Expansion team - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the sport into new areas. This sometimes results in the payment of an expansion fee to the league by the new team, and an expansion draft

Expansion draft

An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion draft...

to populate the new roster.

Reason for expansion

In North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, expansion takes place in response to population growth

Population growth

Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....

and geographic shifts of population, driven by the resulting financial opportunity made possible by such demographic change. For example, Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

was limited to 16 teams located north and east of St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

for the first half of the 20th century. During this time, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

population doubled and expanded to the south and west. Rival interests explored the possibility of forming a rival league

Continental League

The Continental League was a proposed third major league for baseball, announced in 1959 and scheduled to begin play in the 1961 season...

in these untapped markets. To forestall this possibility, one of the measures 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.

When an expansion team begins play, it is generally stocked with less talented free agent

Free agent

In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....

s and inexperienced staffs. Additionally, prospective owners may face expensive fees to the league as well as high start-up costs such as stadiums and facilities. As a result, most expansion teams are known for their poor play during their first few seasons. This can be exacerbated by the fact that leagues often expand by two or four teams in one season, to eliminate the possibility of a bye-week in the draw from having 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

Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field...

won the 2001 World Series

2001 World Series

-Game 1:Saturday, October 27, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, ArizonaArizona showed no fear and chased Yankees starter Mike Mussina after just three innings. The Yankees gave up five unearned runs and the Diamondbacks rode Curt Schilling's seven strong innings to a 9–1 rout...

only three years after the team's 1998 founding

1998 Arizona Diamondbacks season

The 1998 Arizona Diamondbacks season was the Diamondbacks' inaugural season. They looked to contend in what was a strong National League Western Division. They finished the season with a record of 65-97, last in the division...

, even though Major League Baseball is generally considered the least conducive to parity. Similarly, in the 1996 NFL season

1996 NFL season

The 1996 NFL season was the 77th regular season of the National Football League and the season was marked by notable controversies from beginning to end...

, only the second year of the Carolina Panthers

Carolina Panthers

The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are currently members of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Panthers, along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, joined the NFL as expansion...

' and Jacksonville Jaguars

Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

' existences, both teams finished conference runner-up.

Most teams are considered as an expansion team usually in their first season and sometimes in their second season, although, 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 generally not considered an expansion team. They are known as relocated teams. If the name changes they are known as renamed teams. In response to a negative attitude 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 because the league does not expand as a result, they are not regarded as expansion teams. Teams which have been 'reborn' in this manner include the Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens are a professional football franchise based in Baltimore, Maryland.The Baltimore Ravens are officially a quasi-expansion franchise, having originated in 1995 with the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced his...

in the NFL, the Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder are a professional basketball franchise based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ; their home court is at Chesapeake Energy Arena....

in the NBA and Houston Dynamo

Houston Dynamo

The Houston Dynamo is an American professional soccer club, based in Houston, Texas, that plays in Major League Soccer, the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. Founded in 2005 as Houston 1836, the team name was renamed to Houston Dynamo following protests from Hispanic...

in the MLS. (Legally, however, the Ravens are considered an expansion team, due to an agreement with the Cleveland Browns

Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

, the current incarnation of which was formed in the manner of an expansion team, but owns the rights to the Ravens' history while the team was in Cleveland and known as the Browns.)

Cities and regions with large populations that lack a team are generally regarded to be the best candidates for new teams. For example, the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

(NFL) has recently considered Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

to be the best possibility

History of the National Football League in Los Angeles

Professional American football, especially its established top level, the National Football League, has had a long history in Los Angeles, the center of the second-largest media market in the United States. Since 1995, Los Angeles has been by far the largest U.S. market without an NFL team...

for a brand new NFL team and Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

as a second choice

National Football League in Toronto

The National Football League has long been rumoured to be considering placing one of its franchises in Canada's largest city, Toronto, Ontario....

. The European Super League

Super League

Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...

in rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

has added teams from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

to cover a great demographic spread.

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