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 ).

Brown recently purchased shares of the team owned by the estate of co-founder Austin Knowlton and is now the majority owner of the Bengals franchise.

The nickname " Texans " was more recently used by the now-defunct Canadian Football League franchise in San Antonio.

However, after the Revenge of the Nerds movie franchise ( with multicultural nerds ), and the introduction of the Steve Urkel character on the television series Family Matters, nerds have been seen in all races and colors as well as more recently being a frequent young Asian or Indian male stereotype in North America.

Because the then recently reorganized Associated Press refused to sell its services to several of his papers, most of them evening dailies in competition with existing AP franchise holders, in 1907 Scripps merged three smaller syndicates under his ownership or control, the Publishers Press Association, the Scripps-McRae Press Association, and the Scripps News Association, to form United Press Associations, with headquarters in New York City.

The name was a parody of London Weekend Television, the independent television franchise that provided Londoners with their ITV services at weekends ; Rutland had been England's smallest county, but had recently been ' abolished ' in an administrative shake-up.

The Patriots are the winningest franchise of the Atlantic League, capturing five Championship Series titles in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008, and most recently, 2009.

The Rangers were the first NHL franchise in the United States to win the Stanley Cup, which they have done four times ( most recently in 1993 – 94 ).

The Lakers ' franchise began in 1947 when Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen of Minnesota purchased the recently disbanded Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League ( NBL ) for $ 15, 000 from Gems owner Maury Winston.

The Overthorpe post office has recently undergone building work and is now part of the Londis franchise.

A very select amount of films by Walt Disney Pictures are distributed in Canada by another billion-dollar franchise known as Alliance Films with DVD rights to Universal Studios Home Entertainment, typically for films under Miramax Films, which was recently sold by Walt Disney Studios to Filmyard Holdings.

Its original purpose was to draw on Dark Horse properties but expanded to include such collectibles as Tim Burton's Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys, Joss Whedon's Serenity, and most recently, merchandise for the popular video-game franchise Mass Effect.

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.

However, the recently terminated Connex South Eastern franchise, while " nationalised " as South Eastern Trains until the end of the franchise period, was subsequently re-franchised as Southeastern.

They won while hosting the tournament in 1990, repeated in 1991, again in 1996, in 1999 and most recently won back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010 ; giving arguably the most dominant performance of any franchise in a single decade since the introduction of the Centennial Cup in 1971.

In 1969, Bond franchise producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were looking for a replacement for Sean Connery and Reed ( who had recently played a resourceful killer in The Assassination Bureau ) was mentioned as a possible choice for the role.

The practice of making sandwiches to order is absent in both, and is limited to fast food joints like the recently introduced Subway franchise.

He is also the voice of Fifi in the Open Season franchise and most recently has appeared in the screen adaption of the Elmore Leonard novel " Freaky Deaky ".

and most recently, a Blood franchise, Blood-C.

It was the home arena for the NHL's New Jersey Devils hockey franchise from 1982 to 2007 and the NCAA's Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball team from 1985 to 2007 as well as continuing to play host to various regular season men's college basketball, most recently on December 4, 2010 between Duke University and Butler University.

In From Hong Kong With Love ( 1975 ), they reluctantly replaced a recently deceased 007 when Queen Elizabeth II is abducted by villain Mickey Rooney ... For the occasion, actors Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell, cameoed in their roles from the 007 franchise as M and Miss Moneypenny respectively.

While Western New York currently does not have a team in Major League Soccer ( occasionally considered the fifth major league on the American sporting landscape ), until relatively recently, Rochester had frequently been mentioned as a candidate for a new expansion franchise.

Hasbro has recently acquired the right to the Micronauts toy line and J. J. Abrams is currently in negotiations to develop a movie version of the franchise.

More recently, the NHL's San Jose Sharks played their first two seasons of existence at the Cow Palace, although the NHL had previously rejected the building in 1967 as a home for the expansion California Seals franchise.

The San Francisco Giants are the only franchise to see four players reach the milestone while on their roster: Mel Ott while the team was in New York, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and most recently Bonds.