And the Team Sucks, Too

A San Diego lawmaker, presumably upset that the local pro sports teams have reacted to the municipality's landlording (to the tune of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars) by acting like tenants, has come up with a novel solution to close the barn door in case the Chargers bolt town— introduce a state law, AB 3003, forcing any California city receiving a relocated pro team to pay damages to the jilted burgh. Which gives rise to the mathematical possibility that a California taxpayer who moves from San Diego to wherever the Chargers go next could end up being penalized three separate times for the irresponsibility of his local governments. (Link via Baseball Primer)

On a related note, in doing research for this post, I stumbled across a useful website & blog called League of Fans, which does a good job tracking billionaire sports owners' tireless attempts to swindle tax money. It was founded by none other than my old golfing buddy Ralph Nader, and the About Us info is classic:

League of Fans is a sports reform project working to improve sports by increasing awareness of the sports industry's relationship to society, exposing irresponsible business practices, ensuring accountability to fans, and encouraging the industry to contribute to societal well-being.