In order to take control of the Upper Ohio Valley's baseball business, Rock Springs Park owner, C.A. Smith, and his partner, park manager J.H. Maxwell, came up with a "unique offer” to buy out their only competition - The East Liverpool Exhibition Company in 1908. The monies would be raised by offering fans $4.00 a share in the Ohio and Pennsylvania (O&P) League payable in ten admission tickets to the games at Rock Springs Park. In other words, if one were to purchase ten admission tickets to a game with a face value of 40 cents each, one could use those tickets to buy a single share of stock in the company, making the league one of the first partially community-owned franchises in American professional sports.
Sporting Life Magazine – May 9, 1908
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