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| The LA Clippers at a recent playoff game, now able to wear their jerseys right side out. |
This is not a story directly about Donald Sterling's racism.
That racism should already be self-evident. Not just form the recent leaked recording but from a lifetime of discrimination and disdain, as evidenced by, among other things, his practice of blatant housing discrimination as an LA real estate mogul.
This is a story about the style of ownership that we have adopted in the United States for our professional sports teams.
We have given ownership to ever richer and richer individuals, who control the teams as little fiefdoms, as if they were nobility and they were theirs by rights.
Ultimate power leads to ultimate buffoonery. Some franchise owners are pretty cool. Arthur Blank, the Home Depot billionaire, has led the Falcons fairly well, with great respect for fans and players alike. Mike Illitch, Little Caesars owner, of the Detroit Tigers has also carefully worked to solidify a contender in a scarred, hurting area of the country. Others have just been eccentric, like Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, or Ted Turner, former owner of the Atlanta Braves. But others, like Donald Sterling, have been out and out rotten.
Since the ownership structure is so skewed to one extremely wealthy person, it allows for all the weirdness and control that can happen when one person has ultimate power. And since the teams are basically inherited, the teams become royalty, and just because the first king that owns them is decent, doesn't mean Prince So-and-So down the line will be. Like poor Sam Walton is observing from the other side, sometimes the kids can be rotten. It can quickly descend from caring and kind benevolence to greedy arrogance and outright madness. Think of the madness of King George the Third (oh, I meant England - not just the one here).
And even the benevolent ones will still demand things of the community. At the same time that they're making untold millions off these franchises, they turn to you, the taxpayer, to build brand new stadiums that are not designed with the average fan in mind, but catering to the wealthy and maximizing things like skyboxes. And if you don't concede to paying for it, and giving them massive tax breaks as a sweetener, why, they will up and leave and take the franchise to Wichita or Winnipeg.
So the focus of the Sterling story is on who gets the team next? Will it be his estranged wife? Will it be an African American like Oprah and/or Magic Johnson? Will it be some other well-coiffed billionaire? No one seems to realize that all of these solutions will inevitably LEAD US TO THE SAME PLACE - an ownership model that will eventually lead to tyrannical, arrogant control.
The practical working model that is a solution to this madness is not theoretical. It exists and it is working as well and, indeed, better than any other model. It is the Green Bay Packers. a COMMUNITY owned franchise that has been well managed and thriving for decades in one of the smallest media markets that a sports franchise operates in. And yet, they have sold out the stadium for decades, even in blizzards and below zero temperatures. The fans are rabid and super loyal because it is truly THEIR team. Public, community ownership, with no one having anything close to a controlling share. At owner's meetings, while surrounded by super rich fat cats, the Green Bay Packers send an elected President to be their representative. And to top it off, the Green Bay Packers are about the most successful contenders in any sports and have won 13 league championships, more than any NFL franchise.
So why don't more sports franchises adopt this ownership model?
Because they can't.
The NFL has expressly forbidden this model from ever happening again. The Green Bay Packers model is grandfathered in, but they will not allow it ever again. The first rule of Super Rich Club is to only let in the Super Rich. And in Green Bay, if the runner ever stumbles, they Super Rich will devour it like hungry langoliers, and the most successful way of operating a sports franchise will be sent to the dustbin of history.
Unless you, the sports fan, insist on something different. It can happen quickly if you want it to. When it became apparent that fans and players alike were going to turn on Donald Sterling, the NBA quickly turned on one of their own.
The Green Bay Packers model can live and thrive.
If you want it too.
If you speak out.
C'mon, America. Take back your sports teams!
They really do belong to you.
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