Relocation Of Professional Sports Teams - Moving To Another City

Relocation of professional sports teams is a practice which involves a sporting club moving from one metropolitan area to another, although occasionally moves between municipalities in the same conurbation are also included. In North America a League franchise system is used and, as the teams are generally privately owned and operate according to the wishes of their owners, the practice much more common there than it is in other areas of the world where sporting teams are often identified with a specific location. Moving of teams is more commonplace among less established teams with small or non-existent fan-bases. Reasons for relocations are commonly motivated by either problems with finances, problems with inadequate facilities, lack of support or due to the wishes of the owner or owners; in most cases it is a combination of some or all of those problems.

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Franchise relocations in North America

Background

Unlike most professional sport systems worldwide, sports organizations in North America 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. North America does not have comprehensive governing bodies whose authority extends from the amateur to the highest levels of a given sport. Unlike in other countries, where one may invest in a local lower-level club and through performance see that club rise to major league status, the only three ways a North American city can host a major league sports team are through league expansion, forming/joining a rival league, or, most commonly, buying a existing league franchise and relocating it.

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, as of 2015 each of the major leagues has 30 or 32 franchises. Many current owners believe this is the optimal size for a major league, and with the possible exception of the NFL's desire to return to Los Angeles, North America's second largest market, and the possible expansion of the NHL to 32 teams, none of the major leagues are believed to be imminently considering expansion. In fact, Major League Baseball actually considered contracting the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins in 2002, which would have taken effect in the 2007 season, until the baseball players union sued Major League Baseball to prevent the dissolution of the teams. In the end, nothing happened to the Twins, who had the issue leading to their possible contraction, a new stadium, resolved with the opening of Target Field in 2010, while the Expos relocated to Washington, D.C. to become the Washington Nationals in 2005.

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 will eventually agree to a merger, the new league will attain major league status in its own right and/or the established league is compelled to expand. The 1960s American Football League 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 proposed CL cities. The American Basketball Association and World Hockey Association 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, these 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 on 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. Not even at any point since the start of the 1980s have any of the established leagues so much as added expansion teams while a rival was operating (or establishment of a rival league was being seriously considered). Therefore, so long as leagues choose not to expand and/or reject a city's application, the only realistic recourse is to convince the owner(s) 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 National Football League's Cleveland Browns in 1995, the state of Maryland agreed to build a new stadium 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, while the Browns name and their official lineage would remain in Cleveland for a "reactivated" team founded in a few 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).

The relocation of 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 USA 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 allowing that relocation to proceed). Major League Baseball, unique among the major professional sports leagues, has an exemption from antitrust laws won through a Supreme Court decision but nonetheless has allowed several teams to change cities. Also recently, courts had denied the attempted relocation of the team then known as the Phoenix Coyotes by siding with the National Hockey League 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 National Hockey League 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 teams moved in a seven-year span after there were no relocations 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 of relocations

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.)
• 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.
• Moves of teams that as of 2014 no longer exist. There were many such moves in the early years of the NFL in particular.
• Teams that have threatened relocation 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, Colorado following the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985.)

Major League Baseball

• 1902: Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri and became the St. Louis Browns.
• 1903: Baltimore Orioles moved to New York and became the Highlanders. The team was renamed the Yankees in 1913.
• 1953: Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. This was the first relocation in 50 years. During those 50 years, there had also been no expansions or contractions--Major League Baseball had consisted of the same 16 teams, 8 in each league, playing in the same 10 cities without interruption for half a century.
• 1954: St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles.
• 1955: Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City, Missouri.
• 1958: Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles; New York Giants moved to San Francisco. These were the first major league teams on the West Coast; the teams moved simultaneously to facilitate travel for other National League (NL) teams.
• 1961: Washington Senators (original) moved to the Twin Cities area and became the Minnesota Twins. Not wishing to alienate Washington, D.C. and its powerful baseball fans, the American League (AL) granted the city a new expansion franchise, also called the Senators.
• 1966: Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta, Georgia.
• 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 in 1969.
• 1970: Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers. The AL granted Seattle a new expansion franchise in 1977.
• 1972: Washington Senators (second franchise) 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 relocation in 33 years.

National Basketball Association

• 1951: Tri-Cities Blackhawks, who played their home games in Moline and Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, moved to Milwaukee and became the Hawks.
• 1955: Milwaukee Hawks moved to St. Louis.
• 1957: Fort Wayne Pistons moved to Detroit.
• 1957: Rochester Royals moved to Cincinnati.
• 1960: Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles.
• 1962: Philadelphia Warriors moved to San Francisco.
• 1963: Chicago Zephyrs moved to Baltimore and became the Bullets.
• 1963: Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia and became the 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, and became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. The team ceased playing home games in Omaha in 1975.
• 1973: Baltimore Bullets moved to Landover, Maryland and were renamed the Capital Bullets. The team was renamed the Washington Bullets in 1974.
• 1978: Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego and became the Clippers.
• 1979: New Orleans Jazz moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and were renamed the Utah Jazz.
• 1984: San Diego Clippers moved to Los Angeles.
• 1985: Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento, California.
• 1997: Washington Bullets moved to Washington D.C. and were renamed the Wizards.
• 2001: Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
• 2002: Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans. The NBA granted Charlotte a new expansion franchise, known as the Bobcats, in 2004. The Bobcats reclaimed the "Hornets" name before the start of the 2014-15 season.
  • 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. As a result, the NBA now considers the Charlotte Hornets to have begun play in the 1988-89 season, suspended operations following the 2001-02 season, returned as the Bobcats beginning with the 2004-05 season, and renamed the Hornets beginning with the 2014-15 season, while the New Orleans Pelicans kept their history as the Hornets from relocation in 2002-03 season.
• 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 the Pelicans in 2013.
• 2008: Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder.

National Football League

• 1921: Decatur Staleys moved to Chicago and became the Bears one year later.
• 1934: Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans moved to Detroit and became the Lions.
• 1937: Boston Redskins moved to Washington, D.C.
• 1946: Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles.
• 1949: Boston Yanks moved to New York and renamed the New York Bulldogs.
• 1960: Chicago Cardinals moved to St. Louis.
• 1982: Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles. The NFL refused permission for the move, but the team won the right to relocate in a court case.
• 1984: Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis. 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. The team now plays in another Phoenix suburb, Glendale. The team was renamed the Arizona Cardinals in 1994.
• 1995: Los Angeles Raiders moved back to Oakland after 13 previous seasons. Also, the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis.
• 1996: Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the 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 1999, which for historical purposes is considered a continuation of the original Browns franchise.
• 1997: Houston Oilers moved to Memphis and became the Tennessee Oilers. The team originally planned to play both 1997 and 1998 in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis before moving to their intended destination of 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 Titans in 1999, when their new stadium was opened. The NFL granted Houston a new expansion franchise in 2002.

National Hockey League

Relocations in the NHL have been unique in that most of the teams have changed their names after relocating, as opposed to keeping their identity with the old market. Only two NHL teams that relocated--both in the pre-Original Six era and in the modern era--kept their names: the Calgary Flames and the Dallas Stars. Although the Stars were previously known as the Minnesota North Stars, the team had begun to phase "North" out of the name two years before the move to Dallas as part of the "reverse merger" of the North Stars into the Minnesota Stars and the expansion San Jose Sharks (the California Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons had "merged" with Minnesota).

The Edmonton Oilers nearly relocated in 1998 but they remained in the city after a limited partnership raised enough money to purchase the franchise before the deadline. 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 relocation threats 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.

