Sports Teams, Communities, and the Specter of Relocation

Regardless of a team’s success, fans often face a common enemy: team owners willing to leverage relocation to get new stadiums

The Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Chiefs are about as different in the context of the sports world today than just about any pairing of teams. While the Chiefs have a budding dynasty in the NFL with the best player at the most important position, the Athletics are the laughingstock of Major League Baseball and on their way to a new city. And yet despite these differences, both teams were in the news in recent weeks for the same reason: relocation.

While the A’s are moving to Las Vegas (with a stop for a couple of years in Sacramento before that), there have been reignited fears that the Chiefs might consider relocation. Voters in Jackson County, Missouri voted down a sales tax measure that would fund a new ballpark for the Kansas City Royals and fund major renovations to Arrowhead Stadium where the Chiefs play. While there is no guarantee that the Chiefs would ever leave Kansas City, the implication has been established that it could happen making the Chiefs and their ownership group no better than any other American sports franchise owner willing to forgo a sense of community that is cultivated in a city to the highest bidder promising a shiny new stadium. It is a trend that is all too…