In the early part of the 20th century, when baseball teams started getting formal nicknames, of the sixteen teams in the two major leagues (the National League and the American League):
That may well have been a significant reason why nicknames became the norm.
Because that’s the tradition here and it seems strange when teams don’t have it (MLS teams going to European naming conventions of team FC get mocked).
Also the US has multiple major sports, and sometimes their season overlap. So in September when you say “Did you see the New York game”, you may have to specify which league you are talking about.
If you ask in October, the answer could be any of 7 teams throughout the NBA (1, plus Brooklyn), NHL (2), NFL (2) and MLB (2) (though unlikely, assuming both the Mets and the Yankees are in the playoffs).
It’s fun.
I was just re-reading “The Glory Of Their Times” (the greatest baseball book ever) and saw that one major league star originally played for his hometown amateur team, the Oakland City (Indiana) Walk-Overs.
That might be a decent name for Cleveland. Or the Do-Overs.
*Oakland City is home to Oakland City University. Its sports teams are called the Mighty Oaks, which is sort of feeble, unless they’re playing Stanford or Ohio State for forest bragging rights
9 even - the 2 MLS teams would be playing in October as well - Red Bull New York and NYCFC
Or to give fans another year to buy the “vintage” Indians gear now that the name change is officially going to happen. It’s all about the money.
interesting that all the London based soccer teams none of them have London in their name. Many are named for the area of London where they play. Except Chelsea who play in Fulham along with Fulham.
Don’t forget that some professional US teams aren’t even located in the city they’re named for. Just going by the NFL, neither New York team plays in the state or city of New York (though they do play in the New York metropolitan area, justifying their names). The San Francisco team plays in Santa Clara, but it’s in the San Francisco Bay area. The Washington “Football Team” plays in Virginia. The Vikings and Cardinals are named after states, not cities. The Carolina Panthers aren’t even named after a specific state. The Patriots are named after a general multi-state area (New England).
In fact, out of 32 teams, only the following teams are named after a specific city and have a home stadium in that city:
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Kansas City Chiefs
New Orleans Saints
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
Seattle Seahawks
Every other team is either not named after a city, or plays in a stadium not located in their named city. That includes most of the teams in the league.
So forget about naming a team after a neighborhood in a city they play in; we usually don’t even name them after the actual city itself.
does anyone care if the Jets and Giants play in NJ? Should Tampa Bay play in a floating stadium in the bay? BTW the DC team plays in Maryland, not Virginia.
What about da Bears?
Last time I looked Soldier’s Field was still there.
Or do they no longer count as a football team?
Also, marketing and money.
And within the Capital Beltway, actually a little closer to the referenced city limits even than the NY teams.
Sorry, I missed the Bears. They were in Champaign very briefly but that was almost 20 years ago.
So then exactly half the teams.
Sorry, yes they play in Maryland it’s their HQ that’s in Virginia, got mixed up there.
For the purposes of sports teams named solely after their city I think it’s relevant to mention that many aren’t at all.
The champion of this phenomenon is “Tampa Bay,” which is a body of water, not a city, but has three profession sports teams named after it.
The Caps and Wizards used to play in Maryland but they moved back to DC. And FedEx field is very near where they played in MD. Nationals and MLS Soccer play in DC.
the old Caps/Wizards place Cap Center was called Darkness on the edge of town and that was very good nickname. Everything but the seats was painted flat black. I guess they got that paint cheap. It was torn down for a shopping center. .
NFL Panthers are just a few miles from SC so their name makes sense.
Pfft, the Canadian Premier League has a team named Pacific FC. Though it’s the only team named that IIRC.
Can you imagine the amount of mech they would sell if they went with the Steamers? 
No, it doesn’t.
To me this is a meaningless nitpick. It’s perfectly reasonable to name a team after the principal city of the conurbation in which it’s home field isn’t located.
By common custom and understanding, any suburb of Detroit is legitimately described as being Detroit. Indeed, the details of municipal legal boundaries on the United States is minutia and irrelevant to all but the most specialized conversations.