Headlines: Artificial Scarcity, Monopolies, Subsidies, and Public Ownership in American Sports

The Lever:

The Portland Sea Dogs are quintessential Minor League Baseball. They’re also part of a newer American tradition: a private equity roll-up. In 2022, the team was acquired by Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH), a subsidiary of Silver Lake, a Silicon Valley-based investment firm with over $100 billion in worldwide assets whose portfolio companies generate over $248 billion in annual revenue. There are 120 Minor League Baseball teams operating directly below Major League Baseball--DBH now owns more than 30 of them. 

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The idea of a major professional sports team becoming publicly owned feels quixotic until you remember that, all over the country, the public is already spending its own money on private sports teams. As Defector’s Waters put it, "If cities were to begin to demand ownership shares in exchange for their generous subsidies, then local fans might begin to share in the prosperity of the professional teams that quite literally would not exist without them."