The Home Team Act of 2026 prohibits professional sports leagues from banning public ownership and requires franchise owners to offer their local community a fair opportunity to purchase the team before relocating or dissolving it.
Gregorio Casar
Representative
TX-35
The Home Team Act of 2026 protects local communities by prohibiting professional sports leagues from banning public or government ownership of franchises. It requires team owners to provide their home community with a fair opportunity to purchase the franchise before it can be relocated or eliminated. Additionally, the bill mandates that any sale price be adjusted to account for public subsidies previously invested in the team's stadium.
Home Team Act of 2026 Mandates Local Buyout Option Before Sports Teams Relocate
The Home Team Act of 2026 aims to end the era of sports owners threatening to skip town unless taxpayers fund their new stadiums. Under this bill, any professional sports league—including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and both major women’s soccer and basketball leagues—is prohibited from banning public or community ownership of a team. More importantly, if an owner wants to move a team across state lines or shut it down entirely, they are legally required to give the local community a 'fair opportunity' to buy the franchise first. This isn't just a suggestion; the bill mandates a one-year notice period and sets up a specific priority list for buyers, starting with local governments and community cooperatives (Sec. 3).
The Price of Loyalty
Determining what a team is worth usually involves a lot of smoke and mirrors, but this bill brings in the Treasury Department to set the rules. The Secretary of the Treasury will appoint professional appraisers to determine a 'fair market value' for any team up for sale. In a move that will likely frustrate owners but cheer up taxpayers, the bill requires appraisers to subtract the total value of any government subsidies, credits, or payments used to build the team's stadium from the final sale price (Sec. 3). For example, if a city spent $300 million on a stadium for a team now worth $2 billion, that $300 million gets knocked off the bill if the community decides to buy the team to keep them from moving to a flashier market.
Power to the Fans
By lifting the ban on public ownership, the bill opens the door for 'Green Bay Packers' style models across the country. Currently, many leagues have bylaws that require a single wealthy individual to hold a majority stake, effectively blocking fans or cities from owning their teams. This legislation would make those rules illegal. If an owner tries to bypass these rules, the Attorney General can slap them with a $30,000 daily fine (Sec. 3). It also gives local governments the right to sue in federal court to block a move or seek damages, ensuring that a city like Oakland or St. Louis would have had significant legal teeth to fight back when their teams packed their bags.
Real-World Stakes
For the average person, this bill changes the math of being a sports fan. If you work at a sports bar or run a small business near a stadium, your livelihood is often tied to the 40 to 80 days a year that fans flood the neighborhood. Under this law, a billionaire owner can't simply take those customers away for a better tax break elsewhere without giving the city a chance to step in. While the bill protects existing union contracts and collective bargaining rights, it fundamentally shifts the power balance from private investors to the people who actually buy the tickets and pay the taxes that keep the lights on in the arena.