In 1992 the San Francisco Giants were sold to a Tampa group for $115 million and were on their way to Tampa. Giants owner Bob Lurie had failed in attempts to gain approval for a baseball stadium in San Francisco. However National League owners voted down the proposed move 9-4. Peter Magowan, the CEO of Safeway Supermarket chain formed a group and offered $100 million. Lurie took that deal and the Giants stayed in San Francisco.

Pretty sure that had Bob Kraft moved the team to Hartford, Connecticut, they still would’ve been called the New England Patriots.

Al Davis was going to build a stadium at Hollywood Park right where SoFi is today. But Pete Rozzelle, who never missed an opportunity to mess with Al, said the Raiders would have to share it with another NFL team, most likely the Rams or Chargers. Al went back to Oakland.

Sacramento got their new arena due to them almost being relocated to Seattle. Sac's Mayor at the time (Kevin Johnson) fought hard for that team and that's why they got the new arena. Seattle was very close to getting the Kings and rebranding them into the Supersonics, it put heat on Sac to get that arena deal done.

In 1983 the St Louis Blues were set to move to Saskatoon Saskatchewan. A new owner group came in and bought the club, the fans in SK were going insane about having an NHL team, and all was set. It ended up being axed by NHL governors because they didn’t like the new owners. One of them, Bill Hunter, had helped get the old WHA going in the early 70s. Always have to ask what if.

The St. Louis Browns nearly moved Los Angeles in the early 40s but the bombing of Pearl Harbor ended that. They were literally a week away from announcing the move but canceled it because of a pending war. The Kansas City A’s nearly moved to Louisville in the early 1960’s but was voted down by AL owners. The San Diego Padres nearly moved to Washington DC and would have been renamed the Stars. It fell through at the eleventh hour. The SF Giants nearly moved to Toronto in the mid-70’s and then again in the early 90’s to St. Pete. Both fell through.

"you don't really wanna have something called the DEVIL Rays".... oh look, Duke, New Jersey...

If the New England Patriots had moved to Hartford, they wouldn't have had to change their name, since Hartford is the capital of Connecticut, which is in New England.

The new orleans saints almost considered moving to Salt Lake city a year after Hurricane Katrina, but the super dome got refurbished, and they hired Drew brees to play for the team.

In the mid-90s the Timberwolves almost moved to New orleans. It was pretty much set in stone that they were moving and what saved them from moving was that a new owner bought them who was Minnesota native and was bound and determined to keep the team here and he still owns the team to this day

In 1983, the St. Louis Blues were put up for sale and nearly moved to Saskatoon after receiving an offer, but finally got a new offer to stay in St. Louis at the 11th hour.

I remember the Pirates were in jeopardy of moving to Denver at one point. There was also a plan to move the Giants to San Jose. I remember a logo and everything.

St Louis and Baltimore were markets that needed an NFL (the Cardinals left St Louis in 1987 and the Colts left Baltimore in the early 80s). Back in the 80s - mid 90s, stadiums weren't as up to par as today, so threatening relocation is a way to pressure cities to build new stadiums. There are contract stipulations that a stadium has to stay in the top 10 in standards when it comes to amenities and fan experience. The St Louis Stallions were a very realistic expansion team if the Los Angeles Rams stayed in Anaheim. If they stayed in Anaheim, you wouldn't see the Angels restoring their stadium back in the late-90's.

In 1975, the San Francisco Giants were sold to a Toronto group. MLB stopped the sale, but gave Toronto a franchise in 1977.

The Hampton Roads Rhinos were a proposed expansion team.

I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet, but here's why the New England Patriots almost moved to St. Louis: In 1992, James Orthwein purchased the New England Patriots. Orthwein was a native son of St. Louis, Missouri. He planned to move the Patriots there and rename them the St. Louis Stallions. Orthwein's plan backfired when the owner of Foxboro Stadium -- Mr. Robert Kraft -- refused to accept a buyout of the lease. Kraft used his ownership of Foxboro Stadium to stage a hostile takeover, knowing full well Orthwein didn't wanna own the Patriots if he couldn't move them to St. Louis. Stan Kroenke offered to buy the Patriots and move them to St. Louis, but Orthwein would've been saddled with moving expenses. He also would've had legal expenses up the "wazoo," as Kraft threatened to take Orthwein to court to enforce the lease. So...on January 21, 1994, James Orthwein sold the New England Patriots to Robert Kraft. The rest is...history.