• 1920: Quebec Bulldogs moved to Hamilton, Ontario and became the Tigers.
• 1925: Hamilton Tigers franchise was dissolved and the players rights were acquired by the expansion New York Americans.
• 1930: Pittsburgh Pirates moved to Philadelphia from economic pressures of the Great Depression and became the Philadelphia Quakers, lasting only until the end of the season before folding.
• 1934: Ottawa Senators moved to St. Louis and became the Eagles; Ottawa was awarded an expansion team with the same name in 1992.
• 1976: California Golden Seals, who played their home games in Oakland, moved to Cleveland and became the Barons.
• 1976: Kansas City Scouts moved to Denver and became the Colorado Rockies.
• 1978: The Cleveland Barons franchise merged with the Minnesota North Stars.
• 1980: Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary; Atlanta was awarded an expansion team in 1999, which relocated to Winnipeg in 2011.
• 1982: Colorado Rockies moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey and became the New Jersey Devils.
• 1993: Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas and became the Stars; Minnesota was awarded an expansion team in 2000.
• 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 prior to the 2014-15 season.
• 1997: Hartford Whalers moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and became the Carolina Hurricanes. For the 1997 and 1998 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 current version of the Winnipeg Jets.

Arena Football League

• 2003: The Buffalo Destroyers moved to Columbus, Ohio.
• 2010: The Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings moved to New Orleans and became the current incarnation of the New Orleans VooDoo.
• 2010: The Alabama Vipers moved to the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, Georgia and became the current incarnation of the Georgia Force.
• 2011: The Tulsa Talons moved to San Antonio.

Major League Soccer

• 2006: The 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.

United Soccer Leagues

Austin Aztex FC of the USL First Division and USSF Division 2 Professional League (both of which were former second-tier levels of the United States soccer pyramid) were relocated to Orlando in October 2010, and became Orlando City SC. Club owner Phil Rawlins, a board member of Stoke City F.C. in England, cited problems finding sufficient investors in Austin. Brendan Flood, majority owner of England's Burnley F.C., had wanted to establish a new soccer club in Florida, and decided to pair with Rawlins as co-owners. Less than one year after the relocation to Orlando, Austin Aztex were reborn in the fourth-division USL Premier Development League, when David Markley (founder and minority owner of the previous Aztex) re-established the club.

Women's National Basketball Association

• 2002: Two teams relocated following the league's 2002 season:
  • The Utah Starzz moved to San Antonio, becoming the San Antonio Silver Stars. The team changed its name to San Antonio Stars shortly before the 2014 season.
  • The Orlando Miracle were purchased by the Mohegan Native American tribe and moved to the tribe's Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, becoming the Connecticut Sun. This transaction is notable in that the Sun became the first WNBA team to be owned by a party other than an NBA team owner.
• 2009: The Detroit Shock, despite considerable success on the court in Detroit, including seven straight playoff berths and three WNBA titles, moved after the 2009 season to Tulsa, Oklahoma and currently plays as the Tulsa Shock.

Women's Professional Soccer

The league, started in 2009, saw its first major relocation before the 2011 season. The former Washington Freedom, which previously played in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., was purchased by Dan Borislow, founder of the VoIP company magicJack, and moved to Boca Raton, Florida. The team played as magicJack in the 2011 season, which was marked by near-constant conflict between the league and Borislow. WPS terminated the franchise after that season. The fallout from a subsequent legal battle between WPS and Borislow, combined with major financial losses, led the league to disband in 2012.

Canadian Football League

The Baltimore Stallions moved to Montreal in 1996 to become the Montreal Alouettes. When the Cleveland Browns announced that they would relocate to Baltimore, the Stallions recognized that they could not compete with it and relocated to Montreal where it assumed the defunct Montreal Alouettes' name along with its records, history, and traditions. Although cosmetic rather than substantive, the CFL officially considers the modern Alouettes to be a continuation of the previous Alouettes team in an effort to distance itself from the American expansion experiment of which the Stallions were members and to keep the Alouettes' legacy viewed collectively. The current Alouettes do not consider the Stallions' legacy, including its Grey Cup victory, as part of the team's current legacy, even though the two teams never played concurrently. The only other team to relocate in the CFL's history was the Sacramento Gold Miners, another American team, who moved to become the San Antonio Texans in 1995. 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.

Outside of the American expansion, the CFL has never relocated any of its core Canadian franchises from one market to another.

Moving To Another City Video

Team Relocations in Australia and New Zealand

The two major professional sporting leagues in Australia are the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL). Both competitions were originally based in one city (Melbourne and Sydney respectively) and expanded to a national level, and through this process there have been team relocations, mergers and closures in both leagues. The clubs are owned by members, not privately, but the North American franchise model exists, which means entry to the league is restricted. This hybrid model has meant that the leading promotor of relocation is the league itself, trying to grow the football code by encouraging poorly performing clubs to relocate interstate.

AFL

The AFL is the national competition in Australian rules football and grew out of the mostly suburban Melbourne based Victorian Football League competition; as a result the member clubs have had to move to adjust to a changing national focus.

Major Interstate Relocations and Mergers

• South Melbourne Football Club - in 1982 relocated interstate to Sydney, 963 kilometres north and became the Sydney Swans. Despite early struggles, the club has more than tripled its membership since and have won premierships (championships) in 2005 & 2012.
• Fitzroy Football Club - in 1996 the Melbourne-based club merged its playing operations with the interstate Brisbane Bears, a club 1669 kilometres north of its original home, with the Bears becoming the Brisbane Lions. Since the merger, the Brisbane club almost doubled its membership and won three consecutive premierships between 2001 and 2003. Though the Fitzroy Football Club ceased fielding a team in profession competitions, it continued as a standalone entity based at its traditional home, and fields a team in the amateur Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA).

Minor Relocations

• St Kilda Football Club - in 1964 relocated from the Junction Oval in St Kilda to the Moorabbin Oval in the South Eastern Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin. Two years later they won their first and only premiership. From 1993 to 1999 they played their home games to Waverley Park in Mulgrave in Melbourne's east. St Kilda were one of the first tenants of the new Colonial Stadium in 2000, but their administration remained at Moorabbin. In late 2007, it was confirmed that the club would leave Moorabbin to set up base in Seaford, Victoria, a region (the Mornington Peninsula) in which the club had grown its supporter base significantly. The move was completed at the start of the 2011 season.
• Hawthorn Football Club - in 1973 moved from suburban Hawthorn to Princes Park in Carlton, an inner Northern suburb of Melbourne, and then to Waverley Park in 1991. In 2000, the club moved its home games to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In 2005, some years after Waverley Park's demise as an official VFL/AFL venue, the club permanently relocated to Waverley, but the name of the club did not change.
• Brisbane Bears - in 1993 relocated to the Brisbane Cricket Ground in Brisbane for the 1993 season and membership and attendances instantly tripled. Formed in 1986, the perhaps incorrectly named side had initially established itself in Carrara, Queensland, a suburb of the city of Gold Coast, Queensland, some 80 kilometres south of the city of Brisbane.
• Collingwood Football Club - in 1999 played their last game at Victoria Park in Collingwood and moved to the larger and more central Melbourne Cricket Ground. The headquarters of the club moved to the Lexus Centre in Richmond, Victoria in 2005.

Home Ground Only Relocations

• Fitzroy Football Club - in 1967 moved its home ground from the Brunswick Street Oval in Fitzroy to Princes Park, Carlton. In 1970, the club again moved its home game to the Junction Oval in 1970, then the Whitten Oval in 1984 before eventually merging with an interstate club.
• Essendon Football Club - in 1993 moved their home ground from Windy Hill, Essendon to the larger and more central Melbourne Cricket Ground. In 2000, the club again moved home games to the Telstra Dome, though the headquarters of the club remained in Essendon.
• Port Adelaide Football Club - in 1997, on admission to the AFL moved its home games to AAMI Stadium. The club retained its administration and training base at Alberton Oval in Port Adelaide.
• North Melbourne Football Club - in 2000 moved home ground to the Telstra Dome, but retained the Arden Street Oval in North Melbourne as official headquarters.
• Geelong Football Club - in 2000, the provincial Victorian club became the AFL's first true dual-home club, playing the larger games at the Telstra Dome 75 kilometres away in Melbourne. The club's administration remains based at Kardinia Park in Geelong.
• Footscray Football Club - in 2002 moved permanently from the Whitten Oval in Footscray to the larger and more central Telstra Dome and changed their name to the Western Bulldogs, though the club's headquarters is still in Footscray.
• Richmond Football Club - moved their home games from Punt Road Oval next door to the much larger Melbourne Cricket Ground. The club still trains and has administration quarters at the Punt Road Oval.
• Melbourne Football Club - During the re-development ot their home, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the training and administration headquarters of the club were temporarily moved to Sandringham, Victoria with the Victorian Football League affiliate, the Sandringham Football Club. The club's training headquarters are currently at the Junction Oval which proves troublesome during the summer as it is used for cricket. The club hopes to remove the problems associated with separate administration and training headquarters when it moves all operation to its new headquarters at a refurbished Olympic Park Stadium in 2007.
• Carlton Football Club - at the end of the 2005 season moved from Optus Oval in Carlton, to the larger and more central Telstra Dome, although retained its administration headquarters at Princes Park. The club was the last suburban based Melbourne club to leave its former home ground.

