Eminent Domain: The Real Solution to Scumbag Sports Owners
“t’s been known for decades that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is a racist jerk. Ditto Daniel Snyder, the owner of that professional football team in our nation’s capital whose current horrific anti-indigenous team name is a global embarrassment.
But these guys are the tip of the iceberg. The real question is: Why are these teams owned by individuals at all? Why do we allow our precious sports clubs to be the playthings of a bunch of wealthy degenerates?
Why aren’t the football, baseball, basketball, hockey and other major sports franchises so many of us so passionately love and support not owned by the communities that give them their life? Why is our nation powerless to remove the racist logo from a public stadium just down the street from the White House and Congress?
There’s a model out there that does work. It’s called the Green Bay Packers (a team of which I’m proud owner of two shares).
There are plenty of flaws in the setup, but when snow covers the field, the community comes out to shovel it off. And though the NFL owners have specifically banned any more teams from being publicly owned, the Packers have done just fine at the highest levels of competition.
It’s time to use the Packer green and gold as a starter model for all franchise ownership.
Some of the millionaires and billionaires who now own these teams are obviously decent, tolerant, open-minded people. Many are more than that—competent, committed, good at their jobs, even genuinely humble and community minded.”
Wasserman, Harvey. Truth Dig 29 April 2014.