About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


16 Ent. & Sports Law. 1 (1998-1999)

handle is hein.journals/entspl16 and id is 1 raw text is: PUBLICATION OF THE ABA FORUM ON THE ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS INDUSTRIES VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1 0 SPRING 1998 New Direction for Team Ownership? The Memphis Redbirds Baseball Foundation CRAIG A. SHARON AND LLOYD H. MAYER C onsider every loyal sports fan's worst night- mare. Your community invests millions of dollars to keep a professional sports team in town. Your local city and county governments not only provide various tax exemptions and subsidies, but they also build, expand, and maintain the team's stadium. But one day the voters balk at paying for a particularly expensive improvement. The team's own- ers are soon heard complaining that the community is not supporting the team. Rumors that the team will be sold or moved begin to circulate. Then the team calls a press conference to announce that it will be moving to a new, more supportive city (in terms of dollars and cents). Your city begins scrambling to find a new team, but even assuming that your community is able and willing to spend the money necessary to attract a new team, your excitement is tempered by the knowl- edge that the new team may prove as disloyal as the old one. (continued on page 20) Li 2_ r- *- - Illustration by Richard Lourenr