I actually started thinking about this a couple of weeks ago, when the Rams were in the NFL playoffs, in their second year back in L.A., and after their tenure in St. Louis ended with a long run of mediocre-to-bad teams.
Not including the early years of the various major pro leagues (in which it was common for teams to fold or move), St. Louis has lost five teams in the four major pro sports:
Football:
Cardinals (moved to Phoenix in 1988)
Rams (moved to Los Angeles in 2016)
Baseball:
Browns (moved to Baltimore, and became the Orioles, in 1954)
Basketball:
Hawks (moved to Atlanta in 1968)
Spirits (folded when the ABA and NBA merged in 1976)
I suspect that that’s a record for franchise losses in one city, but I may be mistaken. Are there other candidates?
Rams (NFL) moved to LA
Browns (NFL) moved to Baltimore
Barons (NHL) folded (technically merged with Minnesota)
Crusaders (WHA) folded I think
Cleveland Pipers (ABL) folded
It looks like they actually moved to Minnesota, and became the WHA’s second incarnation of the Fighting Saints, but then folded partway through their one season there (1976-77).
Yeah, the Pilots were a disaster of an idea, but mostly for reasons beyond their control.
They were forced to start play two years early, because the AL had been pressured into letting the Royals start play in 1969 instead of 1971, and the league needed to expand by two teams at once. They played in a rundown, minor-league stadium (ironically called Sicks’ Stadium), because the planned new stadium for 1971 hadn’t yet been built. They had terrible attendance, and an owner who wasn’t interested in throwing more money at a losing proposition.
Several attempts to sell the team to owners who would keep it in Seattle fell through, and the sale of the team to Bud Selig (and its move to Milwaukee) literally happened days before Opening Day, 1970.
(The resulting lawsuit against the American League by Seattle, King County, and Washington state eventually led to the creation of the Mariners.)
Melbourne “lost” South Melbourne to Sydney and Fitzroy to Brisbane. They have been increasing pressure & incentives for North Melbourne to go to Tasmania for years.
Curiously enough, were that to succeed South Melbourne have gone north while North Melbourne would go south.
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Though, as the author notes, most of those came from the early years of MLB and the NFL (during which franchise moves and closures were much more common).
The Athletics, to Oakland
The Scouts, to Colorado
The Kings, to Sacramento
They also had an early NFL team, the Cowboys, but I don’t know if we’re counting those.
ninja’ed by astorian, but the Scouts aren’t the Avalanche - they became the Colorado Rockies, who later became the New Jersey Devils. The Avalanche are the re-located Quebec Nordiques.
Technically true, though the NFL records don’t officially acknowledge the first one as a “move.”
Dallas definitely lost the first Dallas Texans (which only played one season, 1952). The owners of the Texans turned the franchise back to the NFL midway through the season, and they played their final few games all on the road, as wards of the league.
The NFL then folded the Texans franchise folded after the season, and shortly thereafter, awarded a new franchise to Baltimore, which became the Colts. Despite the fact that the new Baltimore team was awarded assets from the defunct Texans (including a number of players), neither the Colts nor the NFL officially acknowledge that the franchise’s lineage traces back to the Texans. As far as NFL records are concerned, the Texans folded after 1952, and a brand-new franchise began in Baltimore in 1953.
And the Blue Jays, to my delight; they needed two teams to keep it balanced, and Toronto had owners who were desperate for a team and had come a whisker from poaching the Giants from San Francisco.
That seems to be only marginally related. For example, the NHL teams in California have been doing pretty well for years, and kids don’t play hockey here either.