I really can't understand why sports clubs move cities. What is there to gain? What happens to the fans who supported the club? How do they even attract new fans to buy into supporting a club which will likely be in a different city a few years down the line? I was listening to talksport a couple of months ago and they were going on about some London rugby league club probably being moved to Bury. are the fans supposed to commute from London to Bury for every home game then or are they just discarded and robbed of something they hold dear? And then why would people from Bury flock out to watch London? The whole concept is preposterous, absolutely ridiculous. Can anyone who understands the whole thing (ellewoods maybe?) go into a bit more detail about why/how this can happen? Because ever since I learned clubs in other sports just up sticks and move cities about a year ago, I've never been able to get my head round it.
Well Mr. Hat, mmm kay, I live in Charlotte, NC. We had the NBA Hornets for many many years located in a new arena about six miles west of the center city. For the first several years we led the league in attendance(about 23K for 41 home games) and had the best fans despite a poor team. Eventually the team got good and attendance stayed strong but the owner had an affair with a cheerleader(known as the Honeybees, get it?) and took on a minority owner shortly after. They both wanted a new arena in the center city, or city centre as you might say to capitalize on luxury suite revenue. It was all the rage back then and the old arena only had six. A new arena would have more than 50. Short story long, voters voted against a new arena so the owners packed up and moved to New Orleans. Eventually we got another franchise here that hasn't been as successful(were the NBA on a promotion relegation type table we'd be in the blue square) but it's starting to head in the right direction. Basically, teams move because they hold taxpayers/local governments to the fire for new facilities. If they say no, typically they leave town. It's unfortunate.
That's a ****ing bullshit system. I wouldn't even bother giving a single **** about a sport that shat on its fans and went elsewhere in a strop. How an the sport officials justify letting it happen? What did all the fans of this club do once their club got moved? What happens to the history of the club? If football was like this I wouldn't have ever thought about supporting a club. It's wrong.
thats franchise for you , there isnt a real comparison in traditional British sports . dont forget there are other things to consider in what makes franchises acceptable in the States . The area and population spread for one , NHL and NFL dont compare to the premier league , they compare more to a european super league that there is a small number (but guaranteed number) of elite clubs Wealth generated within the sport is generally distributed evenly Being **** for a couple of seasons will allow you first pick in the "transfer window" (imagine that in football) There are local side too , smaller scale teams in less converted leagues
Like AmericanPlastic says its all about money. Our teams do not pay for their stadiums. When the stadium gets old the city either pays for a new one or they move. If teams get bad attendance the leagues either encourage them to move or make them move. Sometimes teams move and are still in the area, from the suburbs to the city. Sometimes a City can make a deal with a team to build a new stadium but the only land available is across a river or something so you can have NY teams that play in NJ etc. I know it is easy to say that you wouldnt care about sports if you had this system. Easy to say and sorry I dont think thats how it would work. You are a dude, dudes watch sports, you go to bars and watch sports, you have partys around certain games. If you lived in this system you would still watch sports and your team. You would just adapt to it all.
I think Green Bay are the only American football team of the original ones which is still in the city it started in. A bit different in USA anyway as the largest crowds are for college games. School soccer games get biggerbcrowds than a lot of our league games outside the PL.
I played in the 18 year old world series as a 17 year old. We had 10,000 people watching and it was on TV. I played on a team that went all up and down the east coast when I was 16 and we often had crowds that approached 8,000.
