大联盟球队球员因其才能、坚韧和从一而终获得回报。但另一方面，大联盟球队业主却因其平庸而得到回报。花钱买通进入联盟后，无精打采的业主威胁前往另一座城市比赛，就可从其根据地敲诈数亿美元（并收取高价门票）。他们宁愿不在这些有才能的球员身上投资，让沮丧的球队年复一年变得越来越弱，而自己坐享联盟的收益，把钱装入口袋，他们心照不宣，一旦想把球队卖掉的话，有钱的追求者就会你争我夺。这是因为美国大联盟各球队——和联盟自身——事实上是垄断的。美国职业棒球大联盟甚至明确拥有反垄断豁免权。要是没有知名度、球迷的忠诚以及有权聘用顶尖球员，联盟就没有什么机会暴发。

How to spark owners with the same competitive fire they demand of their players? Stefan Szymanski and Stephen Ross have a plan: Make teams compete for a spot in the majors.

如何用他们要求他们的球员一样的比赛热情来激发业主们呢？斯蒂芬·西曼斯基和斯蒂芬·罗斯有一个计划：让各个球队在大满贯争夺赛场。

Szymanski, an economics professor at City University London, and Ross, a law professor at Penn State, borrowed their model from European soccer. In that system, no team is assured of a place in the top national league. Instead, each league has multiple levels: England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, and Italy's Serie A are all the top rungs of their respective ladders. At the end of each season, the bottom few teams at each level are relegated to the rung below and are replaced by that level's winners.

伦敦城市大学经济学教授西曼斯基和宾夕法尼亚州立大学法学教授罗斯借用了欧洲足球联赛的模式。在那种制度中，没有一支球队能确保在国家最高联赛的位置。相反，各个联赛都有多个级别：英格兰超级联赛、西班牙甲级联赛和意大利甲级联赛都是各国联赛的最顶层。每个赛季结束时，各个级别底部的几支球队下降到下一级，其位置由下一级获胜者取代。

Applied to American pro sports, the European system would eliminate the artificial scarcity that owners exploit. Anyone with the resources could simply start their own team and play their way up into the top tier. As a result, owners looking to boost their take by threatening to skip town would find they had no leverage, since other cities big enough to support a serious contender for the top tier would already have one. And there would be no such thing as a perennial cellar dweller; teams that performed poorly would be demoted. Demotion would cut their value, driving even the most complacent owner to do what it takes to get competitive. "You're sharpening the incentives," Szymanski says.

把欧洲制度运用于美国职业体育运动可能会消除被业主利用的人为稀缺。任何拥有资源的人完全可以组建自己的球队，参加比赛，逐步晋级，进入顶级。因此，指望通过威胁要不辞而别来增加收入的业主将会发现，他们毫无影响，因为其他大到足以支持一个为顶级而战的真诚竞争者的城市早已有了一个联赛。而且没有常年地窖居住者这回事；表现欠佳的球队要降级。降级会削减其价值，从而使哪怕是最自鸣得意的业主也要付出代价才能获得竞争力。“你在增强刺激性，”西曼斯基说。

Of course, team owners wouldn't like it, but they could be convinced. Szymanski holds out hope that a bit of moral suasion from high places would suffice. "It's possible for courts and the legislature to decide the public has had enough of this monopoly system. The government can tell the leagues that if they don't sort themselves out in a sensible structure, government will do it for them," Szymanski says. "It would be very Barack Obama, I think."

当然，球队业主不会喜欢，但他们可能被说服。西曼斯基有理由希望，居高临下的一点道德说教就足够了。“法院和立法机关可能断定，公众已经不能再容忍这种垄断制度了。政府可以告诉大联盟，如果他们自己不切合实际地整顿组织架构，政府就要帮助他们了，”西曼斯基说。“我想，那将是十足的贝拉克·奥巴马式。”