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 a franchise system, teams are not promoted or relegated as are teams in a league system.

During the 1780s, a few liberal members of the ruling Protestant Ascendancy known as the Irish Patriot Party had promoted expanding the franchise and increasing Catholic and Presbyterian rights in Ireland.

Both entered the league in the 1993 – 94 season and were promoted as future stars of the franchise, on the cover of the Senators ' year book and media guide.

Both Australia and New Zealand adopted new franchise models for their teams, whereas South Africa chose to use the Currie Cup to decide what teams were to be promoted in the Super 12 each season.

Although not often promoted by the company, Legal & General also owns one of the largest estate agency / lettings agency franchise businesses in the UK through its LGFL ( Legal & General Franchising Ltd ) subsidiary.

He was promoted to the major league team in 2004 and was present for the Expos ' final games as a Montreal franchise.

The Paladin class in the Fire Emblem strategy franchise is a mounted combat class, the promoted form of the Cavalier class.

The franchise would spend three years playing for the Double-A Eastern League before being promoted to the Triple-A International League.

In 2001 – 2002, Wright was promoted within the franchise and began serving as the new General Manager.

When Jackson left after 2 years to become general manager of the expansion NBA Vancouver franchise, Van Gundy was promoted to replace him as head coach and given a 5-year contract.

He was promoted to the head coach position mid-way through the 1997 – 1998 season after Walker led the team to a franchise low ( 11 – 38 ) record.

Himself shrinking from the imposition on these communities of the franchise for the coloured people, his unyielding disposition in regard to matters involving no vital principle did much to bring it about.

The Falcons joined the NFL in 1965 as an expansion team, after the NFL offered then-owner Rankin Smith a franchise to keep him from joining the rival American Football League ( AFL ).

With everyone running in different directions, some local businessmen worked out a deal and were awarded an AFL franchise on June 7, 1965, contingent upon acquiring exclusive stadium rights from city officials.

The Orioles name had been used by previous major league baseball clubs in Baltimore, including the American League Baltimore Orioles franchise from 1901 – 1902 that became the New York Yankees and the National League Baltimore Orioles.

From a sociological and demographic perspective, the Big Brother franchise allows the opportunity for analysis of how people react when forced into close confinement with people who lie outside their comfort zone, since they may hold different opinions or ideals from other contestants, or simply belong to a different group of people than a contestant normally interacts with.

* Blot ( Transformers ), a character from the Transformers franchise

Some of these games, such as Pyramid from Battlestar Galactica, become real card games as the holder of the intellectual property develops and markets a suitable deck and ruleset for the game, while others, such as " Exploding Snap " from the Harry Potter franchise, lack sufficient descriptions of rules, or depend on cards or other hardware that are infeasible or physically impossible.

With the Hanoverian accession in Britain onwards, monarchs saw their powers pass further to their ministers, and Royal neutrality in politics became cemented from around the start of the reign of Queen Victoria ( though she had her personal favorites ) and enlargements to the franchise.

The franchise takes its name from an earlier Cincinnati Bengals team, which played from 1937 – 1941.

After over a dozen more subpar seasons, in 1981 the Cubs hired GM Dallas Green from Philadelphia to turn around the franchise.

For a time, no credible offers surfaced from Denver interests, and it looked like the franchise would be moved to Tampa, Florida before even playing a game.

Declining attendance meant that the club's payroll could no longer support a franchise stocked largely with veterans from other clubs.

In the Halo franchise, the weak, low-ranking Grunts of the Covenant originate on a frozen exoplanet named Balaho, where methane is a primary constituent of the atmosphere, prevents the planet becoming even more frigid than it already is due to its distance from its parent star, and thus, Grunts have evolved to utilize the gas for respiration.

In 2003, The Protomen released their debut album Act 1 ( The Protomen ) which borrows from the story of the Megaman franchise to create a dystopian rock opera.

Cable television franchise fees stems from a community's basic right to charge for use of the property it owns.

An article from Forbes Magazine, dated September 5, 2012, lists the Cowboys as the highest valued sports franchise in the history of the United States, and second in the world ( behind Manchester United of the English Premier League ), with an estimated value of approximately $ 2. 1 billion.

The following season, the Wings looked poised to " three-peat " for the first time in franchise history, acquiring three-time top blueliner Chris Chelios from his hometown Chicago Blackhawks in March 1999, but they would end up losing the Western Conference Semifinals to Colorado in six games.

The Marlins ' franchise got its second no-hitter from ace Kevin Brown on June 10, 1997.

Retaining a core of stars from their title team and hoping that newly acquired 1B Hee Seop Choi would emerge, the Marlins fell short of reaching the postseason, but they posted the third winning season in franchise history, boasting an 83-79 record.

Franchise contracts tend to be unilateral contracts in favor of the franchisor, who is generally protected from lawsuits from their franchisees because of the non-negotiable contracts that require franchisees to acknowledge, in effect, that they are buying the franchise knowing that there is risk, and that they have not been promised success or profits by the franchisor.