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 1932, Howard Deering Johnson established the first modern restaurant franchise based on his successful Quincy, Massachusetts Howard Johnson's restaurant founded in the late 1920s.

Entering the American League as an expansion franchise in 1969, along with the Seattle Pilots, the club was founded by Ewing Kauffman, a Kansas City businessman.

The team was founded in 1959 as the Titans of New York, an original member of the American Football League ; later, the franchise joined the NFL in the AFL – NFL merger.

The franchise was founded in Philadelphia in 1883, replacing the team from Worcester, Massachusetts.

Volkswagen began its involvement in Ireland when in 1949, Motor Distributors Limited, founded by Stephen O ' Flaherty secured the franchise for the country at that year ’ s Paris Motor Show.

The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the first expansion teams during the league's original expansion from six to twelve teams.

The franchise was founded in 1989 as an expansion franchise and has had such notable NBA stars such as Shaquille O ' Neal, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, and Rashard Lewis throughout its young history.

The franchise was founded as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, a National Basketball League ( NBL ) team, playing in the gym of North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association ( ABA ) but changed its name to Rockets, because has made famous in the movie BASEKETball, they due not allow Larks in Denver.

The team was founded in 2000, becoming the first NHL franchise in Minnesota since the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993.

Emblematic of these tensions is the work of José Bové, who founded in 1987, the Confédération Paysanne, an agricultural union that places its highest political values on humans and the environment, promotes organic farming and opposes genetically modified organisms ; Bové's most famous protest was the dismantling of a McDonald's franchise in Millau ( Aveyron ), in 1999.

" GM gave him a Florida Cadillac franchise as a retirement gift, and DeLorean did in fact take over the presidency of The National Alliance of Businessmen, a charitable organization with the mission of employing Americans in need, founded by Lyndon Johnson and Henry Ford.

* Baltimore Colts ( 1953 – 1983 ), a National Football League franchise founded in 1953, which relocated to Indianapolis in 1984

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.

The team was founded, in part, because of fears that a lease expiration could have led to the demise or relocation of the NFL's Buffalo Bills, the city's largest sports franchise.

Ted Collins had founded that franchise in 1944 as the Boston Yanks, moved it to New York City in 1949 as the Bulldogs, and renamed it the Yanks in 1950.

The franchise was founded by Leonard Bloom.

The franchise was originally founded as an NLL expansion team for Hamilton, Ontario to begin play in the 1998 season.

The franchise was founded in 1873, and is the oldest existing professional sports team in North America, still using its original name.

* Baltimore Bullets ( EPBL ), a Eastern Professional Basketball League franchise founded in 1958

In 1942, he founded the Carl Bailey Company, an International Harvester franchise, which sold innovative farming machinery.

He founded the franchise after attending a Philadelphia Wings game and thought he could bring that excitement to the Meadowlands.