Relocation of professional sports teams in the United States and Canada explained
Relocation of professional sports teams occurs when a team owner moves a team, generally from one metropolitan area to another, but occasionally between municipalities in the same conurbation. The practice is most common in North America, where a league franchise system is used and the teams are overwhelmingly privately owned. Owners who move a team generally do so seeking better profits, facilities, fan support, or a combination of these.
Unlike most professional sport systems worldwide, North America does not have comprehensive governing bodies whose authority extends from the amateur to the highest levels of a given sport. North American sports generally do not operate a system of promotion and relegation in which poorly performing teams are replaced with teams that do well in lower-level leagues, forming a franchise and minor league system instead.
Background
A city wishing to get a team in a major professional sports league can wait for the league to expand and award new franchises. However, such expansions are infrequent, and generally limited to a narrow window in time. Many current owners believe 32 is the optimal size for a major league due to playoff structure and ease of scheduling. As of 2024, each of the major leagues has between 30 and 33 franchises. The National Hockey League (NHL) has expanded to 33 teams in total, with the Vegas Golden Knights having become the league's 31st team in 2017, the Seattle Kraken having become the 32nd team in 2021, and the Utah Hockey Club having become the 33rd team in 2024.[1] [2]
In past decades, aspiring owners whose overtures had been rejected by the established leagues would respond by forming a rival league in hopes that the existing major league would eventually agree to a merger; the new league would attain major league status in its own right; or the established league was compelled to expand. The 1960s American Football League (AFL) is perhaps the most recent example of a successful rival league, having achieved each of the three goals listed above in reverse order. However, all major sports have had a rival league achieve at least some of these goals in the last half of the 20th century. Baseball's proposed Continental League did not play a game but only because Major League Baseball responded to the proposal by adding teams in some of the new league's proposed cities. The American Basketball Association (ABA) and World Hockey Association (WHA) each succeeded in getting some of their franchises accepted into the established leagues, which had both unsuccessfully attempted to cause their upstart rivals to fold outright by adding more teams.
However, the upstart leagues owed their success in large part to the reluctance of owners in the established leagues to devote the majority of their revenues to player salaries and also to sports leagues' former reliance primarily on gate receipts for revenue. Under those conditions, an ambitious rival could often afford to lure away the sport's top players with promises of better pay, in hopes of giving the new league immediate respect and credibility from fans. Today, however, established leagues derive a large portion of their revenue from lucrative television contracts that would not be offered to an untested rival. Also, the activism of players' unions has resulted in the established leagues paying a majority of their revenues to players, thus the average salary in each of the big four leagues is now well in excess of $1 million per season.
Under present market and financial conditions, any serious attempt to form a rival league in the early 21st century would likely require hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars in investment and initial losses, and even if such resources were made available the upstart league's success would be far from guaranteed, as evidenced by the failure of the WWF/NBC-backed XFL in 2001 and the UFL from 2009 to 2012. The current major leagues have established lucrative relationships with all of the major media outlets in the United States, who subsidize the league's operations because their established fame ensures strong ratings; the networks are far less willing to provide such coverage to an unproven upstart league, often requiring the upstart league to pay the network for those leagues to be covered.
Therefore, as long as leagues choose not to expand or reject a city's application, the only realistic recourse is to convince the owners of an existing team to move it (or convince a prospective owner to purchase a team with the intent of moving it). Owners usually move teams because of weak fan support or because the team organization is in debt and needs an adequate population for financial support or because another city offers a bigger local market or a more financially lucrative stadium/arena deal. Governments may offer lucrative deals to team owners to attract or retain a team. For example, to attract the NFL's Cleveland Browns in 1995, the state of Maryland agreed to build a new stadium in Baltimore and allow the team to use it rent-free and keep all parking, advertising and concession revenue. (This move proved so unpopular in Cleveland that the move was treated as the Baltimore Ravens being awarded an expansion franchise, and the Browns name and their official lineage would remain in Cleveland for a "reactivated" team that rejoined the NFL three years later.) A little more than a decade earlier, the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis (NFL owners voted to give Colts owner Robert Irsay permission to move his franchise to the city of his choosing after no satisfactory stadium would be built).
