Expansion team

An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also hope that the expansion of their competition will grow the popularity of the sport generally. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues but is applied to sports leagues in other countries with a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the sport into new areas. That sometimes results in the payment of an expansion fee to the league by the new team and an expansion draft to populate the new roster.

Reasons for expansion

In North America, expansion often takes place in response to population growth and geographic shifts of population. Such demographic change results in financial opportunities to engage with the new market as consumers of sports demand local teams to support. Major League Baseball (MLB) was limited to 16 teams located north and east of St. Louis, Missouri for the first half of the 20th century. During that time, the United States population doubled and expanded to the south and west. Rival interests explored the possibility of forming a rival league in the untapped markets. To forestall that possibility, one of the measures that MLB took was to expand by four teams in 1961 and 1962. Over the past four decades, MLB expanded further, to its current 30-team membership. In the context of MLB, the term "expansion team" is also used to refer to any of the 14 teams enfranchised in the second half of the 20th century.

Leagues that are new and/or financially struggling may also admit large numbers of expansion teams to pocket more revenue from expansion fees. Indoor American football leagues are notorious for doing so: the leagues can double the number of teams and have many new teams fail within a year or two.

When an expansion team begins play, it is generally stocked with less talented free agents, inexperienced players, and veterans nearing retirement. Additionally, prospective owners may face expensive fees to the league as well as high startup costs such as stadiums and facilities, and the team is also at a disadvantage in that it has not been together as a team as long as its opponents and thus lacks the cohesiveness other teams have built over years. As a result, most expansion teams are known for their poor play during their first few seasons, which can be exacerbated by the fact that leagues sometimes expand by two or four teams in one season for scheduling reasons, such as eliminating the possibility of a team being without an opponent on a preferred date by an odd number of teams. In those cases, expansion teams must compete with their expansion rivals for available talent. Expansion teams are not usually doomed to mediocrity forever, as most leagues have policies which promote parity, such as drafts and salary caps, which gives some expansion teams the opportunity to win championships only a few years after their first season. The Arizona Diamondbacks won the 2001 World Series only three years after the team's founding in 1998 even though Major League Baseball is generally considered among the least conducive to parity because of the lack of a salary cap. The Milwaukee Bucks also won the 1971 NBA Finals in only their third year of existence, greatly helped by drafting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1969 draft and acquiring Oscar Robertson from Cincinnati Royals before the 1970-71 season began. The Chicago Fire won MLS Cup in 1998 in just their first year of existence in Major League Soccer. In 2011, the Portland Timbers started their MLS franchise, and they won the MLS Cup in 2015. The Florida Panthers made the Stanley Cup Finals in only their 3rd season in the National Hockey League (NHL) even though, like MLB, the league then had no salary cap. The National Football League, despite being considered the most generous in its revenue sharing and the strictest with its salary cap, has had far more difficulty bringing expansion teams up to par with their more established brethren: none of the four teams started with new rosters since 1995 (when the salary cap was imposed) won a Super Bowl (the Carolina Panthers have come closest, reaching the NFC Championship Game in their second season and reaching the Super Bowl twice, but have never won); the most recent addition to the league, the Houston Texans, took over a decade to reach the playoffs, and the Cleveland Browns have yet to win a playoff game in the nearly two decades since its return to the league in 1999.

Most teams are considered as an expansion team usually in their first season and sometimes in their second season, but especially for purists, Major League Baseball teams can be considered "expansion teams" indefinitely. A team that moves to another location and/or changes its name is not an expansion team. If it moves, it is known as a relocated team, and if the name changes, the team is known as a renamed team. In response to a negative attitude that some fans have towards relocated teams, there have recently been instances where relocating clubs change their identity completely; name, colours and mascot; but because the roster is the same and the league does not expand as a result, they are not regarded as expansion teams. One of two noted exceptions are the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL): when the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, an agreement was reached for which the history of the pre-1996 Cleveland Browns remained in that city and was claimed by the post-1999 Browns when the league placed a new franchise there even though the actual team and roster had moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens.The other noted exception are the New Orleans Pelicans, who were previously known as the New Orleans Hornets after relocating to New Orleans from Charlotte, N.C., in 2002. After the 2012 sale of the Hornets, new owner Tom Benson changed the name, colors and mascot from Hornets to Pelicans. The Charlotte Hornets segment of the franchise's history was sold to the then-Charlotte Bobcats (themselves formerly considered a 2004 expansion team) and the 2002 New Orleans Hornets are now officially regarded as an expansion team.

Cities and regions with large populations that lack a team are generally regarded to be the best candidates for new teams. The European Super League in rugby league has added teams from France and Wales to cover a great demographic spread.

A-League

Arena Football League

Australian Football League

Canadian Football League

Indian Premier League

Jim Beam Cup

Kontinental Hockey League

Major League Baseball

Major League Lacrosse

Major League Soccer

National Basketball Association

National Basketball League

National Football League

Only extant teams are listed. Two charter franchises, the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals and Chicago Bears (originally Decatur Staleys), are still active.

National Hockey League

National Lacrosse League

National Rugby League

National Women's Soccer League

New South Wales Cup

Northern Territory Football League

Ontario Hockey League

Philippine Basketball Association

Pro12

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

Queensland Cup

Super League (Australia)

Super League

Super Rugby

United Football League (2009)

Victorian Football League

Vodacom Cup

VTB United League

West Australian Football League

Western Hockey League

Women's National Basketball Association

Women's National Basketball League

Women's Professional Soccer

References

  1. 1 2 "Charlotte Hornets Name Returns to Carolinas". Charlotte Hornets. May 20, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Radical changes as Argentina plans for the future". ESPN Scrum. 10 December 2013. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
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