Secondary Interstate 'Home's

Some Melbourne based clubs began selling home games interstate in the late 1990s and conducting community camp clinics to build up local supporter bases.

• Western Bulldogs - Darwin, Northern Territory since 2000 (approximately 1-2 games a year). In 2007, the Bulldogs reduced their commitment to 1 game and signed a deal to also play 1 game a year in Canberra.
• St Kilda Football Club - Launceston, Tasmania (approximately 2 games a year between 2002-2006).
• Hawthorn Football Club - Launceston, Tasmania (approximately 2 games a year between 2002-2006). In 2006, changed their naming rights to the Tassie Hawks and increased the number of games to 4 per year
• North Melbourne Football Club - in 1999, backed by the AFL, the club changed their trading name to the Kangaroos, and played a handful of home games interstate in Sydney. The move proved unsuccessful, and the club has since played in Canberra for several years (2002-2006) before abandoning the area for the more lucrative, and potential goldmine at the Gold Coast, Queensland (2007-2008). However, the club pulled out from relocating 'home' games altogether after declining a league offer of full relocation to the Gold Coast.
• Melbourne Football Club - a single home game a year to the Brisbane Lions at the Brisbane Cricket Ground in Queensland (2005-2007). The Demons added a single game to Gold Coast, Queensland in Queensland in 2006. In 2007, the Demons shifted its Gold Coast commitment to Canberra for a single game each year whilst also playing one game a year in Brisbane.

A-League

New Zealand Knights FC, who played in Auckland, New Zealand, were dissolved and moved to Wellington in 2004, becoming Wellington Phoenix FC. During the later stages of the 2006-07 A-League season, Football Federation Australia (FFA) removed New Zealand Knights A-League licence due to the club's financial and administrative problems and poor on-field performance. After much delay, the final amount needed for the application came from Wellington property businessman Terry Serepisos in the latter stages of the bid. Serepisos, the club's majority owner and chairman, provided NZD $1,000,000 to ensure the beginnings of a new New Zealand franchise and a continuation of New Zealand's participation in the A-League. FFA finalised a three-year A-League licence to New Zealand Football who then sub-let the licence to the Wellington-based club. The new Wellington club was confirmed on 19 March 2007. The name for the new club was picked from a shortlist of six, pruned from 250 names suggested by the public, and was announced on 28 March 2007. Serepisos said of the name, that "It symbolises the fresh start, the rising from the ashes, and the incredible Wellington support that has come out".

NRL

The NRL is the national competition in rugby league and was born out of the Sydney-based Australian Rugby League and New South Wales Rugby League competitions. In 1987, the Western Suburbs Magpies agreed to relocate from its (inner) Western suburbs base to the outer south-western Macarthur district following a prior move west to Lidcombe Oval. In 1999, they merged with the remaining Inner Western team, the Balmain Tigers, (both teams having been established in 1908) to become Wests Tigers. The North Sydney Bears attempted to move from their Northern Suburbs base to the swiftly growing Central Coast region just north of Sydney in 1999, however problems with construction at the proposed home ground now known as Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium meant that the Bears continued to play home matches in a variety of Sydney grounds before being forced into a merger with the Manly Sea Eagles as the Northern Eagles. The merged clubs played home matches at both the Central Coast and Manly's home ground of Brookvale Oval, but after the bears were expelled from the partnership, poor crowds at the former location led to a reversion to the name of Manly and games played exclusively at Brookvale Oval. Subsequently one of the owners of Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, John Singleton, has attempted to lure another club to play there, notably the South Sydney Rabbitohs who have experienced poor crowds at their new home ground of ANZ Stadium.

The Canterbury Bulldogs were formed in 1935 and played their first season without a home ground. In 1936, they settled at Belmore Oval (renamed the Belmore Sports Ground) and played home matches there until the end of the 1998 season. The Bulldogs trialled a number of alternative home grounds during the 1990s, including Concord Oval in 1994. In 1995 they changed their name to the Sydney Bulldogs played most of the Premiership winning season at Parramatta Stadium, sharing the ground with bitter rivals, the Parramatta Eels and the also renamed and relocated Sydney (Balmain) Tigers. They finally settled on Stadium Australia, the main stadium for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games as their home ground, and in 2008, relocated their training and administration facilities from Belmore to the Homebush Olympic Park Site.

Other clubs have relocated to new home grounds but have retained their original base.

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Team Relocations in Europe

In Europe, this sort of move is very rare. This is due to the different relationship between clubs and their league in the European system of professional sports league organization. In most sports, teams can be relegated from their current league down to a lower one, or promoted up a league to the one above.

Armenia

• FC Banants were founded in 1992 in the village of Kotayk, representing the Kotayk Province. Between 1992 and 1995, the club was commonly referred to as Banants Kotayk. During the 1992 season, the club won the first Armenian Cup. At the end of the 1995 transitional season, Banants suffered a financial crisis. The club owners decided that it was better to merge the club with FC Kotayk of Abovyan, rather than disband it. In 2001, Banants demerged from FC Kotayk, and was moved from Abovyan to the capital Yerevan.

Austria

• ASKÖ Pasching in 2007 relocated from Pasching to Klagenfurt and became SK Austria Kärnten, effectively a new club to play in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. In Pasching, FC Pasching was founded immediately after the move, while SK Austria in Klagenfurt took over the former name of rivalling FC Kärnten as well as several notable players and sponsors' funds. In June 2010, SK Austria announced it was filing for bankruptcy and the city of Klagenfurt founded a new club, SK Austria Klagenfurt (FC Kärnten's historical name).

Azerbaijan

• Qaraba? FK is a football club from Agdam, but has been based in Baku since 1993 due to the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

• Shusha FK is a football club based in Baku but represents the city of Shusha, which is controlled by the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

• Standard Sumgayit was originally founded in Baku as Standard Baku. The club moved to Sumgayit in 12 June 2009, which changed also club's name accordingly.

Belgium

• Football Couillet La Louvière was formed in June 2009 as the result of a merger between R.A.C.S. Couillet and R.A.A. Louviéroise. The matricule of the club is the number 94 of RACS Couillet, so technically it is a continuation of Couillet, whereas La Louvière has dissolved into Couillet, with their matricule (number 93) being lost. At the time of the merger, La Louvière played in the third tier of Belgian football and Couillet in the fourth, as a result, the new team started in the fourth tier. After the merger, the team was based in La Louvière and renamed to Football Club Couillet-La Louvière with abbreviation FCLL. However, the team moved back to Couillet in Charleroi in 2011 after third division team URS Centre moved to the center of La Louvière and changed its name to UR La Louvière Centre. As a result, the team name was changed again to Football Club Charleroi.

• RFC Liège, after its home stadium the Stade Vélodrome de Rocourt in Liège was destroyed, the club became 'homeless'. After having played during 4 years at rue Gilles Magnée, in Ans where a temporary stand was built, the RFC Liège is currently playing in Seraing a the Pairay Stadium.

