‘Home Team Act’ aims to prevent pro sports owners from victimizing taxpayers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Thursday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Texas Representative Greg Casar introduced a new bill aimed at protecting residents from being forced to fund new or relocated professional sports stadiums.
The Home Team Act would require pro sports team owners to first offer locals the chance to buy the teams they are trying to relocate, and to keep them, before those teams could receive large amounts of state and local tax funds and eventually leave.
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"Too often, owners are getting richer while taxpayers and fans are getting screwed," Rep. Casar, who authored the bill, said. "You probably know that billionaires are underpaying workers in the economy. You may know that billionaires are buying our elections to ruin our government, but we also have to talk about how billionaires are destroying the simple things in life that make every day worth living, like rooting for our home teams."
The bill's introduction comes on the heels of the Kansas City Chiefs' move across the state line to Kansas, and, unsurprisingly, the Chiefs were mentioned in the pair's Thursday press conference.
The Chiefs' move was a polarizing issue for state leaders, local officials and fans alike. While some supported the move as a monumental next step for a storied franchise, others, on both sides of the issue, criticized the move as being more about leveraging state tax funds than the fans.
"Regardless of where you live or where you are watching from today, I hope this team has made you proud and I hope you are just as excited as we are about this next chapter in Chiefs history," Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said during a news conference announcing the move.
The Chiefs will use Kansas' STAR Bonds to fund the construction of a new stadium after a border war of sorts between the two states. According to the Home Team Act's author, that's exactly what the bill aims to combat.
"We see it in Kansas City, where taxpayers are handing billions to a family already worth $25 billion. Imagine what those billions of dollars could do building public parks, youth sports leagues, fields, courts for our kids," Rep. Casar said. "Our bill will make sure that cities and states are not negotiating with a gun to their head."
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The Chiefs aren't the only professional team mentioned in Thursday's conference, either. Rep. Casar mentioned losing his beloved Houston Oilers, the current situation with the Chicago Bears exploring a move to Indiana, the Oakland Athletics and Raiders both moving on from the Bay Area to Las Vegas and more.
Rep. Casar went on to further explain how the bill would operate.
"One year before an owner can ever relocate a team, they must announce it," he explained.
"Then the community has a chance to buy that team at its fair market value, including through the kind of community ownership model that has kept the Green Bay Packers in NFL's smallest market for over 100 years. If no one wants to buy the team and keep it in the home city, then the owner could move it."
Sen. Sanders experienced a similar feeling, detailing losing the Brooklyn Dodgers and the impact it had on his community, calling it "a horrific moment" for the people in his borough.
"I can remember, as Greg was saying, as a kid, what it meant where I grew up, which was in Brooklyn, New York, when a guy simply took a profitable team out of Brooklyn, took it across the country," he described.
"You see kids loving their favorite ball players, not even understanding that an owner, in order to make more profit, can simply shut the team down and move to another city."
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Sen. Sanders went on to explain how when a pro sports team leaves or abandons a city and community, it clearly affects the financial state of the region, but leaves a blemish on the fans' perception of sports as well.
He also outlined the foundation of the bill and how it draws inspiration from the Green Bay Packers organization, where the team is financed by and for the fans.
You can view the full press conference in the player above.
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