Billionaire sports team owners have turned America’s favorite teams into profit machines, and communities are paying the price.

They receive public subsidies and tax breaks to build stadiums. They raise ticket and concession prices. Yet when a more profitable opportunity comes along, they threaten to move the team or do leave―leaving an empty stadium and broken hearts behind.

This has happened again and again, leaving cities without teams, workers without jobs, and fans without an enterprise they have supported for decades. At the same time, billionaire wealth has surged to record levels, topping $8 trillion, while working people are left to cover the costs.  

The system is broken, but Congress has the chance to preserve that fan-team connection.

The Home Team Act, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, would require team owners to give local communities a real opportunity to purchase their team before relocating.

If a community helped build a team’s value, that community should not be cast aside when a billionaire owner sees a bigger payday elsewhere. It establishes real guardrails so billionaire owners cannot use relocation threats to extract more taxpayer money, and ensures communities have a fair shot to keep the teams they helped build and sustain.

Tell Congress to pass the Home Team Act and protect our communities from billionaire exploitation.