Other proposals you missed: Penguins almost moved to Kansas City. The Blues nearly moved to Saskatoon There were talks of the Bills moving to Seattle in the 70s and Los Angeles in the 2010s The Oilers considered Jacksonville before settling on Tennessee

There were some moves the first couple of years after the American League declared itself a major league, that people don't remember at all today, such as the original Milwaukee Brewers > St. Louis Browns and the original Baltimore Orioles > New York Highlanders (Yankees). These moves were designed to compete directly with the National League. There was some talk of moving the Tigers to Pittsburgh for that reason -- most of Detroit's auto-related growth was still in the future then, so it wouldn't have been out of the question.

I swear in the 90's it was a requirement for any new team to include in their colors purple, teal or both.

The Kansas City A's almost moved to Atlanta, before the Braves moved. Charlie Finley met with Atlanta Journal sportswriter, Furman Bisher at the site of what would become Atlanta Stadium. He told him if you build a new stadium the A's would move. The deal fell thru and the rest is history

Sacramento Kings where going to be purchased by Chris Hanson and moved to Seattle. Kevin Johnson, the Mayer of Sacramento and former NBA player was able to assemble enough local people to buy the team to prevent relocation to Seattle. I don’t know how you missed that fact.

The Yankees threatened to move the team to East Rutherford, NJ in the 70s if the city didn't provide them with the funds to renovate Yankee Stadium. You can find renders of the NJ stadium online.

San Francisco Giants almost moved to Toronto in the 70s and Tampa in the 80s. Mariners, Twins and White Sox were all connected to Tampa as well. Heard the Indians also considered relocating to Seattle.

Pt. 2 oughtta feature the Jacksonville Colts. I could throw in other teams that used moving to Jacksonville as a bargaining chip, but I think the pep rally held in 1979 makes the Colts one seem more legit than any other.

In the late 90s, both the Astros and Rockets used relocation as a way to get new stadiums. The Astros used the threat of moving to Northern Virginia to Enron Field(now Minute Maid Park) built. And the Rockets used the threat of moving to Louisville, KY to get Toyota Center built.

Timberwolves almost moved to New Orleans

I think the Hornets almost moved to Louisville in the early 00s, but it was blocked by Pitino and Jurich because they didn't want to share an arena with an NBA team.

The Nashville sound is already a team, they are the Triple A team for the Milwaukee Brewers

The owners of the Kings when they moved to Sacramento was Greg Lukenbill. He built Arco 1, which was just an office building converted to a temporary Arena that held about 10K seats. ARCO 2, the Kings home for years until the G1 center was built, held about 17K and when the Kings were good in the Early 2000's, that place would rock. What most people do not know is that Lukenbill also laid the foundation for a multi-use football and Baseball Stadium behind Arco 2. You could see it for years on Google Maps. The Raiders and Giants almost moved to Sacramento in the 80's but the City of Sacramento, the same city that paid 500 Million for G1 Center, would not give Lukenbill a 10 million dollar loan to finish the Stadium.

Back in the 1980s the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles at the time, Leonard Tose, tried to move the team to Phoenix. Thankfully though he was forced to sell the team to Norman Braman and the team stayed in Philly.

Unknown fact that the North Stars nearly relocated to California, 1st to the Bay Area but the Sharks were already there, later the owner turned eyes towards Anaheim, almost called the "Los Angeles Stars", but Disney brought us the Ducks

The Padres were supposed to move to Washington DC, when baseball cards came out in the spring one year (1974 I Think) there were no Padres just Washington National League.

Norfolk-Virginia Beach is the largest metro area without a major-league team in any of the 4 major spots. If they got baseketball,I'd bring back the old ABA name, the Virginia Squires.

As a Bills fan, I remember when the previous owner, Ralph Wilson, passed away in 2014, due to lack of winning and attendance, there was talk about moving the Bills to Austin, TX. However, it didn’t go through due to Terry Pegula buying the Bills and Sabres to stay in Buffalo.

The raiders almost moved back to LA as they plan to build a stadium in Carson with the chargers but fell through when they Favor Stan Kroenke and the Rams and the chargers moved to LA instead

I remember there was a time that the Kings were expected to moe to Las Vegas as well. Speaking of San Antonio, the Vikings for a period was rumored to move there. With the Rams, there was talk of them moving to either Baltimore or Toronto, but they settled in St. Louis, at the time. Then, Baltimore ended up getting the old Browns, which is now the Ravens, later.

You should do a video on the Blues almost going to Saskatoon and potentially playing outdoors until an arena was to be built.

Can’t believe you didn’t mention the Seahawks literally had the moving trucks on the road to LA when they got turned around to go back to Seattle

There’s already a team here in Nashville called the Nashville Sounds. It’s a AAA Team.