Moving sports teams is often controversial. Opponents criticize owners for leaving behind faithful fans and governments for spending millions of dollars of tax money on attracting teams. However, since sports teams in the United States are generally treated like any other business under antitrust law, there is little sports leagues can do to prevent teams from flocking to the highest bidders (for instance, the Los Angeles Rams filed suit when the other NFL owners initially blocked their move to St. Louis, which caused the NFL to back down and allow the move to proceed). Major League Baseball, unique among the major professional sports leagues, has an exemption from antitrust laws won by a Supreme Court decision but nonetheless has allowed several teams to change cities. Also recently, courts denied the attempted move of the team then known as the Phoenix Coyotes by siding with the NHL, which claimed that it had final authority over franchise moves.
Newer sports leagues tend to have more transient franchises than more established, "major" leagues, but in the mid-1990s, several NFL and NHL teams moved to other cities, and the threat of a move pushed cities with major-league teams in any sport to build new stadiums and arenas using taxpayer money. The trend continued in the 2000s, when three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams moved in a seven-year span after there were no moves at all in the 16 years before it. Critics referred to the movement of teams to the highest-bidding city as "franchise free agency."
List
The following charts list movements of franchises in the modern eras of the major North American sports leagues. It does not include:
- Moves within a city, which have occurred many times in all major leagues.
- Short distance moves from one city in a metro area to another city in the same metro area. (For example, San Francisco to Oakland or vice versa.)
- Short-distance city-suburb moves. (For example, Los Angeles to Anaheim, both of which are in the same urban agglomeration.)
- Team moves that happened before the organization joined its current league.
- Note, however, that the NFL considers the American Football League of the 1960s as an integral part of its own history. Therefore, moves of AFL teams during the existence of that league are included.
- Moves of teams that, as of 2023, no longer exist. There were many such moves in the early years of the NFL in particular.
- Teams that have threatened to move as leverage for a new stadium or arena in their current market without actually moving, as well as teams that nearly moved for other reasons, not related to team dissatisfaction in a given market. (For example, the Pittsburgh Pirates nearly moving to Denver following the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, the Minnesota Timberwolves almost moving to New Orleans in 1994, or the Sacramento Kings almost moving to Anaheim, Seattle, and Virginia Beach from 2011 to 2013.)
Major League Baseball
See also: Major League Baseball relocation of 1950s–60s and List of defunct and relocated Major League Baseball teams.
- 1902: Original Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the St. Louis Browns.
- 1903: Original Baltimore Orioles moved to New York City and became the New York Highlanders. The team was renamed as the New York Yankees in 1913. As this situation may also be considered a case of the American League dissolving the Baltimore franchise and issuing a new franchise in New York, Yankees history information usually begins in 1903.
- 1953: Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. It was the first move for a team in the MLB, which for 50 years, had consisted of 16 teams playing in their original 10 cities.
- 1954: St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.
- 1955: Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City, Missouri.
- 1958: Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles; the New York Giants moved to San Francisco. These were the first major league teams to be based in the U.S. West Coast; the teams moved simultaneously to facilitate travel for other National League (NL) teams. The NL granted New York City a new expansion franchise, the New York Mets, in 1962.
- 1961: Washington Senators moved to the Twin Cities area and became the Minnesota Twins. Not wishing to alienate Washington, D.C., the American League (AL) granted the city a new expansion franchise, also called the Washington Senators.
- 1966: Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta.
- 1968: Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland, California. Because Charles O. Finley broke a recently signed lease and public bonds were already issued for the building of what is now known as Kauffman Stadium, Major League Baseball was in danger of anti-trust legislation from Stuart Symington, U.S. Senator from Missouri. As a result, the AL granted Kansas City a new expansion franchise, the Kansas City Royals, in 1969.
- 1970: Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Brewers. The AL granted Seattle a new expansion franchise, the Seattle Mariners, in 1977.
- 1972: Washington Senators moved to Arlington, Texas and became the Texas Rangers.
- 2005: Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals. The Expos had split time between Montreal and San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2003 and 2004. This was the first move in 33 years.[3]
- 2020: Toronto Blue Jays temporarily moved to Buffalo, New York, the home of their AAA affiliate, retaining the name. This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting Canada which resulted in the closure of the Canada–United States border, preventing the Blue Jays from playing their home games at the Rogers Centre. It also marked the first time an MLB game was played in Buffalo since the Buffalo Blues of the Federal League folded in 1915, as well as being the first time no games were played in Canada since 1968.
- 2021: Toronto Blue Jays temporarily moved to Dunedin, Florida, from April 8 to May 24, then moved back to Buffalo, New York, from June 1 to July 21. On July 30, the team moved back to Toronto and returned to the Rogers Centre full time.
National Basketball Association
See main article: List of relocated National Basketball Association teams.
