step in.
This, BTW, is what happened to the New York Titans, one of the original AFL teams in the early '60s, as well as the Seattle Pilots, an MLB expansion team in 1969 – in both cases, the teams were facing bankruptcy, and the leagues took control of the teams, and forced sales; the Titans became the Jets, and the Pilots became the Milwakee Brewers.
But, if the team is losing money, but it’s owned by a billionaire who views the team as a hobby, and is willing to keep footing the bills, that’s a different story.
and don’t forget Donald Sterling
no, it was the Browns–“first in shoes, first in beer, last in AL”