Professional sports franchises, like governments, rely on a social contract to function. Fans sacrifice individual rights to invest emotionally and financially in local teams. For the freedom to enjoy less emotionally taxing pastimes, fans spend their income on the franchise instead of other pastimes. In exchange, the team’s managements tries to create entertainment, usually based around winning games.
The beauty of the social contract, as outlined by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his 1762 treatise of the same name, is that governments must rule with the consent of the governed. Baseball teams aren’t selling foundational necessities–if every fan stopped coming to games or all the players stopped working, the owners’ billion-dollar industry would collapse.