- 1951: Tri-Cities Blackhawks, who played their home games in Moline, Illinois, moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Hawks.
- 1955: Milwaukee Hawks moved to St. Louis. The NBA granted Milwaukee a new expansion franchise, the Bucks, in .
- 1957: Fort Wayne Pistons moved to Detroit.
- 1957: Rochester Royals moved to Cincinnati.
- 1960: Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles. The NBA granted Minneapolis a new expansion franchise, the Minnesota Timberwolves, in .
- 1962: Philadelphia Warriors moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and became the San Francisco Warriors, then the Golden State Warriors in 1971.
- 1963: Chicago Zephyrs moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Bullets. The NBA granted Chicago a new expansion franchise, the Bulls, in .
- 1963: Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia and became the Philadelphia 76ers.
- 1968: St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta.
- 1971: San Diego Rockets moved to Houston.
- 1972: Cincinnati Royals moved to a new primary home in Kansas City and a secondary home in Omaha, becoming the Kansas City-Omaha Kings (to avoid confusion with the baseball Royals.) The team ceased playing home games in Omaha in 1975.
- 1973: Baltimore Bullets moved to Landover, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., and were renamed as the Capital Bullets. The team was renamed the Washington Bullets in ; in conjunction with the opening of their new arena in downtown D.C., the team was renamed the Washington Wizards in .
- 1978: Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego and became the San Diego Clippers.
- 1979: New Orleans Jazz moved to Salt Lake City.
- 1984: San Diego Clippers moved to Los Angeles.
- 1985: Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento, California.
- 2001: Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee and became the Memphis Grizzlies.
- 2002: Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans. The NBA granted Charlotte a new expansion franchise, known as the Bobcats, in . The Bobcats reclaimed the Hornets name before the start of the .
- At the same time that the name change to Hornets was announced, it was also revealed that the Hornets, the league, and the franchise now known as the New Orleans Pelicans had reached an agreement that the history of the original Charlotte Hornets would belong exclusively to the current Hornets.[4] [5] As a result, the NBA now considers the Charlotte Hornets to have begun play in the, suspended operations following the, returned as the Bobcats beginning with the, and renamed the Hornets beginning with the 2014–15 season, while the New Orleans Pelicans kept their history as the Hornets from moving in .
- 2005: New Orleans Hornets moved temporarily to Oklahoma City following Hurricane Katrina and became the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.
- 2007: New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets returned to New Orleans full-time. The team was renamed as the Pelicans in .
- 2008: Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder.
- 2012: New Jersey Nets moved to Brooklyn and became the Brooklyn Nets.
- 2020: Toronto Raptors moved temporarily to Tampa due to the closure of the Canada–United States border stemming from the COVID-19 situation affecting Canada, preventing the Raptors from playing their home games in the Scotiabank Arena.
See main article: National Football League franchise moves and mergers.
The history of the NFL fully incorporates that of the fourth American Football League, which began operation in 1960 with eight teams and became by far the most successful rival to the NFL. In 1966, the two leagues agreed to a merger that took full effect in 1970. All teams from the 1960–1969 AFL were brought intact to the NFL, and the current NFL recognizes all AFL records and statistics as its own.
- 1921: Decatur Staleys moved to Chicago and became the Bears one year later.
- 1934: Portsmouth Spartans moved to Detroit and became the Lions.
- 1937: Boston Redskins moved to Washington, D.C. The team was renamed as the Washington Commanders in 2022.
- 1946: Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles.
- 1960: Chicago Cardinals moved to St. Louis.
- 1961: The AFL's Los Angeles Chargers moved to San Diego after spending their inaugural 1960 season in Los Angeles.
- 1963: The AFL Dallas Texans (not to be confused with the short-lived NFL franchise of the same name) moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Chiefs.
- 1982: Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles. Although the NFL refused permission for the move, the team won the right to move (as well as the right to remain as a franchise in its conference and in the league) through a court case.
- 1984: Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis and became the Indianapolis Colts. The team's offices were slipped out of Baltimore in the middle of the night to avoid a proposed eminent domain seizure by the state of Maryland.
- 1988: St. Louis Cardinals moved to the Phoenix area, playing games in nearby Tempe and became the Phoenix Cardinals. The team was renamed the Arizona Cardinals in . The team now plays in another Phoenix suburb, Glendale.
- 1995: Los Angeles Raiders moved back to Oakland after 13 seasons.
- 1995: Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis.
