Sports Bidding Wars Polls show a majority of Americans oppose public subsidies for professional sports.
Fans support taxpayer subsidies mainly because teams threaten to relocate.
A model for this type of ownership is the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. The Packers have been owned by a nonprofit corporation since 1923. All profits are put back into the team, making the Packers the least-subsidized team in the country, and there is no incentive to sell or move the team, since by law any profits would have to be distributed to a charity. Approximately 52 major league baseball, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association franchises are owned in part by public companies. And the trend is toward further public ownership, and stock in the NBA Boston Celtics is even traded on the New York Stock Exchange.