Cyprus

At least three clubs were forced to move due to the 1974 Turkish invasion of that country:

• Two clubs from Famagusta, Anorthosis (founded in 1911) and Nea Salamis (founded 1948), moved to Larnaca, and built new stadiums in that city.
• Doxa Katokopia, founded in Katokopia in 1954, moved to Peristerona. The club later moved again to the country's capital of Nicosia.

Czech Republic

• Dukla Prague, a successful football team under the patronage of the Czech Armed Forces, originally from Prague, merged with second division side FC Portál P?íbram in 1996. The new club, which later became known as 1. FK P?íbram, played one season in Prague at the Juliska Stadium before moving to P?íbram in 1997, the last home match at Juliska being a 2-2 draw with relegated Baník Haví?ov on 1 June 1997, effectively meaning that the original FC P?íbram which was founded in 1929 was relocated to Prague, merged and then relocated back. The club currently playing under the Dukla Prague name, and the current spiritual successor of the original team, FK Dukla Prague, was founded in 1958 as FK Dukla Dejvice and advanced to the Prague Championship in the 1983-84 season. Prior to 2001, the club's best finish in a season had been second in the Prague Championship in the 1984-85 season. In 2001 the club became known as FK Dukla Prague, but not the legal successor of the original Dukla Prague team. In November 2006, the new FK Dukla Prague management announced that it had agreed to a takeover of second league rights of the Jakub?ovice team and in 2007 Dukla took Jakub?ovice's place in the Czech 2. Liga, having finished the 2006-07 season in second place.

• In ice hockey, the Kontinental Hockey League, based in Russia but also including teams from several other post-Soviet states, expanded outside the former Soviet Union for the first time in 2011, adding the Slovakian team Lev Poprad. The team was purchased by Czech interests after the 2011-12 season; the new owners folded the club and replaced it with a similarly named team, the Prague-based Lev Praha. Although the two Lev teams are technically separate corporate entities, this situation can be viewed as an effective relocation; not only are the team names similar, but the new owners retained much of the Poprad roster.

• Mountfield HK originated with a club that began playing ice hockey in ?eské Bud?jovice in 1928. Following the 2012-13 season, the Czech Extraliga reached a sponsorship deal with Radegast to sell its beer in all Extraliga arenas. This agreement conflicted with the naming rights deal HC ?eské Bud?jovice already had with Budweiser Budvar Brewery for their arena. Under the agreement, the club and the city would face stiff penalties for selling any beer other than Budvar products. Unable to resolve the dispute, the club decided on June 18, 2013 that no agreement could be reached between the parties involved and voted to immediately relocate to Hradec Králové for the 2013-14 season. The ice hockey traditions of HC ?eské Bud?jovice was continued in the town by a club which adopted the historical club name "Motor" - ?EZ Motor ?eské Bud?jovice

Estonia

• JK Tervis Pärnu moved in 1996 and played its home games in Lelle, small borough in Kehtna Parish, becoming Lelle SK. At the end of 2002 the club moved back to Pärnu and reinstated its original name.
• KSK Vigri Tallinn moved from Tallinn to Maardu, becoming FK Maardu.
• Lantana Tallinn moved in 1996 from the Kadriorg Stadium in Tallinn to the Viimsi Staadion in Viimsi.
• Levadia Maardu was founded in 1998 in Maardu. In 2004 they moved to Tallinn, and were renamed to Levadia Tallinn. The original Levadia Tallinn founded in 2000 subsequently became the relocated club's reserve team, Levadia II Tallinn.

Georgia

Due to the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict several clubs from the region cannot compete in the Georgian league and therefore several clubs have been re-founded by internally displaced persons from Abkhazia in Tbilisi, and although the original clubs continue to exist in exile, and no actual relocation has occurred, the Abkhaz peoples who had founded these club consider the clubs to be the continuation of the original club:

• Dinamo Sokhumi continues to exist however two phoenix club's have been found. FC ASMC Sokhumi was first founded as Dinamo Sokhumi and continues to represent the city in Tbilisi. FC Tskhumi Sukhumi was formed to represent Sokhumi initially in 1990, due to FC Dinamo Sokhumi refusing to join Umaglesi Liga and played in the Soviet First League, when the vast majority of the Georgian clubs withdrew from the Soviet League system and joined the Georgian SSR regional league, as the first Umaglesi Liga. After bankruptcy in 1993, the club was re-founded in 1999.

• FC Gagra was founded in 2004 as a continuation of the city of Gagra's disrupted by war football traditions, although a dormant amateur side in Gagra by the same name remains in the local Abkhaz league. Initially there have been efforts to relocate the Abkhaz team to Tskhaltubo, ground-sharing with Samgurali Tskhaltubo due to the number of internally displaced persons in the town but these plans failed due to lack of finances and facilities.

Due to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, several teams have been displaced:

• Spartaki Tskhinvali originally from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali currently play their league matches in either Gori or Tbilisi.

Germany

While football club relocation has so far been unusual in West German football, it was a rather common practice in communist East Germany. As teams were dependent on the regime, it intervened several times to promote an equal distribution of teams across the country. A number of prominent East German teams were affected by these political moves, and even in modern-day Germany, the reason for the regional dominance of some teams and the roots of many strong rivalries can be found there.

Major relocations in the DDR-Oberliga:

• In 1954, the entire team of Empor Lauter, a club from a small industrial town in southern Saxony, were relocated to the very north of the country to compete as Empor Rostock. Under the name Hansa Rostock, they have been the most successful East German team since 1990.
• Also in 1954, Dynamo Dresden lost all its players to the newly formed side of Dynamo Berlin. Dresden passed almost a decade in the lower leagues, returned to top-level football in 1962 and became one of the fiercest rivals of by-then record champion Dynamo Berlin.
• Vorwärts Frankfurt (Oder) was the only major team to be relocated twice. Founded as Vorwärts Leipzig in 1951, the team was moved to East Berlin in 1953, where they won six East German championships. They became Vorwärts Frankfurt in 1971 and were renamed to FFC Viktoria in 1991.

In recent times, team relocation has become a more common feature in sports that are less popular with the German public. Notable examples include former ice hockey team München Barons (became the Hamburg Freezers in 2002), former handball side VfL Bad Schwartau (became HSV Handball in 2002) and basketball club Bayer Giants Leverkusen (Düsseldorf Giants since 2008).

Greece

• Apollon Smyrni and Panionios were founded in 1891 and 1890 respectively in Smyrna (today Izmir) but moved to Athens in 1922 after the Greco-Turkish War in 1921 and the subsequent expulsion of Greeks from Turkey. In 1938 Panionios moved from Athens to the suburb of New Smyrna.

Italy

Football club relocation is also present in practice in Italy, especially at lower levels. Current Italian football laws allow relocation of clubs only between bordering cities. Some examples of current football clubs born as relocation of previous ones include:

• In 2003, after Cosenza Calcio 1914 was not admitted to Serie B, a new ownership bought sports rights from then-Serie D club Castrovillari in order to permit a Cosenza franchise to play football in the upcoming season. The new club however proved to be short-lived, as it declared bankruptcy in 2007, but was promptly replaced by Fortitudo Cosenza, born as relocation of neighbouring Serie D club Rende Calcio.
• Serie D's Neapolis, located in Naples, was born as a relocation of Sangiuseppese, a club hailing from the neighbouring city of San Giuseppe Vesuviano.
• In 1994, one year after the cancellation of Calcio Catania, Atletico Leonzio's chairman Franco Proto relocated his club, renaming it Atletico Catania. The club, previously located in Lentini, went on to play up to Serie C1 (the league now known as Lega Pro Prima Divisione), losing promotion to Serie B on playoffs twice before being cancelled in 2001 because of financial difficulties also related to Calcio Catania's return into professional football and the consequent drop in attendance.

More recent examples include A.C.D. Città di Vittoria, born in 2007 as merger of Serie D's Comiso with minor league club Junior Vittoria (possibly a trick in order to allow the club to legally relocate from Comiso to Vittoria). A.S.D. Pol. Libertas Acate of Serie D are a club officially settled in Acate, which however actually plays their home matches in Modica and are recognized by both fans and the regional press as Modica's club, being frequently referred to as Libertas Acate-Modica. In fact, after a takeover bid in 2006 the club left Acate to play their home matches in Modica despite the fact they were not eligible to change the "legal" home city.

