1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Strengthening Public Undertakings for Retaining Sports Act” or the “SPURS Act”.
Strengthening Public Undertakings for Retaining Sports Act
A BILL
To establish certain conditions and requirements relating to the relocation of professional sports teams, and for other purposes.
2. Findings
Congress finds the following:
The name of a professional sports team always is linked to the name of the community in which the team is located.
Communities, sports fans, and taxpayers make a substantial and valuable financial, psychological, and emotional investment in professional sports teams and names of teams.
Communities receive substantial tax revenues and employment opportunities from the operation of professional sports teams.
The public, through a municipal stadium or arena authority (which may be a city or county agency or a municipal corporation), often authorizes capital construction bonds to build a stadium or arena for a professional sports team, while the lease or use agreement generally sets rent to cover only operating costs of the stadium or arena without reimbursing the public for construction costs.
A professional sports team that wishes to relocate the operations of the team to another area should take into account the social and community needs of the community in which the team operates.
Professional sports teams promote civic pride and generate jobs, revenue, and other local economic development.
Professional sports teams remain in communities for generations and represent much more than a business.
Current law does not protect the rights of sports fans or the interests of communities when professional sports teams decide to relocate.
Owners of professional sports teams have opportunities to extract enormous benefits from communities and owners take advantage of those opportunities.
3. Prohibition on relocation
A professional sports team may not relocate unless each of the following conditions is met:
One or more of the parties, other than the professional sports team, to the stadium or arena lease agreement of the professional sports team has failed to comply with a provision of material significance to such stadium or arena lease agreement and such failure to comply cannot be remedied within a reasonable period of time.
The stadium or arena in which the professional sports team plays regular season and playoff home games is inadequate for the purposes of properly and competitively operating the professional sports team, and the entity that owns or operates such stadium or arena has failed to demonstrate intent to remedy the inadequacy of such stadium or arena within a reasonable period of time.
The professional sports team has incurred an annual net loss for not fewer than five years prior to the proposed relocation.
The government authority that is party to the stadium or arena lease agreement described in paragraph (1) has not made a formal objection to the proposed relocation by the date that is 1 year after the date on which an owner of the professional sports team submits a petition for relocation under section 5(a).
4. Right of first refusal
In any case in which an owner of a professional sports team submits a petition for relocation under section 5(a), such owner shall, until the date that is 1 year after the date on which such owner submits such petition, offer the professional sports team for sale at fair market value to other persons who would not relocate the professional sports team before such petition may be approved.
5. Requirements for relocation
Petition for relocation— An owner of a professional sports team who intends to relocate the professional sports team shall submit a petition for relocation as follows:
Such owner shall submit such petition to the government authority that is party to the stadium or arena lease agreement described in section 3(1) at least 1 year before the proposed relocation may be approved by such government authority under subsection (b).
Such petition shall be in writing and sent by certified mail or delivered to such government authority personally.
Such petition shall contain the following:
A statement detailing the intent to relocate, the conditions justifying the proposed relocation, and the new location.
Documentation that supports the existence of the conditions justifying the proposed relocation.
The date on which the owner of the professional sports team intends for the proposed relocation to occur.
Review by government authority—
Review— An owner of a professional sports team may not relocate the professional sports team unless a petition for the relocation of the professional sports team submitted under subsection (a) has been formally approved by the government authority in writing.
Deadline for action— A government authority to which a petition is submitted under subsection (a) shall approve or deny such petition not later than 180 days after the date on which such petition is submitted.
6. Required reimbursement to State and local government for value of financial assistance received
Required reimbursement— If an owner of a professional sports team relocates such professional sports team from one stadium or arena to another stadium or arena (including a stadium or arena located in the same metropolitan area in which the previous stadium or arena is located) and, in so relocating such professional sports team, such owner breaches a contract with a State or local government with respect to use of the previous stadium or arena, such owner shall (not later than 30 days after the date on which such professional sports team plays the first regular season home game in the new stadium or arena) pay to such State or local government an amount equal to the value of any financial assistance provided to such professional sports team by such State or local government.
Exception— The requirement described in subsection (a) does not apply to a breach of a contract that provides as a remedy for such breach recovery of any financial assistance provided to the professional sports team by the State or local government.
Penalty— An owner of a professional sports team that fails to meet the requirement described in subsection (a) is liable in a civil action under section 7 to the State or local government that provided to the professional sports team the financial assistance described in such subsection for damages in an amount equal to three times the value of such financial assistance.
7. Private right of action by State or local government
A State or local government may bring a civil action in an appropriate district court of the United States against a professional sports team that violates section 3 or an owner of a professional sports team that violates section 4, 5, or 6 to obtain damages, if—
the State or local government has provided, or has been requested to provide, financial assistance, including tax abatement, to the professional sports team or the existing or proposed stadium or arena in which the professional sports team plays or is proposed to play regular season and playoff home games; or
the jurisdiction of the State or local government includes or is included within, in whole or in part, the metropolitan area in which the professional sports team plays regular season and playoff home games.
8. Applicability
Sections 3, 4, and 5 only apply with respect to a professional sports team that has a stadium or arena lease agreement with a government authority.
9. Definitions
In this Act:
Financial assistance— The term “financial assistance” includes special tax treatment and financing of a stadium or arena in which a professional sports team plays regular season and playoff home games.
Government authority— The term “government authority” means any unit of local government or other government agency or authority that—
owns, operates, or has a financial interest in a stadium or arena used by a professional sports team to play regular season and playoff home games; or
exercises regulatory authority with respect to a professional sports team.
Professional sports team— The term “professional sports team” means a major league team in an organized professional sport.
Relocate— The term “relocate” means—
to move the location in which a professional sports team plays regular season and playoff home games from a metropolitan area to a different metropolitan area; or
to move such location within a metropolitan area if the professional sports team falls under the jurisdiction of a different government authority.