Proponents ( especially of majoritarianism ) deny these accusations, and argue that any faults in Athenian democracy were because the franchise was quite limited ( only male citizens could vote — women, slaves and non-citizens were excluded ).

Despite this limited franchise, Athenian democracy was certainly the first — and perhaps the best — example of a working direct democracy.

The franchise has two NFL championships, both while it was based in Chicago.

Miss Julia Elliott, a school teacher from Griffin, Georgia was singled out from many people who suggested " Falcons " as the Nickname for the new Georgia NFL franchise.

It was announced at the 2009 state of the franchise meeting that the Falcons would wear 1966 throwback uniforms for a couple games during the 2009 season.

As such, it was frequently mentioned as a possible location for either a new or relocated MLB franchise.

In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area's NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, " Arizona Baseball, Inc .," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team.

This was after a great deal of lobbying by the Maricopa County Sports Authority, a local group formed to preserve Cactus League spring training in Arizona and eventually secure a Major League franchise for the state.

Colangelo's group was so certain that they would be awarded a franchise that they held a name-the-team contest for it ; they took out a full-page ad in the sports section of the February 13, 1995 edition of the state's leading newspaper, the Arizona Republic.

On March 9, 1995, Colangelo's group was awarded a franchise to begin play for the 1998 season.

A $ 130 million franchise fee was paid to Major League Baseball.

The Tampa Bay Area was also granted a franchise, the Devil Rays ( to be based in St. Petersburg ), at the same time.

Of great surprise to many fans was a brand new color scheme ; apparently the original colors used by the franchise since Major League Baseball awarded it to Jerry Colangelo's ownership group in 1995 were to be discontinued.

One franchise that did not share in this newfound success of the league was the Chicago Cardinals, owned by the Bidwill family, who had become overshadowed by the more popular Chicago Bears.

( Originally, a team was supposed to be started in Buffalo, but league ownership at the last minute removed that city from their plans in favor of the expansion Boston franchise.

In 1901, Baltimore and McGraw were awarded an expansion franchise in the growing American League, but again the team was sacrificed in favor of a New York City franchise, as the team was transferred to New York in 1903.

Six former Oriole franchise radio announcers have received the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting: Chuck Thompson ( who was also the voice of the old NFL Baltimore Colts ); Jon Miller ( now with the San Francisco Giants ); Ernie Harwell, Herb Carneal ; Bob Murphy and Harry Caray ( as a St. Louis Browns announcer in the 1940s.

In 1993, with Oracle losing its franchise to Teletext Ltd, the running of 4-Tel was taken over by Intelfax, and in 2002 was renamed FourText.

The team was founded in the 1940s as a charter franchise in the All-America Football Conference ( AAFC ), with Paul Brown, the team's namesake and a pioneering figure in professional football, as its first coach.

In 1987, shortly after it was decided that Charlotte would receive an expansion National Basketball Association franchise ( the Charlotte Hornets ), former NFL player Jerry Richardson met with a group of potential backers to discuss the possibility of bringing an NFL expansion team to the Carolina region.

On October 26, 1993, the league announced that the owners had unanimously voted for the Carolinas to receive the 29th franchise, the first new NFL team since 1976 ( Jacksonville was named the 30th team a month later ).

In the early years of the franchise, WTVT, then a CBS affiliate, broadcast some Buccaneer preseason games.

* Network affiliate chains such as Hearst Television and Sinclair Broadcasting Group refused to air programming which was not compliant with E / I rules such as the Power Rangers franchise, or preferred to air programming from another supplier such as Cookie Jar Group due to heavy repetition of children's programming on network blocks.

The current franchise was founded in 1960 when the Phoenix Giants, an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, moved to Tacoma and became the Tacoma Giants.

That franchise remains the Double-A affiliate of the Astros as the Corpus Christi Hooks.

On June 27, 2011 the Phoenix Coyotes announced that the franchise had entered into a five-year player development contract with the Pirates .. WMTW-TV mentioned that during the announcement of the Coyotes being the Pirates affiliate that 2 of the 4 teams that were negotiating with the Pirates wanted the Pirates to change the team name and logo, but the Pirates agreed to the deal with Phoenix in order to keep their name and logo and because the Coyotes " wanted it the most ".

These ' affiliate ' arrangements lasted until they were abolished in the 1964 franchise round.

After three seasons as a Double-A Boston affiliate, this franchise moved to Bristol, Connecticut, in 1973 to make room for the Triple-A PawSox.

The franchise still exists as the New Britain Rock Cats, an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins since 1995.

When he finally did join the franchise, Varitek was sent to the AA affiliate Port City Roosters where he first met pitcher and longtime teammate Derek Lowe.

Following the first year of the franchise as the Spikes, the St. Louis Cardinals switched affiliations to the Batavia Muckdogs, a former affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.

It has been the AHL affiliate of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, who also own the franchise, since its inception, and use the same team colors as the parent Islanders do.

The franchise joined the Southern League in 1973 as the Orlando Twins, a minor-league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, which held spring training in Orlando, Florida at the time.

In 1993, Charlotte acquired an International League franchise as the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.

The 1997 season, during which the Bulls were an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves from 1980 – 1997, marked their last year in the High-A Carolina League as the franchise moved two levels up from High-A to Triple-A and joined the International League ( IL ) in 1998.

On August 2, 2011, the Durham Bulls defeated the Charlotte Knights, the Chicago White Sox affiliate for their 6, 000th win in franchise history with a final score of 18-3.

The current franchise began play in 1962 as the top affiliate of the Houston Colt. 45s ( later the Houston Astros ).

From 1984 through 1987, the franchise was known as the Vermont Reds and were the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

In 1988, they became the Vermont Mariners for one year when the Seattle Mariners picked up the franchise to serve as its Double-A affiliate.

In 1952, the Wilkes Barre Indians, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians relocated to Reading to become the Reading Indians ( this Eastern League franchise is now the New Britain Rock Cats ).

The franchise left town in 1961 and, after one year without a team, the Williamsport Grays moved to Reading to play for two years as a Boston Red Sox affiliate and for one more year as a Cleveland Indians farm team before relocating again ( this franchise is now the Binghamton Mets ).

The origins of the first Mudcats franchise date back to 1959, when the Chicago White Sox's affiliate, the Charleston White Sox, began play in the South Atlantic League ( now the Southern League ).

The Missions were the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers until 2000, making the relationship the longest-standing Major League affiliation held by the San Antonio franchise.

In November 2004, AFC sold those franchise rights ( along with Cinnabon ) to a newly-established affiliate of Roark Capital Group, FOCUS Brands, Inc.