Relocation has also occurred in Italian basketball. Before the 2010-11 season, Triboldi were legally domiciled in Soresina, but played their home games in nearby Cremona, a community in the same province. The club has now changed its domicile to Cremona. Nuova Sebastiani Basket moved from Rieti, a city in the Lazio region near Rome, to the southern city of Naples effective with the 2009-10 season.

Ireland

Irish clubs relocating out of their original district are slightly more common. In certain cases, the club has moved within a conurbation.

• Shamrock Rovers Played in Glenmalure Park on the Southside of Dublin from 1926 to 1987. The club's owner Louis Kilcoyne announced he was selling Glenmalure Park, which they had recently purchased from the Jesuits. The team played the entire 1987-88 season in an almost empty Tolka Park on Dublin's Northside as a result of a boycott called for by the Shamrock Rovers Supporters Club and KRAM (Keep Rovers At Milltown), which was observed by the vast majority of Hoops fans. Following the completion of the boycott season in Tolka, the Kilcoynes sold the football club to Dublin businessman, John McNamara, who put forward a controversial proposal to move in with Rivals Bohemians at Dalymount Park. KRAM congregated to vote on whether to lift the boycott and on the proposal to move to Dalymount. Both motions were passed and the club spent the next two seasons at the Phibsboro venue, with an unrecognisable side playing in front of small attendances. Rovers spent two season's in Dalymount Park before moving to the RDS Arena in Ballsbridge, just two miles away from Glenmalure Park. In 1996 the club's new owner Alan McGrath unveiled a plan to build a permanent home state-of-the-art stadium in the Dublin southwest suburb of Tallaght for Rovers, The club also played home matches in Morton Stadium, Richmond Park and again in Tolka Park before moving to their new home in Tallaght in 2009.
• Shelbourne were originally from Ringsend in the South of Dublin. The club played in Harold's Cross Stadium in Harold's Cross briefly in the 1970s before moving to the stadium in 1982 where they remained until 1989 when they moved to Tolka Park, in the North of Dublin.

Latvia

• FK J?rmala, founded in 2003, moved from J?rmala to Riga in March 2012 and renamed themselves after the historic Riga club, becoming FK Daugava.
• RAF Jelgava in the early 1990s RAF was one of the strongest teams in Virsl?ga. However, when the plant ran into financial difficulties, the team received new sponsorship from the University of Latvia in 1996 and, as a result, changed their name and relocated to Riga, and played in the Latvian University Stadium. The move was a sporting disaster and the club folded. A team under the name RAF Jelgava appeared again in 2001 in the 1. l?ga, and after the 2003 season the club merged with another Jelgava club, FK Viola Jelgava forming FK Jelgava.

Lithuania

• FK Kareda Kaunas was a team from the city of Kaunas, founded in 1935, which moved from ?iauliai to Kaunas in 2000. It was dissolved in 2003.
• KSS Klaip?da was founded in 1926 and was the most successful pre-war club in Lithuania. Until spring of 1939 the club played in Klaip?da, but after the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania it was forced to move to Tel?iai, also sometimes it played in Plung?. It was dissolved in 1940.

Moldova

• FC Tiraspol was founded in Chisinau in 1992 as Constructorul Chisinau. Before the 2001-02 season, the club relocated to Cioburciu, Transnistria, a small village outside Tiraspol, and was renamed Constructorul Cioburciu before moving to Tiraspol, the capital of the breakaway republic of Transnistria, a year later and adopting the current name in 2002.

Netherlands

Team relocation is very rare in the Netherlands. The most prominent case involves professional football club Almere City FC. When 1964 Eredivisie champion and 1964-65 European Cup quarter finalist Door Wilskracht Sterk was merged into FC Amsterdam, its supporters founded amateur football club De Zwarte Schapen, named after their nickname, which translates as Black Sheep. The club quickly rose through the ranks of amateur football, eventually reaching the Hoofdklasse. After several violent incidents on the pitch and a six-month suspension by the Royal Dutch Football Association, the club moved from Amsterdam to nearby Almere (a "new town") and changed its name to Sporting Flevoland. That name was changed to FC Omniworld in the 1990s, and FC Omniworld was admitted to the Eerste Divisie for the 2005-06 season.

Team relocation is slightly more common in other sports in the Netherlands. Volleyball club AMVJ, for instance, moved from Amsterdam to Amstelveen in 1980. The men's team was subsequently relocated to Almere in 1999, becoming Omniworld.

Norway

Team relocation is rare, although mergers, for instance of teams of neighboring settlements, are common. Relocation has sometimes happened on the top level of women's football. SK Sprint-Jeløy was moved from Jeløy to Moss under the new name FK Athene Moss. Asker Fotball's women's team was absorbed by Stabæk Fotball ahead of the 2009 season. Ahead of the 2010 season Team Strømmen FK (which formerly had been moved from Aurskog-Høland) was absorbed by Lillestrøm SK, and Gjøvik FK absorbed by Raufoss IL.

Poland

• Olimpia Pozna? was moved from Pozna? and merged with Lechia Gda?sk in 1995 creating Lechia/Olimpia Gda?sk. It only lasted one season in the top division and by 1997 it was already in the third division. The club tried to rescue its fall through another merger with local club Polonia Gda?sk, in turn dropping Olimpia's heritage and changing its name to Lechia/Polonia Gda?sk, with Antoni Ptak's company as the main sponsor. In 2001 Lechia decided to leave the merger, and started as an independent club from the bottom of the football pyramid as the sole legal and spiritual continuator of BKS Lechia, which folded the merged club in 2002, forcing Polonia to start in a lower league as well.

• Pogo? Szczecin in 2002 was on the brink of bankruptcy. As a result fans created a new team on the basis of the reserves in the fourth division. However owner of Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski Antoni Ptak decided to move the team and renamed the club MKS Pogo? Szczecin. The initial distrust was lost when the team performed well and used local players, however halfway through the 2005/2006 season the team started underperforming and Ptak decided to replace almost the entire squad with only Brazilian nationals, making it the "most Brazilian team outside Brazil". Antoni Ptak also built a small training facility in Gutów Ma?y, meaning the home games were played almost 500 kilometres (310 mi) away from Szczecin. The experiment failed and in 2007 Antoni Ptak moved away from football, leaving the club to be rebuilt on the basis of the 4th division counterpart set up originally by the fans, which acted as the reserve team in the meantime.

• Prokom Trefl Sopot was a successful basketball team, however it moved from Sopot to Gdynia and was renamed Asseco Prokom Gdynia. A phoenix club was set up straight away in 2009 called Trefl Sopot.

• Sokó? Pniewy was moved to Tychy and merged with the local club GKS Tychy, which resulted in unorthodox renaming, first to Sokó? Pniewy in Tychy, then from 9 January 1996 Sokó? Tychy. After 26 games in its 2nd season the new fused club folded, leaving the reserve team Sokó? Pniewy in the fourth division to become the its senior team, whereas GKS Tychy started anew.

• WKS Zawisza Bydgoszcz was founded in Koszalin, however a year later in 1947, being an army club, when the army offices moved to Bydgoszcz so did the team, however up until that point the team only played friendly matches.

• Zawisza Bydgoszcz SA was a club that was created when Kujawiak W?oc?awek were moved to Bydgoszcz and renamed by Hydrobudowa, their owners. The original WKS Zawisza Bydgoszcz continued playing in the fourth division, however the new club had a very similar logo and an identical name, resulting in an unusual situation of having two almost identical clubs playing in 2 different divisions; for the purposes disambiguation, the new merged Zawisza was called Zawisza Bydgoszcz (2) by official sources and Kujawiak/Zawisza or Hydrobudowa Bydgoszcz by many others. As a result of the merger, Kujawiak, Zawisza and supporters all over the country boycotted the relocated team. The reserve team continued to play under the name Kujawiak W?oc?awek in the Fourth Polish league. The club folded in 2007 as a result of serious corruption allegations and widespread condemnation.

