Sponsors (3)
The bill gives communities stronger tools — notice, purchase priority, appraisal rules, and legal remedies — to keep professional sports teams local and reduce effective taxpayer subsidization, but it does so by imposing heavy constraints, penalties, and new federal authority that could depress franchise values, spur litigation, and pressure municipal budgets.
Local governments, community cooperatives, and nonprofits get a prioritized right to buy a nearby professional franchise before it relocates or is eliminated, plus at least one year’s notice to organize financing or preservation efforts.
State and local governments gain an enforcement pathway — they may sue and obtain injunctive or monetary relief to try to keep franchises local.
Appraisals for forced or prioritized purchases must deduct government stadium subsidies, lowering the effective purchase price and reducing double taxpayer subsidization.
Franchise owners face mandated sales at appraised 'fair' prices and forced acceptance of public offers, which reduces owners' bargaining power and could materially lower asset value realization.
Violations carry steep financial penalties (e.g., roughly $30,000 per day), exposing franchise owners to potentially crippling liability and incentivizing litigation.
Giving purchase priority to local governments or cooperatives could pressure municipalities to spend public funds or offer subsidies to acquire teams, transferring financial risk to taxpayers and middle‑class families.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Bars leagues from blocking government/public ownership and requires teams planning relocation to offer local buyers a one‑year right to buy at Treasury‑appraised fair market value (minus public stadium subsidies).
Prohibits professional sports leagues from stopping government entities or members of the public from owning or receiving transfers of teams, and requires team owners who plan to move a franchise out of their home community, across state lines, or eliminate it to give local buyers a prioritized, one‑year opportunity to purchase the franchise at a fair market price. The fair price is set by appraisers chosen by the Secretary of the Treasury, who must subtract any public payments or stadium subsidies from the valuation; federal enforcement includes daily civil penalties and private suits by states or local governments.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Bernard Sanders · Last progress March 26, 2026