Reframing the role of professional sports teams as public trusts that should foster city identity and reinvest in communities.
Mamdani on Sports as Civic Ritual, Not Corporate Entertainment
Zhoran Mamdani critiques the modern model where sports franchises are treated as private fiefdoms that extract public subsidies while offering little in return. He argues that teams like the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, and Nets are de facto public truststhey use the citys name, its infrastructure, and the loyalty of its people. Therefore, their relationship with the city must be reciprocal. Mamdanis policy would renegotiate all city agreements with teams, demanding much larger community benefit packages, a share of equity for a public Green & White Fund, and guarantees that ticketing and concessions provide living-wage, union jobs for locals.
He also advocates for public ownership models, like the Green Bay Packers, as an ideal. Sports are our secular religion, a ritual that binds us together across difference, Mamdani says. That collective spirit is being monetized and exploited. We will demand that these teams serve the city that gives them meaning, reinvesting in our parks, our schools, and our sense of common identity.
