Lying Sports Teams

The Chicago Bears are now officially taking steps to move the team to Indiana. People are upset. Why? Because these days more and more sports teams are moving away from their metropolitan centers and only using their famous city names essentially for advertising purposes. Soldier Field is closer to downtown Chicago than any other professional sports venues in the Windy City. That’s almost unheard of nowadays, especially for football stadiums. This is about money and it stinks. It isn’t unprecedented though. Will they become the Indiana Bears? Of course not. Sports teams lie about their locations all the time…

Friday Fun (early): MLB Without Relocation NL Edition

NBA/NHL

In the NBA and NHL, it isn’t as hard to find city space for an arena. Fitting 20,000 people and parking isn’t nearly the challenge that comes with 70,000 people. Still, that hasn’t stopped the Sixers from threatening to move over the Delaware River and into NJ. Sure, the Clippers are technically in Inglewood, but LA is such a sprawling area that it’s not like they are moving to the outskirts. About the only thing those leagues are guilty of is odd place names. “Vegas”, “Carolina”, “Golden State”, and “Tampa Bay” are not real cities or states. The Golden State moniker allows the Warriors to somewhat escape criticism for ditching Oakland for San Francisco (SHAME!)

MLB

Major League Baseball is where things start getting silly.

“Atlanta” Braves: The Braves moving around following dollars is no surprise. They went from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta in the span of 14 years, then left their new Atlanta stadium after only 19 years. After 30 years at Fulton County Stadium, they moved right next door to Turner Field for another 19. Of course, when Cobb County was offering a better financial situation, they left Atlanta behind for Cumberland, GA. No one is bashing the new park in theory, but ditching the city after 19 years for a better deal is all too typical Braves.
“Tampa Bay” Rays: The Rays have called St. Petersburg home for nearly their entire existence (save for natural disasters). While St. Pete is technically on Tampa Bay, it really isn’t anywhere near Tampa like let’s say Raymond James Stadium is for the Buccaneers. Plus, you can’t play baseball in the water. They are moving to Tampa proper in a few years though.
“Los Angeles” Angels: The Angels haven’t played in LA since 1965 when they were waiting for Angel Stadium to open. THEY ARE IN ANAHEIM!!! Their history of going from Los Angeles Angels, to California Angels, to Anaheim Angels, to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and finally back to the Los Angeles Angels is frankly embarrassing. Anaheim is not the simple suburb it was back in the 60’s, 350k people live there!
Athletics: The A’s simply refuse to even acknowledge Sacramento after playing themselves out of Oakland and wait for their Las Vegas stadium to open.

Friday Fun (late): MLB Without Relocation AL Edition

NFL

The NFL really stretches the truth when it comes to geography. By my count, 13 of the 32 teams are living a lie in some way, while two are notably not.

Not Lying
- Arizona Cardinals: The Cardinals are one of the few who have un-lied themselves. They were the Phoenix Cardinals for 5 years despite being located in Tempe, AZ. The funny thing is that when they moved to their new stadium, it was actually named University of Phoenix Stadium for several years despite that being an online college (no campus but technically had a stadium I guess?) and located in Glendale.
- Kansas City Chiefs – The Chiefs made waves recently by saying goodbye to Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium in favor of a sweater deal from Kansas. While that state has changed, the city has not. The Kansas City Chiefs will now be located in…KANSAS CITY! It’s Kansas though and even though ten year old me thought they played in Kansas anyway, the locals are none too happy. That’s what you get for cheering on that cesspool of an organization.
- New England Patriots – The term New England is pretty damn broad considering they could be located on top of Mount Katahdin in Maine and still be technically correct, but this is very much a Boston franchise. Gilette Stadium though is located in Foxborough, roughly 30 miles from Boston proper. Not lying though.
Lying
- “Buffalo” Bills – The Buffaloians have so little going for them, so when they were invited to join the NFL, they sold their souls to Orchard Park. While old War Memorial Stadium was in Buffalo, but it did not have the seating capacity the NFL desired. The compromise was to move the team out to the suburbs.
- “Cleveland” Browns – This hasn’t happened yet, but after mobing into brand new Huntington Bank Field in 1999, the Browns are now planning on moving to Brook Park, OH. They are going from the waterfront in downtown Cleveland to Nowheresville, 17 miles away. Ownership taking the team hostage in negotiating with the city is especially cruel considering the team’s history.
- “Dallas” Cowboys – The Cowboys haven’t been in Dallas since 1970 when they left the Cotton Bowl for Texas Stadium in Irving. Now they play 20 more miles away in Jerry World in Arlington, Texas. At least their across-the-street neighbor the Rangers call themselves “Texas”, but the Cowboys simply ignore the 400,000 people who call Arlington home.
- “Los Angeles” Chargers – The Chargers left San Diego to be a tenant of the Rams in not-Los Angeles. What a joke.
- “Los Angeles” Rams – The Rams went from playing in Angel Stadium in Anaheim to leaving for St. Louis for 20 years only to come back to not LA. The Rams played 4 seasons in the Coliseum before moving into SoFi Stadium…in Inglewood. All that LA talk and they move to a suburb. While I could defend it for the Clippers wanting out from under the thumb of the Lakers, the Rams are just a cash grab (and no one cares about the Clippers).
- “Miami” Dolphins – Miami Gardens is not Miami. Anyone who has ever been to the stadium knows that you have to leave Miami to get there. Granted, this makes it much easier for Fort Lauderdalians to get there, but once the Dolphins (and Hurricanes) left the Orange Bowl, they stopped being Miami.
- “New York” Giants: The Giants haven’t played in New York since 1975 when they called Shea Stadium home for a year. As the country hosts its semiquincentennial, the Giants will surely celebrate its Golden Jubilee in NJ, right?
- “New York Jets” – The Jets were in Shea Stadium even longer, calling the Mets’ Shack home for 19 years. All things New York eventually come to NJ though and they moved in with the Giants in 1983, then decided to stay roommates when MetLife Stadium was built in 2010. It’s just so NYC to be from Jersey and still claim New York as your home.
- “San Francisco” 49ers – While maybe a lot of the above are splitting hairs, the 49ers basically play in San Jose, home to about 1m people. It is technically Santa Clara, but it is definitely not San Francisco anymore.
- “Washington” Commanders – First, Washington is a state and about as far away from Washington DC as you can get in the Lower 48. Second, Northwest Field is in Summerfield, Maryland about forever away from DC. Their new stadium is at least moving back to the old RFK site.
Not a Place
- Carolina Panthers – Why is North Carolina so afraid of leaving South Carolina out in the naming issue? I know Charlotte isn’t too far to the north, but it’s not a big deal. ” Carolina is a term for BBQ, not a place that houses professional sports teams.
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers – I’ll give it to them on this one, saying that Buccaneers actually play in the water works pretty well. They are not in Tampa Bay though. The city is called Tampa. Somehow I didn’t know this until far later in life than I will admit.