- 1996: Cleveland Browns players and coaching staff moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Ravens. The move was one of the most controversial in major professional sports history. In response to a fan revolt and legal threats, the NFL awarded a new franchise to Cleveland in, which for historical purposes is considered a continuation of the original Browns franchise.
- 1997: Houston Oilers moved to Memphis, Tennessee. The team originally planned to play the 1997 and 1998 seasons in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis before moving to Nashville. However, due to poor attendance, the team moved to Nashville in 1998, playing in Vanderbilt University's stadium. The team was renamed as the Tennessee Titans in 1999, when its new stadium was opened. The NFL granted Houston a new expansion franchise in .
- 2016: St. Louis Rams moved back to Los Angeles after 21 seasons in St. Louis. The team moved to a newly built SoFi Stadium in nearby Inglewood in 2020. Rams owner and CEO Stan Kroenke later settled for $790 million to the city of St. Louis over his bad faith efforts to keep the team in St. Louis.
- 2017: San Diego Chargers returned to their original home of Los Angeles after 56 seasons in San Diego. The team played in the suburb of Carson before joining the Rams at their new stadium in 2020.
- 2020: Oakland Raiders were approved to move to a recently constructed Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas area in 2020.[6] The team played in Oakland for the 2018 season and, due to being thwarted in its plans to play in San Francisco by their regional rivals the 49ers, were forced to play in Oakland in 2019 as well before completing the move to Las Vegas in 2020.[7] [8]
National Hockey League
See main article: List of defunct and relocated National Hockey League teams. Unlike in the MLB and NBA, the NHL did not temporarily move teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the league temporarily abolished conferences and re-aligned divisions for the 2020-21 season, consolidating all seven Canadian teams to the North Division due to travel restrictions at the Canada–United States Border.
Only one NHL team that moved has kept its name: the Calgary Flames.
The Edmonton Oilers nearly moved to Houston in 1998, but the team remained in the city after a limited partnership raised enough money to purchase the franchise before the deadline.[9] [10] The then-Phoenix Coyotes were placed into bankruptcy with the intent to circumvent the league's relocation rules, but this was blocked by a judge. Other threats to leave came from two of the 1967 expansion teams, the Pittsburgh Penguins (on multiple occasions) and St. Louis Blues (in 1983), but ultimately stayed in their existing markets.
- 1976: California Golden Seals, who played their home games in Oakland, moved to Cleveland and became the Barons. The Cleveland Barons then merged with the Minnesota North Stars two years later; the San Francisco Bay Area was awarded the San Jose Sharks in 1991 when the owners threatened to move the team from Minnesota, they were allowed to split half the team back to San Jose.
- 1976: Kansas City Scouts moved to Denver and became the Colorado Rockies.
- 1978: The Cleveland Barons franchise merged with the Minnesota North Stars; Ohio was awarded an expansion team (the Columbus Blue Jackets) in .
- 1980: Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary; Atlanta was awarded an expansion team in, which moved to Winnipeg in .
- 1982: Colorado Rockies moved to East Rutherford and became the New Jersey Devils; 13 years later, Colorado received the Quebec Nordiques.
- 1993: Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas and became the Stars; Minnesota was awarded an expansion team in .
- 1995: Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche.
- 1996: Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix and became the Phoenix Coyotes. The team changed its geographic name to Arizona before the . In 2011, Winnipeg would receive another team, also called the Jets, through the move of the Atlanta Thrashers.
- 1997: Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh and became the Carolina Hurricanes. For the 1997–98 and 1998–98 seasons, they played home games in Greensboro while their intended home, the venue now known as PNC Arena, was under construction in Raleigh.
- 2011: Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and became the new Winnipeg Jets.
- 2024: Arizona Coyotes players, coaching staff and personnel will move to Salt Lake City for the 2024-25 season; however, the Arizona Coyotes records and trademarks must remain behind in Arizona, which gives current Coyotes ownership until 2029 to secure a new arena financing deal, after which the franchise will be reactivated via expansion.[11]
Major League Soccer
- 2006: San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston and became the Houston Dynamo; however, the team records, logo, colors, championships and history were left in San Jose. An option for an MLS franchise was awarded to Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff in 2006 and the option was exercised in 2007. The Earthquakes resumed play in MLS in 2008 as a continuation of the previous Earthquakes franchise under new ownership.
Women's National Basketball Association
Canadian Football League
While none of the CFL's core Canadian franchises have moved from one market to another, the league's short-lived expansion into the United States did include one team move.
