Throughout the history of organized sport there have always been owners of professional sports franchises that run their mouths and generally act like idiots--see Mark Cuban and George Steinbrenner, Jr. for comtemporary examples.  But sometimes their actions just flat-out cross a line.  They offend the fans who support their franchise and put money in their coffers.  When this happens, I believe there should punishment.  So I have devised a list of the five most offensive moves an owner can make.  The ramifications for breaking any of these five?  Automatic selling of the franchise. 

1.  The Mike Brown Special:  For those of us living in Cincy, we've been living with this one for years.  Raising ticket prices when your team finished the season less than .500.  Brownie is a chronic offender of this one.  Owners should not be allowed to charge more for a lesser product.  Period.  From now on, if a team finishes a particular season less than .500, that owner can't raise prices one dime.  If they finish .500, the owner can raise the prices marginally (think 5-8%).  If the team has a winning season, but no playoff appearances, the owner can raise prices a bit more (10-15%).  Playoff appearances, conference/division championships, owner gets a little more leeway.  World Championships, the owner has carte blanche.

2.  Bud Adams rule:  Owners can't demand that taxpayers, who are still valiently supporting the franchise, pay for the creation of a new stadium.  If ticket sales are slumping and the fans are checking out, that's one thing.  I am a realist.  I understand revenue stream.  But to demand a new stadium because an owner wants to "keep up with the Jones'", in order to have the utmost in luxury boxes, television contracts, etc. just to have a larger piece of the pie for themselves, eventhough fans are still coming in droves, that's not okay.  For those who are too young to remember, Bud Adams famously pulled this stunt on the city of Houston with regards to the Astrodome.  Then cited that as the reason why he was moving the team to Tennessee.  Speaking of which....

3.  The Colts, Browns, Ravens Carousel:  Owners should never, ever be allowed to pull the team out of a city in the dead of night and move it somewhere else, especially if the city that franchise is located in is a rabid supporter of the franchise.   Contracting a Montreal Expos team where they were barely able to draw 1,000 fans a night, even when they were fielding a competitive team is one thing.  But moving the Colts out of Baltimore, or the Browns out of Cleveland (the Cubs of the NFL) is just plain wrong.  In fact, I would go so far as to say if an owner breaks this rule, then they should not only have to sell their franchise to someone else who "gets it", but they should never be allowed to own another pro franchise of any type.  Blackball the bastards!

4.  If They Don't Know, They Can't Show:  I'm sick and tired of owners hiring executives who wouldn't know a football, baseball, basketball, etc. from their ass, and then placing them in positions where they have to evaluate talent.  Hire people within the sport who have years of experience (or a good eye) for scouting talent.  It's not that difficult.  If a person doesn't know how to evaluate athletic talent, then you don't put that responsibility on them and allow them to show you how incompetent they are.  This really isn't rocket science, people.

5.  Limp Weiners:  This is personal pet peave of mine (make your gutter humor jokes now).  Owners should never be allowed to skimp on concessions.  If fans are going shell out the kind of jack that it takes to go to a game these days, especially an NFL game, they should have a full compliment of decent food and beverages to choose from.  Now I will say that this as gotten much, much better in the last 10 years.  But I still remember going to Houston Astros games with my old man, sitting down and opening a cold, limp ballpark weiner and having to call that lunch.  No amount of mustard and ketchup made that taste good.  Meanwhile, my old man muttered and complained about the beer that he had to pay about $5 (nowadays $6.75) for only to have a 1/4 cup of beer and 3/4 cup of foam.  Let's make sure that we never allow owners to regress in this area.

These are just my five.  Did I leave out a few?  Leave your ideas in the comments.  I would love to hear them.