Romania

• Astra Ploie?ti was moved in September 2012 from Ploie?ti to Giurgiu becoming Astra Giurgiu.
• Petrolul Ploie?ti was founded at Bucure?ti in 1924. They moved to Ploie?ti in 1952.

Russia

• FC Signal Izobilny was founded in Izobilny in 1984, and after adding Kavkaztransgaz to its name in 2000, it moved to Ryzdvyany in 2005, becoming FC Kavkaztransgaz Ryzdvyany. In 2014 the club moved to Stavropol, becoming FC Dynamo GTS Stavropol, continuing the legacy of a separate FC Dynamo Stavropol.

• One current top-level basketball team has moved twice in the 2000s; a club founded in 1946 in Mineralnye Vody as Lokomotiv Mineralnye Vody, moved in 2003 to Rostov-on-Don, and then in 2008 to Krasnodar, where it is now known as Lokomotiv-Kuban. All three of the club's home cities are in adjoining federal subjects.

Slovakia

• In 2011, the Kontinental Hockey League, based in Russia but also including teams from several other post-Soviet states, expanded outside the former Soviet Union for the first time, adding the Slovakian team Lev Poprad. The team was purchased by Czech interests after the 2011-12 season; the new owners folded the club and replaced it with a similarly named team, the Prague-based Lev Praha. Although the two Lev teams are technically separate corporate entities, this situation can be viewed as an effective relocation; not only are the team names similar, but the new owners retained much of the Poprad roster.

Spain

• Ciudad de Murcia, a Segunda División side, at the end of the 2006-2007 season, was acquired by an investor from Granada, transferring it to that city and renaming it to Granada 74 CF. The players still under contract with Ciudad had the option to cancel their contract or stay on with the newly formed club.

• Club Balonmano Ciudad Real (the handball team of Ciudad Real), the second best team ever in handball history in Spain, and winner of the Super Globe in 2007 and 2010, could not find a sponsor and did not have enough support for maintain a high level team. Team was sold in 2011 to Club Atlético de Madrid and renamed to Club Balonmano Atlético de Madrid. Despite winning 2012 World Championship in their first year with the new owners, and other national titles, they couldn't afford debts, and team disappeared in 2013.

Sweden

Although no major relocations have occurred, two clubs from the capital Stockholm have changed municipality (AIK) and acquired another team into their club colours (Hammarby Ishockey) respectively. AIK was formed in Stockholm in 1891 but then moved to neighbouring Solna in 1937. Hammarby IF had an ice hockey section that was shut down in 2008. In 2013 the club Bajen Fans Hockey then changed their name to Hammarby Ishockey, thereby becoming one of very few clubs in Sweden that have acquired another club and made it their own.

Switzerland

In Switzerland only one "relocation" has happened so far. The Zurich based football club Grasshoppers Zürich under company name "Die Neue Grasshopper Fussball AG" controversially moved their headquarters in 2005 from the city itself to Niederhasli. The addition of Zurich was remained in the club's name and the team is still playing in the city of Zurich at Letzigrund (the home stadium of their old rival FC Zurich, a temporary measure while Stadion Zürich is being built). All other teams of the club are playing Niederhasli.

The fans of Grasshoppers Club protested the move, claiming the club has lost part of its identity.

Turkey

• Apollon Smyrni and Panionios were founded in 1891 and 1890 respectively in Smyrna (today Izmir) but moved to Athens in 1922 after the Greco-Turkish War in 1921 and the subsequent expulsion of Greeks from Turkey. In 1938 Panionios moved from Athens to the suburb of New Smyrna.

• Süleymaniye Sirkeci was founded in 1911 and had black-white colors. The club played in the old Third Division (now TFF Second League) before relocating to Küçükçekmece at the end of the 1989-90 season. It was renamed as Küçükçekmecespor and changed its colors to green-white.

• Beyo?lu Kapal?çar?? was founded in 1983 in Beyo?lu district. The club moved to Güngören and was renamed as Güngören Belediyespor after the end of the 1993-94 season.

Ukraine

• Lokomotyv Donetsk was created sometime around 1957 and initially represented city of Artemivsk. After being promoted to the Soviet Class B in 1958, the club moved to Stalino (now Donetsk) in mid-season. The club existed until 1973 when it relegated from the Soviet Second League and was dissolved.
• Shakhtar Shakhtarsk in 1996 became a new club Metalurh Donetsk which became based in Donetsk, and based on the senior squad of Shakhtar. The youth squad of Shakhtar Shakhtarsk joined the youth academy of Shakhtar Donetsk, while other players who were not suited for the club formed new team Fortuna Shakhtarsk and until 1999 were playing in a town of Kontarne, now a part of the Shakhtarsk municipality.
• SKA Kiev in 1972 the team moved to Chernihiv and changed its name to SK Chernigov but had moved back to Kiev in 1976 as SK? Kiev.

Due to the War in Donbass, several clubs have temporarily relocated for an indefinite period of time due to safety concerns. Shakhtar Sverdlovsk and Avanhard Kramatorsk could not find alternative venues and withdrew from all competitions as a result. Similarly none of the Crimean clubs, Tytan Armyansk, Tavriya Simferopol, Zhemchuzhina Yalta or FC Sevastopol were able to relocate due to the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and subsequently they all disbanded or became dormant. Those teams that successfully relocated continue to participate in all competitions:

• Illichivets Mariupol left the Illichivets Stadium in Mariupol to play at the Meteor Stadium in Dnipropetrovsk.
• Metalurh Donetsk moved from its stadium in Donetsk to play matches at the Obolon Arena in Kiev and Arena Lviv in Lviv.
• Makiyivvuhillya Makiyivka, originally from Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, played their home games at Kolos Sport Training Base in the village of Chkalovo in the Nikopol Raion and at Metalurh Stadium in Yenakiieve, before relocating to the city of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in 2014.
• Olimpik Donetsk left its home, the Sports Complex Olimpik in Donetsk, to play at the Bannikov Stadium in Kiev.
• Shakhtar Donetsk had to move and play it's home games in Arena Lviv, and Bannikov Stadium in Kiev. It's home Donbass Arena has been destroyed in the war; on 22 August 2014 the stadium was damaged by what was reported to be artillery shelling, as the Ukrainian armed forces clashed with pro-Russian separatists for control of the town, and on 20 October 2014 the stadium was again damaged by what was reported to be artillery shelling. The stadium sustained damage to the east and west sides and at least one large glass panel fell near a young girl. As an anti-war protest, the players of Shakhtar refused the initiative to wear the "Glory to the Ukrainian Army" shirts.
• Shakhtar-3 Donetsk play their home games at Mashynobudivnyk Stadium in Karlivka.
• Stal Alchevsk currently play at the Mashynobudivnyk Stadium, Karlivka, leaving the Stal Stadium in Alchevsk.
• Zorya Luhansk left the Avanhard Stadium in Luhansk to play at the Slavutych-Arena in Zaporizhya.

United Kingdom

www.theblackandblue.com

Team Relocations in other parts of the world

Relocations in other countries are done according to the type of sport played and/or the predominant style of league organization, as well as individual economic circumstances. For instance, in Japan there is a difference between Nippon Professional Baseball which is run like MLB, and the J. League which is run like European football leagues.

Club Relocations are also common when an amateur or semi-professional club tries to acquire its own facilities in order to become a professional club, and no money and/or space is available to build their own in a long-established location.

Brazil

In Brazil, the first relocation of a first division football team was in 2010. Grêmio Barueri relocated to Presidente Prudente, becoming Grêmio Prudente, only to return as Grêmio Barueri in the middle of 2011. In other sports, such as volleyball, basketball or futsal, relocation is a bit more common, although it doesn't occur frequently.

