Moneyball Act

Bill: 118-hr-4071
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-12]
Introduced: 2023-06-13
Policy area: Sports and Recreation
Latest action: action_date: 2023-06-13
text: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:

tv_txt: I 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4071 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 13, 2023 Ms. Lee of California (for herself and Mr. DeSaulnier ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To require a professional baseball club to compensate its home community if such club relocates its home field more than 25 miles from its previous location.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Moneyball Act . 2. Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that the unique antitrust exemption granted to major league baseball is an artifact of the unique value that individual teams have within their home communities, and that breaking the bonds that tie franchises to their communities would nullify the legal and public policy basis for such exemption. 3. Compensation for home communities of professional baseball teams (a) Any professional baseball club that relocates its home field more than 25 miles from its previous location shall be required to provide compensation to its former host community. (b) Such compensation shall be— (1) not less than the State, local, and or Tribal tax revenue levied in the ten years prior to the date of relocation; and (2) paid respectively to each State, local, and or Tribal government which levied taxes on the club in ten years prior to the date of relocation. (c) Should any professional baseball club fail to provide the compensation required by subsection (b), then— (1) no persons in the business of organized professional baseball shall be exempt from the antitrust laws; and (2) section 27 of the Clayton Act ( 15 U.S.C. 26b ) shall not apply to the business of organized professional baseball. (d) Should any professional baseball club seek to avoid the compensation required by this Act by disbanding the club, then the officers of such club shall be personally responsible for the cost of compensation. 4. Definitions In this Act— (1) the term home field means the venue where a professional baseball club plays more than one-third of its games in any calendar year; (2) the term host community means the State, local, and or tribal government areas where a professional baseball team has its home field and where it contributes tax revenue; and (3) the term antitrust laws — (A) has the meaning given the term in subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton Act ( 15 U.S.C. 12 ); and (B) includes section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act ( 15 U.S.C. 45 ) to the extent that such section applies to unfair methods of competition.