Teams that are allowed to keep their city names but are farthest away from that city?

The Game Room
1

I think the most blatant example are the San Francisco 49ers moving 50 miles south of San Francisco to a city right next to San Jose, with about 2-3 times the population of San Fran, yet the Niners retain their “San Francisco” heritage.

I hate to say this as I’m no fan of franchise chess, but since San Francisco didn’t at least land a stadium at least within moonshot of the city doesn’t the franchise at least owe it to Santa Clara to name the team the California, Golden Bay or Bay Area 49ers??? Or out of deference to one of the largest cities in America the next row over, the San Jose 49ers???

This issue came up with the New York Giants and Jets playing in a stadium in New Jersey, but Met Life Stadium and it’s earlier counterpart were 5 miles from Manhattan. Many New Jersey politicians were not happy that the two teams were taking NJ tax breaks but still naming themselves “New York”.

Finally there the Angels. Originally the Los Angeles Angels playing out of Dodger Stadium, they finally got their own abobe in Anaheim and became the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and are now the Los Angeles Angels once again: despite being about 20 miles outside Los Angeles city limits, or even on LA county!

I know for a fact the city of Anaheim was not happy with the name change either, just like the state of NJ.
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2

For 30 years, the Detroit Pistons played their home games at The Palace of Auburn Hills, 30 miles north of Detroit.

In 1973-74, the NY Giants played their home games in New Haven, CT, some 80 miles from their previous home of Yankee Stadium.

3

This thread belongs in The Game Room.

That said, didn’t the Cleveland Cavaliers used to play in an arena that was actually closer to Akron than it was to Cleveland?

4

They would owe it had Santa Clara successfully negotiated it in the contract. That’s how Miami got the Marlins to change their name.

The city of Anaheim had a contract, but they failed to write it specifically enough to stop the name change.

5

List of MLB stadiums. Most MLB teams that are named for cities play their home games inside the city limits. Other than those mentioned already, SunTrust Park is about 10 miles from downtown Atlanta but only one or two miles outside the city limits.

6

Are the New England Patriots just playing it safe?

7

When they moved from Boston to Foxboro they wanted to change the name to the Bay State Patriots but the NFL rejected that. They settled on New England instead.

8

According to Google, it is just over 20 miles from Dallas to Arlington, where the Cowboys play.

9

Also the reverse: The NY Mayor at the time (Ed Koch, IIRC) was such a dick about it that he didn’t let the 80s Giants teams have a parade when they won their Superbowls. They ended up just having what amounted to a party in Giants Stadium.

That made the 2007 parade particularly satisfying.

10

Ahem, they are officially the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim although that has been rarely used in the last couple years.

11

It is not actually super clear if that is still the team’s official name. While they have never formally changed it so far as I can tell, all “of Anaheim” branding has been dropped. The team’s legal name is simply “Angels Baseball LLC” and the official MLB style guides call them just “Los Angeles Angels.”

Of course, the other misnamed team is, I guess, the Tampa Bay Rays, who are not in fact located in Tampa Bay, which is a body of water.

I can think of two misnamed NHL teams and one that used to be:

The Ottawa Senators used to play outside Ottawa in the city of Kanata. They still play in Kanata, but it was merged with Ottawa in 2001.

The Phoenix Coyotes are in Glendale, not Phoenix.

The Vegas Golden Knights are technically not in Las Vegas; they are in Paradise, an unincorporated part of Clark County.

12

Granted they’re eventually going to move closer to Tampa (Ybor City), but the Tampa Bay Rays play in St. Pete which is a handful of miles away from the city limits

Edit: Ha. Ninja’d by RickJay

13

The Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, which is about 19 miles from downtown Dallas, and they practice in Frisco, which is about 32 miles from downtown Dallas, and more strangely, is about 35 miles from AT&T Stadium where they play.

You don’t even drive ***through ***Dallas to go between them…

14

I’m not sure what the OP is all upset about. If a team plays in Santa Clarita, but insists on calling itself Throatwobbler Mangrove, who are we to complain?

15

It was about 20 miles from both Cleveland and Akron. But yeah, in the same county as Akron and for the people coming from Cleveland it must have seemed like going to Iowa.

16

I assume that temporary moves aren’t under consideration? Otherwise the Chicago Bears played in Champaign, IL for a season. The distance between the two stadiums is 138 miles according to Google.

17

They’ve been the Arizona Coyotes since 2014, but you are correct from 2003-2014.

18

This is probably outside the scope of this thread, because you’re getting close to questions about the nature of reality. If the Baltimore Ravens can “officially” be considered a new franchise instead of a relocated Cleveland Browns, then a team’s official name can be “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim,” even if that name is never actually used in any context.

19

here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it –

20

That’s a good point. For a long time MLB maintained the fiction that the Minnesota Twins had nothing to do with the old Washington Senators, despite a curiously large number of 1960 Senators being 1961 Twins. It’s all nomenclature.