Los Angeles Dodgers: Could Fans Really Be the Next Owners?

Hey, want to buy a baseball team? I can get you a share of the Los Angeles Dodgers for $500. Interested?

If that doesn't peak your interest, you're either not a baseball fan or are cynical beyond repair. Aside from playing professional baseball for the favorite team of their youth, the dream of most American boys, well, and men, is to be the owner of a professional sports team. 

That dream may be on its way to becoming a reality if Beverly Hills real estate developer, Stanley Stalford, Jr. has anything to do with it. 

His plan is to sell two million shares at $500 each to buy the Dodgers. If you don't have a calculator handy, the sales will garner $1 billion. Likely enough to buy the team, or at least be in the running.

Now, before you declare all of us with "the dream" to be idiots, take a minute to think about sports history. The NFL's Green Bay Packers are a "community owned" team and operate profitably.

The NBA's Boston Celtics, the NHL's Florida Panthers and the AFL's Orlando Predators have all been publicly traded within the last 10 years.

In fact, even baseball has an example of a publicly-owned organization. Owner Richard Jacobs sold shares of the Cleveland Indians on NASDAQ, a plan approved by Commissioner Bud Selig, and made them a publicly traded company.

The sale raised $60 million (nearly double the price he paid for the team just a few years before). Until early 2000, when Larry Dolan bought the team and once again made them a private company, fans could buy and sell Cleveland Indians stock for $10-$15.

The plan to buy the Dodgers has ginned up some support, including from Packers shareholder and television commentator Greta Van Susteren, and even has its own website, Own the Dodgers, that provides details to interested fans. 

Team management would be conducted by a five-person group designated from the 15-member board of directors elected by the shareholders. Not an overly complex system, but one that would allow the Dodgers to function like a "normal" baseball team with "unusual" ownership.

No, your share likely won't get you free tickets to Dodgers games and no, you probably won't get to fly on the team plane. But, the next time you're talking sports with your friends you can tell them, "yeah, I own a professional baseball team" and not be lying. Not technically anyway.