[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4071 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4071

    To require a professional baseball club to compensate its home 
community if such club relocates its home field more than 25 miles from 
                         its previous location.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 13, 2023

 Ms. Lee of California (for herself and Mr. DeSaulnier) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require a professional baseball club to compensate its home 
community if such club relocates its home field more than 25 miles from 
                         its previous location.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Moneyball Act''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that the unique antitrust exemption 
granted to major league baseball is an artifact of the unique value 
that individual teams have within their home communities, and that 
breaking the bonds that tie franchises to their communities would 
nullify the legal and public policy basis for such exemption.

SEC. 3. COMPENSATION FOR HOME COMMUNITIES OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL 
              TEAMS.

    (a) Any professional baseball club that relocates its home field 
more than 25 miles from its previous location shall be required to 
provide compensation to its former host community.
    (b) Such compensation shall be--
            (1) not less than the State, local, and or Tribal tax 
        revenue levied in the ten years prior to the date of 
        relocation; and
            (2) paid respectively to each State, local, and or Tribal 
        government which levied taxes on the club in ten years prior to 
        the date of relocation.
    (c) Should any professional baseball club fail to provide the 
compensation required by subsection (b), then--
            (1) no persons in the business of organized professional 
        baseball shall be exempt from the antitrust laws; and
            (2) section 27 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 26b) shall not 
        apply to the business of organized professional baseball.
    (d) Should any professional baseball club seek to avoid the 
compensation required by this Act by disbanding the club, then the 
officers of such club shall be personally responsible for the cost of 
compensation.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``home field'' means the venue where a 
        professional baseball club plays more than one-third of its 
        games in any calendar year;
            (2) the term ``host community'' means the State, local, and 
        or tribal government areas where a professional baseball team 
        has its home field and where it contributes tax revenue; and
            (3) the term ``antitrust laws''--
                    (A) has the meaning given the term in subsection 
                (a) of the first section of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 
                12); and
                    (B) includes section 5 of the Federal Trade 
                Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent that such 
                section applies to unfair methods of competition.
                                 <all>