China

Relocation of teams in China is very common, as teams are privately owned or owned by businesses, furthermore there are no rules regarding relocations or very many established fan-bases outside of the handful of established top teams:

Basketball

• Henan Dragons, founded in 2004 moved from their original home city of Zhengzhou to Jiyuan in the middle of their first season. From 2004-2006 they were known as the Henan Jigang Dragons or Henan Dragons or Henan Jigang, based in Luoyang, and Jiyuan, Henan. For the CBA 2006-07 season, the team was moved to Taiyuan, and is now known as Shanxi Zhongyu. The team has fared little better since moving to Shanxi.
• Shaanxi Kylins in 2010 moved from Xi'an, Shaanxi to Foshan, Guangdong and renamed themselves Foshan Dralions.

Football

• Bayi F.T. was a club under the sport branch of the People's Liberation Army, founded in 1927, one of the oldest clubs in the country. The clubs reign as one of the most successful clubs in China would end with the advent of professionalism within the league. When the first fully professional league season started in 1994 the club were given special dispensation to remain as semi-professional as possible by having all their members remain active military members, however the club did start to take in sponsorship money to pay for the cost of running the club. At first little changed and the team even came third within the 1996 league season. Where the club really struggled was their ability to hold on to their contingent of Chinese international players such as Hao Haidong, Hu Yunfeng and Jiang Jin who started to leave the club for better offers. This saw the club struggle being unable to replace them through the transfer market and ultimately see them relegated to the second tier for the first time in the clubs history. With less money coming in the club decided to disassociate themselves from their traditional Beijing home and took offers from other cities and sponsors to play for. They moved to Xinxiang and Liuzhou to accommodate their sponsors and while this worked for a brief period, which saw the club gain promotion back into the top tier the Chinese FA launched the rebranded Chinese Super League, which required more stringent conditions for the club to work in. Unfortunately this coincided with the loss in form of the team who were relegated at the end of the 2003 league season. The loss of prize money and stricter regulations ultimately forced Bayi to disband.

• Gansu Tianma was a football team based in Lanzhou, Gansu, who were relegated to the Yi League in 2004 and sold to Dongguan Dongcheng who moved the club to the Hong Kong First Division League. The club folded in 2009.

• Guangdong Sunray Cave played in the 8,000 seater Nanhai District Stadium in Foshan, Guangdong. The 2008 league campaign saw the team move into the 36,686 seater Century Lotus Stadium in Foshan. The club's debut season in the second division saw them move into the 12,000 capacity Huangpu Sports Center in Huangpu District, Guangzhou. The following season saw the owners wanting to move into the 15,000 capacity Guangdong Provincial People's Stadium, however it was going through renovation and the team had to use the Dongguan Stadium, Huangpu Sports Center and University of Technology Stadium before they finally moved in. In November 2014, a group of local companies from Shaanxi Province collectively acquired the full ownership of the club and subsequently renamed it to Shaanxi Wuzhou following the club's relocation to the Shaanxi Province Stadium in Xi'an.

• Hohhot Binhai moved after a year of existence in 2007 from Hohhot People's Stadium, Hohhot to the Hedong Sports Centre, Tianjin, becoming Tianjin Songjiang, although they have since moved across town to the 60 000 seater Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium and then again to a 22 370 capcity newly built Tianjin Tuanbo Football Stadium.

• Hubei Huakaier moved from Hubei to Xinjiang's capital city Ürümqi and changed their name to Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard in February 2014.

• Jining Dranix, founded in 1999, was then based in Jining, Shandong. They stayed there until 2004, when in 2005, they moved to Ningbo, Zhejiang and were renamed Ningbo Zhongbao Cixi. There, they played at Ningbo Cixi Stadium. They didn't compete in the 2007 season and moved to Shenyang for the following 2008 season, becoming Shenyang Dongjin In February 2012, Shenyang Dongjin announced they would shift their home stadium to Hohhot for 2012 and 2013 league season. The full name of the club would change as Shenyang Dongjin Football Club Hohhot Dongjin Team (Hohhot Dongjin for short). The club finished in the bottom of the league and was relegated to China League Two.

• Kunming Ruilong was established at Yunnan Province's capital city Kunming on 20 March 2012. The club moved their home stadium to Dali, another city in Yunnan, adding "Dali" to their name on 22 March 2013.

• Qianwei Huandao, originally based in Wuhan, upon reaching the top tier its owners decided that the club needed to affiliate itself with a major reign and would decide to move nearby to Chongqing and into the Datianwan Stadium, renaming the club in 2000 accordingly to Chongqing Longxin.

• Shaanxi Guoli moved from Jiaodaruisun Stadium, Shaanxi to Ningbo in 2004 and to Harbin a year later, however the club kept its "Guoli" name throughout its history before folding in 2005.

• Shanghai Hengyuan moved from Shanghai to Nanchang a year after its creation in 2004, becoming Nanchang Hengyuan. After disappointing attendances the club left the Nanchang Bayi Stadium and returned to Shanghai to play at the Jinshan Football Stadium in 2013, although they currently play at the Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium. The club is currently known as Shanghai Shenxin.

• Shanghai Pudong, became a professional team in 1995, representing the Pudong district of Shanghai. After facing competition from more popular clubs in the city, they moved to Xi'an, Shaanxi in 2006 and renamed as Shaanxi Baorong Chanba in 2007. In 2012 the club moved again to Guiyang, Guizhou, where they established themselves at the Guiyang Olympic Centre under the name Guizhou Renhe.

• Shanghai Stars founded in 2003, in Shanghai, most commonly associated with the name Shanghai Pudong Zobon F.C., before the start of the 2008 league season moved to the 30,000 seater Wuxi Sports Center, in Wuxi, a city in the nearby Jiangsu Province and the club was renamed as Wuxi Zobon. However the move to a new city was not successful either on the field or off it and after only one year within Wuxi the club returned to Shanghai again in the 2009 league season. The club would be renamed Pudong Zobon as well as moving into the 16,000 seater Pudong Yuanshen Sports Centre, in the Pudong area of Shanghai. he club was dissolved at the end of the 2012 season.

• Shanghai United was originally founded as Dalian Sidelong, in Dalian. In 2003, the club was moved to Zhuhai, Guangdong, becoming Zhuhai Anping. In 2004 the club was moved to Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium, Shanghai and became Shanghai United. The club ceased to exist when it was merged with (de facto absorbed into) city rival Shanghai Shenhua in 2007.

• Shanxi Jiayi was established on 8 October 2011. In January 2014, the club changed its name to Taiyuan Zhongyou Jiayi, and on 14 January 2015 moved to the city of Hohhot and changed their name to Nei Mongol Zhongyou

• Shenyang Ginde was originally founded in 1986 in Shenyang, where they played in the 55,000-seater Shenyang Wuilihe Stadium, until they moved to Changsha in 2007 to reside in the Helong Stadium. When American sportswear and sports equipment company MAZAMBA took over the club in 2010 they relocated the club to Shenzhen in February 2011; however, their ownership was brief, and by June 2011 Chinese property developers Guangzhou R&F gained ownership of the club and moved them to Guangzhou, Guangdong. Their home stadium is the Yuexiushan Stadium that has a seating capacity of 18,000, adopting the same name as their new owners Guangzhou R&F, although the R&F is officially short for "Rich" (?) and "Force" (?).

• Shenzhen Jinpeng, founded in 1996, moved after a year from Shenzhen to Kunming to play in the Tuodong Stadium and was renamed Yunnan Hongta. It ceased to exist after a merger with Chongqing Lifan in 2003.

• Tianjin Runyulong, founded in August 2009, was originally planned take over the licence of Anhui Jiufang and be based at the 18,000-seat Minyuan Stadium in Tianjin, but the club quickly find out that the full acquisition of Anhui Jiufang as well as the running cost of the club would cost them 540 million yuan, more than the club expected and that they would need to quickly find investment if they were to pay their players on time. The investment would come from the local Shenbei government who wanted them to move into the 30,000-seat Tiexi Stadium in Shenyang. On July 2011, Tianjin Runyulong moved to the city of Shenyang and the name changed to Shenyang Shenbei. The club was officially dissolved on 27 February 2015.

