Most books that study professional sports concentrate on teams
and leagues. In contrast, "Home Team" studies the connections
between professional team sports in North America and the places
where teams play. It examines the relationships between the four
major professional team sports--baseball, basketball, football, and
hockey--and the cities that attach their names, their hearts, and
their increasing amount of tax dollars to big league teams. From
the names on their uniforms to the loyalties of their fans, teams
are tied to the places in which they play. Nonetheless, teams, like
other urban businesses, are affected by changes in their
environments--like the flight of their customers to suburbs and
changes in local political climates. In "Home Team," professional
sports are scrutinized in the larger context of the metropolitan
areas that surround and support them.
Michael Danielson is particularly interested in the political
aspects of the connections between professional sports teams and
cities. He points out that local and state governments are now
major players in the competition for franchises, providing
increasingly lavish publicly funded facilities for what are, in
fact, private business ventures. As a result, professional sports
enterprises, which have insisted that private leagues rather than
public laws be the proper means of regulating games, have become
powerful political players, seeking additional benefits from
government, often playing off one city against another. The wide
variety of governmental responses reflects the enormous diversity
of urban and state politics in the United States and in the
Canadian cities and provinces that host professional teams.
"Home Team" collects a vast amount of data, much of it difficult
to find elsewhere, including information on the relocation of
franchises, expansion teams, new leagues, stadium development, and
the political influence of the rich cast of characters involved in
the ongoing contests over where teams will play and who will pay.
Everyone who is interested in the present condition and future
prospects of professional sports will be captivated by this
informative and provocative new book.
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