Editor’s note: This story was updated to indicate that Spurs Sports & Entertainment declined comment on the bill.
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont filed a bill Thursday that would require owners of professional sports teams such as the San Antonio Spurs to give local communities the chance to buy them before they move to another city.
The progressive lawmakers’ snappily named Home Team Act is designed to shield fans from seeing their teams ripped away and to protect municipalities from being leveraged for tax dollars by owners who threaten to relocate, bill author Casar said during a D.C. press conference.
“Far too many Americans know the pain of losing a team just so the owner can make a buck,” said Casar, a Democrat whose recently redrawn San Antonio-Austin district previously included the Spurs. “As a child of Houston, I still remember the loss of our Oilers. Those moves are not just a business decision. They leave behind fans who have poured their hearts and souls into teams for decades.”
Casar said the proposal would also strip negotiating power from billionaire owners who use relocation threats to pit cities against each other and wring desperately needed tax money from communities that have supported them for years.
“Even when teams don’t actually move, the threat of moving sets off a race to the bottom,” he said. “Billionaire owners pit taxpayers against each other and then extort the government for billions of dollars.”
The lawmakers filed their bill mere months after San Antonio voters approved using an array of complicated public financing mechanisms to help build a new $1.3 billion downtown arena for the Spurs. As Spurs Sports & Entertainment lobbied for the plan, franchise leaders declined to say whether they would relocate the team if they failed at the ballot box.
SS&E officials declined comment on the bill.
Under the legislation, owners would be forced to provide notice a year before moving their team into a new metro area or out of state. During that time, communities would have a shot at buying the franchise at a fair price, including through a community-ownership model used by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and by some European soccer teams.
The legislation also would impose a financial penalty on franchise owners who refuse to comply, and it would extend the right for state and local governments to pursue legal action against those team owners.
The bill doesn’t impose any requirement on communities to purchase relocating teams, nor would it stop teams from relocating if no buyer is able to make a fair and reasonable offer, the lawmakers said.
Casar and Sanders said their proposal seeks to level the playing field in professional sports so that deep-pocketed owners don’t wield all the power when it comes to relocating teams. They pointed to the Chicago Bears’ threat to jump across state lines in search of a more lucrative deal.
“What makes the situation even worse is that Chicago and municipalities all over this country right now are struggling to educate their kids, to pave their streets,” Sanders said. “The idea that you have billionaire owners running very profitable operations say, “If you don’t give us even more, we’re going to leave.” And, literally, that means taking money out if the education of the kids, out of childcare for the kids, out of infrastructure for the people of that community.”
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