Franchise Relocations

Apparently the New Orleans Hornets are considering changing their name to the Pelicans. And because of this possibility, Michael Jordan has stated that he wants to change the Bobcats back to the Charlotte Hornets. (I assume there was no interest in Utah to allow New Orleans to have the "Jazz" back.)


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Now all we need is the Arizona Cardinals to create a new name, so St. Louis can have the Cardinals back. Then this will allow the new team in Los Angeles to be the Rams, like they used to be. By the way, those Rams also used to be in Cleveland, and the Cardinals used to be in Chicago.. Thank goodness St. Louis still has its baseball Cardinals!

As far as the Colts go, they moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis, keeping their name. Then the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens. Then when the new team was created in Cleveland, they jumped at the chance be the Browns again! That Cleveland team is the only one in all of this who had any sense! And remember the Houston Texans had every opportunity to become the Oilers, since that team changed its name to the Titans when they moved to Tennessee. It's also important to note that probably 99% of all Houston Texans fans don't even know the Kansas City Chiefs used to be the Dallas Texans.

Speaking of Kansas City, the origin of the Royals has some crazy history too, but it's actually an original franchise. However, there was once a team in Philadelphia called the Athletics, who moved to KC and were the Kansas City Athletics for 13 seasons. But that team is now in Oakland.

No wonder the Athletics decided to move in the first place. Philly also had the Phillies. What on earth could be the significance of baseball's Philadelphia Phillies? They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. (Source)

But what sucks about the New Orleans Hornets is that they were forced to play a season in Oklahoma City before the Seattle Supersonics came to town. So lots of OKC basketball fans, who became attached to the Hornets, suddenly had no team again. Very soon, however, they would be rewarded, to the chagrin of everyone in the city of Seattle, with the Supersonics - and called themselves the Oklahoma City Thunder. Had the Hornets simply decided to just stay in OKC, the Supersonics could've gone to New Orleans, and then we'd have the New Orleans __?___ Thunder? But then, the Charlotte Hornets (being in OKC instead of New Orleans) may have not wanted to change their name to the Pelicans, and I wouldn't have written this blog post in the first place.

But wait.. We all know that Salt Lake City is not known for its jazz music. But are there any Grizzlies in Memphis? I presume there must be at least one.. at their zoo. Same with the lakes of Minnesota. Once upon a time, Minneapolis had a basketball team called the Lakers, formerly the Detroit Gems, who are now in Los Angeles, and the rest is history.

Now that the New Jersey (formerly New York) Nets are in Brooklyn, I assume New Jersey is just flat-out screwed.

But at least you're not a D.C. baseball fan. The original Washington Senators decided to move to Minnesota, and became the Twins. Then after being granted a new franchise (also called the Senators), 11 years after the original Senators moved to Minnesota, the second Senators moved to Arlington, TX, and became the Texas Rangers.

Oddly enough though, I don't think any teams have anything on the Sacramento Kings. They began in Rochester, NY as the Rochester Royals. After 37 years, they moved to Cincinnati, and were the Cincinnati Royals for 15 years. Then they moved to Kansas City and changed their name to the Kings to avoid confusion with their baseball Royals.
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(What! Why?? Two St. Louis organizations obviously didn't have a problem both being the Cardinals in both baseball and football!)

Anyway, thirteen years later they moved to California, and became the Sacramento Kings. Now this Sacramento Kings team is seriously considering moving to Norfolk, VA to become either the Virginia Kings or the NorfolkKings. I seriously hope they choose the former rather than the latter. Yeah I intentionally left no space. That pronunciation is just not nice at all.

I won't even get into hockey or soccer. Nor will I mention any of these:

∙ Buffalo Braves - San Diego Clippers - L.A. Clippers
∙ Baltimore Orioles - New York Highlanders - New York Yankees
∙ Milwaukee Brewers - St. Louis Brewers - St. Louis Browns - Baltimore Orioles
∙ Boston Braves - Milwaukee Braves - Atlanta Braves
∙ Seattle Pilots - Milwaukee Brewers ..(Seattle Mariners)
∙ [Brooklyn Dodgers --> L.A. Dodgers ~&~New York Giants --> San Francisco Giants]
∙ The Redskins used to be in Boston. Hmm...

I know one thing. If Tottenham ever decides to move its soccer team to San Antonio, we might be in trouble!

Sources: Wikipedia's "Relocation of Professional Sports Teams", and Philly's, and Cincy's