The league also attempted to move the Las Vegas Posse after their single season of 1994. Prior to the 1995 season, multiple ownership groups unsuccessfully tried to buy the team for a move to Jackson, Mississippi. Following that, plans were made to move the team to Miami, Florida as the Manatees, but plans fell through when the league chose to end the U.S. expansion before the Manatees' scheduled launch in 1996.
The CFL's expansion into the U.S. both began and ended with events that were not technically team moves, but were also not truly new teams being formed. The staff of the Ottawa Rough Riders moved from Ottawa to Shreveport, Louisiana, to become the Shreveport Pirates in 1993, but the CFL forced the team itself to be left in Ottawa, where a new owner kept the franchise alive. In 1996, the owners of the Baltimore Stallions folded the team upon the announcement that the Cleveland Browns would be moving to Baltimore (but see Cleveland Browns relocation controversy). Despite high attendance and success on the field, management felt that they would be unable to directly compete with an NFL team in the same city. The Stallions' ownership group took over the then-dormant Montreal Alouettes franchise. While the players were released from their contracts with the Stallions, many were subsequently signed to the Alouettes. The CFL and the Alouettes do not consider the Stallions' records, including the 1995 Grey Cup victory, as part of the team's legacy. The Alouettes are instead considered a continuation of the previous teams of that name.
Esports
Few esports leagues follow the city-based model of older North American professional sports leagues. Still, teams in the Call of Duty League and the now-defunct Overwatch League have moved:
- 2021: After OpTic Gaming merged with Team EnvyUs, the Dallas Empire CDL team were rebranded as OpTic Texas. However, since OpTic owned a team in Chicago before the merger (known as OpTic Chicago), the team were forced to find a new owner: the Kraft Sports Group. The OpTic Chicago team moved to Boston and became the Boston Breach.
- 2022: C0ntact Gaming, owners of the Paris Eternal Overwatch League and Paris Legion Call of Duty League teams, announced that both teams would move from Paris, France, to Las Vegas. The teams would rebrand to the Vegas Eternal and Vegas Legion respectively.
- 2022: The Philadelphia Fusion OWL team moved from Philadelphia to Seoul, South Korea, and became the Seoul Infernal.
- 2023: The London Royal Ravens CDL team moved from London, England, to the Carolinas region of the United States and became the Carolina Royal Ravens.
- 2024: The Seattle Surge CDL team moved from Seattle to Vancouver and became the Vancouver Surge.
Notes and References
- News: Rosen. Dan. Board of Governors OKs start of expansion process. NHL Enterprises, L.P.. NHL.com. June 24, 2015. September 7, 2015.
- Web site: Muir. Allan. NHL expansion bid results disappoint league, leave Seattle out in cold. Sports Illustrated. July 21, 2015. September 7, 2015.
- News: Bloom. Barry M.. MLB selects D.C. for Expos. MLB Advanced Media. MLB.com. September 29, 2004. February 16, 2019.
- News: Charlotte Hornets Name Returns to Carolinas. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Hornets.com. May 20, 2014. May 20, 2014.
- News: Hornets all the buzz in Charlotte. Associated Press. ESPN Internet Ventures, LLC. ESPN.com. May 20, 2014. May 23, 2014. [Hornets president and CEO Fred] Whitfield also announced that, in collaboration with the NBA and the Pelicans, all the statistical information, records and history of Charlotte NBA basketball will be restored to the franchise. That means the Hornets will now own and have access to all the historical elements from the recent Bobcats era (2004–14) as well as the original Hornets teams that played in Charlotte.....
- News: Rosenthal. Gregg. NFL owners approve Raiders' move to Las Vegas. NFL Enterprises, LLC. NFL.com. March 27, 2017. March 27, 2017.
- News: Oakland sues NFL, Raiders over move to Las Vegas. Associated Press. NFL Enterprises, LLC. NFL.com. December 11, 2018. February 16, 2019.
- News: Beaton. Andrew. Oakland Files Lawsuit Against Raiders, NFL. The Wall Street Journal. December 11, 2018. December 11, 2018.
- News: A New Oilers Team Could Hit Houston. The New York Times. February 12, 1998. January 5, 2016.
- Web site: Flores. Lucien. NHL Relocation: 7 Scares That Almost Happened. Bleacher Report. October 30, 2012. January 5, 2016.
- Web site: 2024-04-15 . Leaving Arizona: Everything you need to know about the Coyotes moving to Salt Lake City . 2024-05-23 . ESPN.com . en.
