The list includes baseball's Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, who are operated by the nonprofit Toledo Mud Hens Baseball Club Inc. — a creation of the local Lucas County government. The Mud Hens are aggressively run by general manager Joe Napoli and his staff, who report to a community-based board of directors.

Napoli said the Mud Hens, the top farm team of the Detroit Tigers since 1987, have enjoyed great success on and off the field, including four consecutive winning seasons, since moving into a new downtown stadium in 2002,

"It's worked out very well for our community," Napoli said. "Because the team's profits are dedicated to repaying the bond for the new ballpark, the more successful the team is, the more successful the community is."

There can be a downside, however, if the team or the stadium fails to perform.

"Fortunately we haven't faced deficits for a long time," Napoli said, explaining there are performance standards and benchmarks the board of directors and Lucas County continually monitor. But should these safeguards fail and a shortfall occur, losses would be underwritten by Lucas County, he said.

The Mud Hens' success has fueled Lucas County's expansion into other sports.

Toledo Arena Sports Inc., a nonprofit sibling of the Mud Hens organization, is launching a new hockey team — the Toledo Walleye — to compete with the Grizzlies in the ECHL next season.

The Walleye actually are an ECHL replacement for the Toledo Storm, who suspended operations in 2007. The team will play in a new state-of-the-art downtown arena still under construction. Toledo Arena Sports also is planning a new minor league entry into Arena Football League 2 in 2010.

As with the Mud Hens' economic model, net profits from hockey and arena football will be dedicated to retiring the mortgage on the new arena.

Community ownership has proven successful at the major league level, too, with the National Football League's Green Bay Packers — the only nonprofit big league franchise in the U.S.

Green Bay Packers Inc. has been a publicly owned, nonprofit corporation since Aug. 18, 1923, according to the Packers' Web site, www.packers.com. With nearly 5 million shares owned by more than 100,000 stockholders, talk show host David Letterman once joked that "they would have to get rid of Wisconsin to move the Green Bay Packers."

While it's developed into a beautiful marriage, it hasn't always been smooth sailing among the Cheese Heads. Fans have had to come to the team's financial rescue on numerous times, including four previous stock sales in 1923, 1935, 1950 and 1997.

Several Canadian Football League franchises also have been community-owned over the years.

E-MAIL: chuck@desnews.com