Watching the Mariners-Cubs exhibition in Las Vegas last night, they spent some time talking about the prospects of a major league team in Las Vegas. That got me thinking, if MLB wanted a team in Vegas, but didn’t want to do a whole expansion, what team would they move? My top choice: the Angels. No offense intended to the team or its fans, but California has way too many teams (five? SD, LA, SF, Anaheim, Oakland) and this latest Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim stunt is just stupid. To me, it indicates an oversaturated market. So, if I could move any baseball team to anywhere, I’d move the Angels to Vegas.
What teams would you move where? A sing rule, however: The move has to make economic sense (no moving the Yankees to Fargo just because you don’t like the Yankees)
Baseball: I don’t want to move any team, but if you forced me to I’d probably move Milwaukee to New York or New Jersey. NY/NJ could easily support another team, and I believe Milwaukee is the smallest of all MLB markets and is lost at sea anyway. Like I said, I wouldn’t do it if I had a choice, but the conditions of the OP say I have to.
Hockey: I went to a Florida Panthers game last February. I paid $7 to see the game - that’s seven dollars to see a professional hockey game - and there were not seven thousand people in the entire arena. Half of them were Maple Leaf fans on vacation (the Leafs were in town - I hate the Leafs and was there to cheer against them.) I asked an usher where all the fans were; he said it was actually a pretty good night.
That town does not need a hockey team. Move them to the western side of Toronto - Hamilton or Mississauga.
Football: I don’t think it really matters where an NFL team plays. But it’s ludicrous that LA doesn’t have a team, so move Jacksonville to LA.
Basketball: Either Charlotte or New Orleans would be fine to be moved, but to where? I say St. Louis. Why so few midwestern teams?
NBA: I’d move the Los Angeles Clippers to either Orange County or San Diego.
NHL: I’d contract several teams such as Carolina, Atlanta, Nashville, one of the Florida teams, and probably contract even more
MLB: I think it is just fine except for Tampa Bay. Probably move them to North Carolina, Las Vegas or perhaps Salt Lake City.
NFL: I also don’t think that the local market is as relevant with the NFL. I think there are more fans of non local teams in the NFL than in any other major sport. I do think Los Angeles needs a team, so perhaps Jacksonville to Los Angeles.
Not quite in the spirit of the OP, but I’d move all basketball teams, pro and college, to a spot about 500 miles due west of Los Angeles. That’d free up some time on ESPN for showing a real sport. Then I’d get the NHL management problem resolved and we’d expand into all those now-empty arenas built for that other now-drowned ex-sport.
Actually, if you think about it, a great deal of the early NBA franchises were located in the Midwest, and either relocated or went out of business, so maybe it just makes financial sense for whatever reason, or at least it did in the past. The current NBA’s target market is very young and fairly black, and pretty low-income, so I guess it makes sense that they’ve been mainly expanding southwards.