Relocation Patterns of North American Sports Franchises

Abstract

In North American sports, having a sports franchise provides a city with a unique identity and a team to support. However, there have been numerous instances of franchises relocating to other cities, sometimes multiple times, which means that a team's presence in a city is not necessarily permanent. This paper aims to examine the factors that might affect franchises decision to relocate in the four major North American sports leagues - NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB. I test whether MSA income, states’ income and population might increase a team’s probability to relocate. The results suggest that a team is more likely to locate in an area where the MSA per capita income is higher than the per capita income of the state in which the team is located. This suggests that a team is more likely to locate in an area where the MSA per capita income is higher than the per capita income of the state in which the team is located. When it comes to the population, franchises that do relocate to more populated areas and where is much higher population growth compared to teams that do not relocate at all.