Professional sports leagues should have a mechanism whereby terrible owners can be forced to sell if enough other owners agree. Marge Schott was forced to sell the Reds because of her political views, Rush Limbaugh was denied the right to buy a team because of his political views, why shouldn't the way an owner runs his team come under fair scrutiny for something besides his political views for the betterment of the league.
The Pirates have an owner, Bob Nutting, who deliberately keeps payroll low and trades away young talent for prospects right before they're eligible to become free agents, so they're in a permanent rebuilding mode as the process repeats over and over. He maximizes his profit while the team and its fans suffer. The Pirates have had four winning seasons in the last 30 years. They'll never be competitive other than for occasional fluke years as long as the Nutting family owns the team, similar to the Dolphins and Jaguars with their current owners. It's even worse when it happens in football because at least the NFL has a salary cap which is designed to create as much parity as possible, yet certain teams still suck just about every year. The Lions are another annual sadsack team in the NFL, so are the Cardinals most of the time with this year being an exception. The Jets and Bears can also be included.
As usual the 1% are untouchable and unaccountable -- unless they don't toe the party line politically.