Sports teams are businesses

So while professional sports are sold to the citizens as foundations of civic pride, the owners of the teams tote up the receipts and deposit them in the bank.

The Village Voice has a nice piece about this in regards to new stadiums for the New York Mets and the New York Yankees, "The Houses That Ruthlessness Built: Welcome to middling baseball in sleek new cathedrals."

And of course the Washington Post continues to write about how the Washington Nationals are challenging DC over whether or not the city delivered the baseball stadium on time in agreement with contract provisions.

In the meantime the team--that new piece of the foundation of civic pride and local economic development--is suing the city of Washington (that's us) and not paying rent. See "Nationals Withhold Rent on Ballpark: Hundreds of Items Are Incomplete, Team Owners Say."

Wouldn't it be great if some municipal owner of a professional sports stadium would start the eviction process as a way to get the professional team owner to the table?

That's business too.