Where Loyalty Lies
There is one common element in the relocation of a franchise, the abandonment of their fans. When it comes to the question of loyalty between a team and its supporters, it is a one-way street that can cost sports enthusiasts dearly.
Ask a Buffalo sports fan what their worse memory is and most likely the answer is Scott Norwood’s missed field goal in Super Bowl XXV. For a Red Sox supporter, it would be a dribbler going between Bill Buckners legs in the 1986 World Series (or the mere mention of the name Bucky Dent). In hockey crazed Canada, it possibly is the sight of Wayne Gretzky, the sport’s all-time point leader sitting on the bench, during a shoot-out loss at the Nagano Olympics. Boston Celtics enthusiasts can recite Rasheed Wallace after rebounding scoring on his own net.
Why Write Leaving Town Sports?
Autumn was and still is my favorite time of the year, except when I was a kid when it meant having to return to school. September was the kickoff to a new NFL season, with College Football thrown in as a starter on Saturdays. Major League Baseball was in the final stretch to determine winners of each league pennant. October as any Canadian attest, is the start of a new hockey season. It is also the month of the World Series, which prior to 1971, was exclusively played during the day time. I rushed home from school if lucky enough, to catch the last half of each game.
What is Leaving Town Sports?
Each of the four major North American professional leagues — the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Hockey League (NHL) — in their infancy endured through a series of franchises relocating or ceasing operations altogether. A common cause for a majority of this upheaval can be broken down into 3 major reasons.