• Tibet Xuequan, later Tibet Huitong Luhua, played in the Yi League until 2005, when they purchased Dalian Changbo from the upper Jia League in 2006. The newly merged team was moved to Taiyuan, Shanxi and renamed to Shanxi Luhu, taking Dalian Changbo's place in the Second Division ever since. It moved to Hohhot People's Stadium, Hohhot in 2007, becoming Hohhot Black Horse, but folded later that same year.

• Xiamen Dongyuhang was established as an amateur club on 4 January 2001. It played in the amateur league for ten years and claimed runners-up in the 2010 China Amateur Football League. On 25 February 2011, the club was reorganized as a professional football club. The name of the club was changed into Fujian Smart Hero. Hebei Ever Bright Real Estate Development Co.,Ltd. bought 70% shares of the club in December 2012. The club moved to Hebei Province's capital city Shijiazhuang and changed its name into Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao. The club is currently known as Shijiazhuang Ever Bright.

• Yiteng F.C., was originally founded as an amateur club in 1988 under the name Dalian Tielu. Upon becoming professional in 1995, the name was changed to Dalian Yiteng, and the club has since kept the "Yiteng" name, alternating names between Dalian Yiteng, Harbin Yiteng and Yantai Yiteng throughout its history. In 2005 the club moved from Dalian to the 30,000 seater Hagongda Stadium, Harbin, becoming Harbin Yiteng. A move to Yantai in Shandong on March 2008 and playing in the 45,000 seater Yantai Sports Park Stadium as well as a new all blue kit from the previous all red, hoped to revitalize the team, however none of these worked as they were relegated at the end of the 2008 league season. A move back to Dalian followed in 2009, however it wasn't until April 1, 2011 when they returned to Harbin, to the Harbin Sports City Center Stadium did their fortunes changed and they won their first piece of silverware, the 2011 China League Two division and promotion back into the second division.

Colombia

In Colombia historic teams from First Division are rarely relocated, but newer teams created in second division are often moved from city to city looking for a responding fan base.

• Atlético Juventud, founded in 2007, moved from Soacha to Girardot in 2010, however the club dissolved later that same year.
• Chicó F.C., the 2008 Colombian Champions, started as a Primera B team in Bogotá only to relocate to Tunja after being promoted to First Division.
• Córdoba F.C., founded in 2006 moved 2 years after its creation from Montería to Sincelejo, and became Atlético de la Sabana. They in turn relocated in 2011 to Barranquilla, becoming Uniautónoma FC.
• Girardot F.C., founded in 1995, moved from Girardot in 2008 to Palmira, becoming Deportes Palmira. They move did not last as long as they moved a year later to Buenaventura to become Pacífico F.C.. Pacífico a year after that became Sucre Fútbol Club after it moved to Sincelejo, before another year passed and relocated yet again to Montería, becoming Jaguares de Córdoba.

Costa Rica

• Founded in 2004 as Brujas de Escazú, when they took over the A.D. Guanacasteca licence to play in the Primera División de Costa Rica, they moved from Nicoya, Guanacaste where they played at the Estadio Chorotega, to Escazú in an attempt to get more support from fans. In summer 2007, the club moved again to play at the Estadio Jorge "Cuty" Monge in Desamparados and were renamed Brujas F.C.. The club folded in 2011.

Hong Kong

• Gansu Tianma F.C. was a football team based in Lanzhou, Gansu, who were relegated to the Yi League in 2004 and sold to Dongguan Dongcheng who moved the club to the Hong Kong First Division League. The club folded in 2009.

Japan

Baseball

Nippon Professional Baseball is run in similar fashion to MLB and has relocated several franchises out of crowded markets. Moves also happened when the teams changed ownership (which also sometimes involved changing the team name).

• Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters were originally based in Tokyo and moved to Sapporo, Hokkaido in 2004.
• Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks were originally based in Osaka and moved to Fukuoka in 1988 after Nankai Electric Railway sold the team to Daiei. The team was acquired by SoftBank in 2004 but did not change location.
• Saitama Seibu Lions moved from Fukuoka to Tokorozawa, Saitama in 1979 after Nishi-Nippon Railroad sold the team to Seibu Railway.

Football

The J. League is run similarly to the European football leagues has by contrast to the baseball league it has allowed only a few teams to move out of crowded or unprofitable markets:

• The most prominent move was Tokyo Verdy moving from Kawasaki, Kanagawa to Tokyo.
• Thespa Kusatsu actually plays in the nearby larger city of Maebashi, Gunma because Kusatsu does not have a large stadium
• Tokyo Verdy, F.C. Tokyo, Gamba Osaka and V-Varen Nagasaki play outside their city limits but in due to the specific nature of these large cities the circumstances are for practical reasons.
• A.C. Nagano Parceiro currently plays in Saku due to their stadium in Nagano not being fit for J. League football.

Mexico

Liga MX has a relegation system but its teams have some territorial rights recognized, perhaps due to U.S. influence as many league matches are aired in the U.S., where only traditional top-flight teams are perceived to most effectively reach the immigrant fan-base.

• Atlante F.C. football club moved out of Mexico City to Cancún in the south
• Club Necaxa also moved from Mexico City to Aguascalientes in 2003.
• In May 2013 Jaguares de Chiapas who moved from Tuxtla Gutiérrez to Querétaro and became Querétaro F.C., which left the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez without a first division football team.
• In May 2013 San Luis F.C. later moved from San Luis Potosí to Tuxtla Gutiérrez and became Chiapas F.C., which brought first division football back to the city.
• In May 2013, C.F. La Piedad, who were relegated from the Liga MX moved to Veracruz where Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz played. Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz who played in the Ascenso MX moved to San Luis Potosí and became Atletico San Luis.

Peru

In Peru several teams have had to use already built large stadiums, including ones in the interior of the country, to be able to participate in Peruvian Primera División; this includes several teams from the capital, Lima, who have not been able to establish fanbases in their districts due to the required moves.

South Africa

In South Africa most football clubs are privately owned, and club relocation is relatively common. Several clubs, including top division Premier Soccer League clubs have moved and taken on new identities. The most recent PSL team to do this was Benoni Premier United, who moved to Kwa-Zulu Natal and became Thanda Royal Zulu. There are many other cases of South African relocations.

South Korea

In South Korean major professional sports such as Korea Professional Baseball, Korean Basketball League, V-League, relocations were common.

Football club relocations were frequent in the 1980s and 1990s. South Korea has three national tiers, but as in the North American system, there is no promotion or relegation between them. This is because of disagreement between the Korea Football Association and the chaebols that back the top clubs. Now many, if not most, of Korea National League and Challengers League clubs are fan-owned teams.

• There were 3 professional football clubs Ilhwa Chunma (currently Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma), LG Cheetahs (currently FC Seoul), Yukong Elephants (currently Jeju United) in Seoul by 1995. However, due to K-League's decentralization policy, these three clubs were forced to move to other cities in 1996, changing their name in the process. As a result, Ilhwa Chunma became Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma based in Cheonan, 95 km away, LG Cheetahs became Anyang LG Cheetahs based in Anyang, a satellite city of Seoul, 21 km away and Yukong Elephants became Bucheon SK based in Bucheon, a satellite city of Seoul, 25 km away. These relocations are done under the accord that if any of these teams build a football specific stadium in Seoul, they can return there.

• In 2000, Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma moved to Seongnam, a satellite city of Seoul, 28 km away to become Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma.

• In 2004, Anyang LG Cheetahs returned to Seoul, assuming a small part of the construction costs of the vacant Seoul World Cup Stadium and renamed as FC Seoul.

• On February 2, 2006, Bucheon's club was moved by its owner, SK Group, to Jeju Island and the vacant Jeju World Cup Stadium, without notice, and rechristened Jeju United.

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