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 ).

The Franchise Association originally supported the positive regulation of the franchise sector but its eventual submission to the review was in favour of the status quo – self-regulation.

Robbie had originally wanted to establish the franchise in Philadelphia, but AFL commissioner Joe Foss suggested courting Miami due to its warm climate, growing population, and lack of a football team.

The Tampa Bay expansion franchise was originally awarded to Tom McCloskey, a construction company owner from Philadelphia.

Mizuguchi also oversaw the development of Gunpey ( for PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS ), an update on the puzzle franchise originally created by the late ( Game Boy creator ) Gunpei Yokoi's development team, Koto Laboratory.

The franchise was originally to run for twenty years but in 2002 the Strategic Rail Authority changed the way it wanted investment funded and Govia was awarded a seven and a half year franchise until December 2009.

However with Virgin Group seeking a judicial review, it is unknown if the franchise will pass to First West Coast as originally announced by the Department for Transport on 9 December 2012.

Little House on the Prairie is a media franchise that started with a series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was published originally between 1932 and 1943.

They were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to be confused with the Cleveland Indians NFL franchise in 1922.

Carlton Television was originally a company set up by Michael Green's Carlton Communications to bid for an ITV franchise.

Several of their more famous franchise titles, originally created for the MVS and AES systems, have been ported to other consoles such as the Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation and PlayStation 2, Xbox, and more recently, the Wii.

The franchise was originally to run for twenty years but in 2002 the Strategic Rail Authority changed the way it wanted investment funded and South West Trains was awarded a three year franchise commencing 1 February 2004.

The Coca-Cola Company was originally the primary soft drink supplier for the franchise, until 2005.

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

* USS Hood ( NCC-42296, originally NCC-2541 ) appeared in the Star Trek franchise as an Excelsior-class starship, appearing in the 24th century.

Harris had originally sought the franchise, but a search for capital led him to Diethrich and Allen.

Both games were developed by Turbine Entertainment Software and originally published by Microsoft, until Turbine purchased the Asheron's Call franchise in December 2003.

The franchise was originally known as the Pittsburgh Gladiators, and was one of the original four AFL teams formed in 1987.

Most of the incarnations of the franchise involve the fictional trading card game called Duel Monsters ( originally known as Magic & Wizards ), where each player uses cards to " duel " each other in a mock battle of fantasy " monsters ".

The team was originally going to be named the " Dallas Texans ", following in the footsteps of Dallas ’ former AFL franchise which existed from 1990-1993.

The franchise was originally based in East Rutherford, New Jersey and then later in Las Vegas, Nevada ; it has been in Cleveland since the AFL's 2008 season.

Cedar Rapids was awarded a Midwest League franchise in 1962 that was originally called the Red Raiders ( 1962 – 1964 ).

The Boxcar Children is a children's literary franchise originally created and written by American writer and first-grade school teacher, Gertrude Chandler Warner.