Faced with the now public racist statements of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, writer/activist Harvey Wasserman suggested that the City of Los Angeles should use eminent domain to seize the Los Angeles Clippers sports team from its embattled owner. Harvey Wasserman, “Eminent Domain: The Real Solution to Scumbag Sports Owners,” Truthdig, Apr. 29, 2014. Wasserman, who professes to own two shares of the community-owned Green Bay Packers football team, further suggests that eminent domain should also be used to take the Washington Redskins football team because its owner has refused to change the name and logo of the team to a less offensive team name and logo.
This would not be the first time that the power of eminent domain was stretched far away from its originally intended uses, such as roads, schools, and parks, to assist government in obtaining the property it needed to properly and publicly serve a growing American landscape and population, and this would not the first time a sports franchise was the target.