AFAIK, it’s mostly an American phenomena, that the home team moves to another city. That’s odd. Imagine Manchester United going to Bristol, for instance. Wouldn’t that be strange? What would the Man United fans do? Go bersek, I imagine, but then what? Humbly ask the City fans if they can route for their team instead? - Wouldn’t think so. Move to Bristol? Not bloody likely.
So what does American fans do, when a football team or any other team move to another city? - Are they still fans, though it’s not their home team anymore? It’s somebody else’s home team. How does that feel?
It isn’t uncommon at all for American sports fans to be loyal to a team thousands of miles away based in a city they might not have even visited. The really powerhouse teams attract lots of rabid fans that live nowhere near there. It isn’t that difficult because the popular American sports like football, basketball, and even baseball are covered fairly well by our national TV networks and by the newspapers. The fans of teams that move just choose for themselves. Some keep the loyalty for some time while others shift their focus to the nearest professional team, a local college team, or something else completely.
I’m still upset about the Texas Traitors, err, Texas Rangers. They used to be the Washington Senators, until Bob Short (hiss) hijacked the team and moved it to Texas.
When the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas it was blood. Norman Green (the owner) was NOT welcomed in this state. It only pissed us fans even more when the Stars went on to win the Stanley Cup in '99. That was “OUR” team. From the fans I knew, they still followed the Stars until we got our new team, the Wild.
The opening scene of “Basketball” has a really funny map of the USA, showing teams that have moved. The movie is set in the future (kinda, not really), and there are so many lines drawn that the entire map turns red. The funniest line, which I think I can quote from memory, says, “The Minneapolis Lakers moved to LA, where there are no lakes. The New Orleans Jazz moved to Utah, where there is no music.”
American sports fans seem to use words like “market” and “franchise” without any irony, so it’s a completely different world to British football, where overt commercialism is still a fairly recent phenomenon, and where no matter how commercial things get it is hard to imagine a big team moving to a completely different city.
If the long-standing collective bargaining broke down any further, though, I suppose I could just about conceive the less obviously geographically explicit “brands” such as Aston Villa (a Birmingham team) operating more and more out of London. Everybody would hate it, but if some billionaire bought them and desired it, I think it could happen.
It depends. Some people send death threats to the team and some people just deal with it and hope they get a new franchise. LA has not gotten a new NFL team. Of course they poached NFL teams from other cities to begin with so I guess they got what they deserved. And I am not sure that most people really even care.
If it was me personally with the Eagles, I think I would be pretty pissed and burn my Eagles stuff.
Aren’t Wimbledon fans pretty steamed that the Dons moved to Milton Keynes?
I think the typical thing is to root for the team that moved away for a few years, finally let the resentment build up too much, and just wait for a new team to move to your home town.
Growing up in Austin, I was a fan of the Houston Oilers. When they moved away, I rooted for the Tennessee Oilers briefly, but when they became the Titans I gave up on them (save the one Super Bowl appearance, where we all rooted for “our Oilers” again). When the Houston Texans were started, I began to root for them.
But loyalties in American pro sports can be very fleeting. The Texans aren’t very good, so I don’t root for them anymore. I do root for the Titans again, because of Vince Young (who played at the University of Texas) and hey, they used to be the Oilers.
For fan loyalty comparisons, it’s probably more accurate to compare US College sports to English football, but even then it’s not really the same.
OK, it’s more like a few thousand of them, but Wimbledon are lower league through and through. In that giddy period when they somehow resided in the top tier of English football, their small crowds were a standing joke.
It depends. When the Cleveland Browns moved out of Cleveland to Baltimore (and became the Ravens), Cleveland threatened the NFL in some fashion. (I don’t recall precisely what they threatened or clained). The NFL and the city came to a settlement which promised Cleveland an expansion team plus the right to keep the name Brownns, the team’s colors, and the franchise’s records.
This is the only case I’ve seen where this was explicitly considered. Certainly the Dodgers’ and Giants’ announcers talk about Dodger and Giant franchise records which include their time in New York.
In 1969 (the centennial of professional baseball), each franchise’s fans selected a “franchise” all star team. As I recall, the New York Mets fans selected an all star team for National League New Yorkers, covering the Mets, Giants, and Dodgers. The Giant and Dodger fans selected All Star teams for the franchise includling LA and Brooklyn or SF and NY.
I believe the Minnesota Twins selected an all start team from the franchise (including the Washington Senators up through 1960) and the new Washington Senators selected an all star team from their franchise and the old Senators up through 1960) as well.
Were pretty steamed. So they went off and formed AFC Wimbledon to be the true heirs of their club. And thanks to the presence of promotion & relelgation, it’s possible that in a couple of years they’ll be in the same league as MK Dons.
I am a Dallas Cowboy’s fan, but I used to root for the Houston Oilers in the AFC (especially when they would play the Steelers). When the Oilers left, I felt bad for a few days, then I just let it go. I could no longer be a fan of the Oilers because as far as I was concerned, they ceased to exist. They were now the Tenessee Oilers, they were a different team- even if they had all the same coaches and players. Rooting for them would just be strange.