The Houston Astros tried the Superdome in 1976 but came away with some issues. The main scoreboard had to be turned off because it was in the view of the batter's eye, the left field warning track was concrete and the left field foul area was double-lined. It was enough for the Astros to claim they would not try the Superdome again.

In the early 90s the White Sox almost moved to St. Petersburgh, but the state legislature stepped in at the very last minute, quite literally, to build the horrid replacement for a shrine. The White Sox are again threatening to move. They're talking about numerous sites including Soldier Field, if the Bears vacate, Near Soldier field either way. They're also talking about Arlington Heights if the Bears back out. They're also talking Nashville Tenn. As a die hard Packer fan I don't have to worry about them ever leaving Green Bay. I think it's sad that no other city can get together and buy the team. If Cleveland had had the option to buy the Browns in the 90s, the Ravens likely don't exist, or at least exist as they are. This can also be said about the Whalers, and so many others teams.

The San Francisco Giants in the 1990s were very close to relocating to Tampa Bay

If the Patriots had moved to Connecticut it wouldn't have been "random", it's still in the New England region just moving a state over and while yes it would have been weird to us in the present day since we know they didn't move. If the move happened to St Louis then that would have been more "random" than say the move to Hartford

Now, I like videos like this

I believe the Oakland A's were set to move to Denver at one point (pre-Rockies) but the move was snuffed out by the other owners.

How do you do this without having the Columbus crew and the save the crew movement

The Seattle Mariners were going to be relocated to Tampa Bay in 1995, however, they made the playoffs for the first time beat the Yankees and that saved them from moving.

Nashville has a Triple A team named the Sounds.

Will the VA Beach/Hampton Roads area ever get a Professional Franchise?

Don't forget the New York Giants football team relocated New Haven, Connecticut for 2 years.

I noticed NHL teams were omitted but in 2000, the Ottawa Senators were almost sold to an investor who wanted to move the team to Vegas and play out of the Thomas & Mack Center.

idk what rumor you heard but the Raiders NEVER considered moving to TX. They were originally meant to move to LV back in 1993 but commissioner at the time blocked that move from Al Davis

I remember back when the Patriots considered a new stadium in Hartford. They said they would keep the name New England Patriots if they did.

Pittsburgh almost lost Baseball & Hockey to Sacramento

How about a video about the proposed 1992 Giants move and 1973-74 Padres to DC (which Topps had changed some of the 1974 cards to "Washington; Nat'l Lea." figuring it was just about a done deal)

In late 1990's Brewers almost moved as MLB was forcing a move for a better stadium that the State of Wisconsin did not want to give but nobody wanted to take team due to an on purpose but look like an accident pitcher who caused bench brawls that was stuck with team as due to nobody wanting player and fact in a clause in his contract he could not be fired and player could if he wanted to at any time play in game if he is not starting.

The raiders looked at moving to Sacramento if the arco park was built but looking at just the foundation im sure they were nowhere near considering going to sac town.

Thank you for making this video, Depressed Ginger!

Isn’t Connecticut part of New England?

They still would have been the New England Patriots had they moved to Hartford, since they still would have been in the New England region.

Although it seems that the Sacramento Kings proposed move to Anaheim was simply a ploy to get the City of Sacramento moving on a new arena (it's was originally going to be in the old SP rail yards, off Richards Blvd between the downtown proper and the American River, but ended up being built over part of the decaying K Street Mall, a story of misfired "urban renewal" of itself, the rail yards still a proposed site for a new MLS stadium IF and WHEN FC Republic Sacramento gets "promoted" to MLS and can leave its current digs at Cal Expo), it had the advantage of having a fairly new arena ALREADY there (Arrowhead Pond), and the potential fan base, if one considers Orange County and western parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, even ignoring Los Angeles county, it was a significant LARGER market than Sacramento. Indeed, I don't understand why the LA Clippers didn't permanently latch on to the "Pond" as the new "Clip Joint". Anyway, renaming the Kings BACK to the Royals would have again compensated for a team with that name already there. The Kings have been over their some 75 years of existence as an NBA franchise a well-traveled one, starting in Rochester, NY, as the Rochester Royals. They moved to Cincinnati, where they had some success, with Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson. They moved to Kansas City for the 1972-1973 season, as the Cincy city fathers, having sunk money into Riverfront Stadium for the Reds and Bengals, weren't willing to pony up for a better arena. Since the MLB Royals had recently replaced the departed A's (and few in KC missed the green and gold), the NBA team had to re-brand, hence "Kings". But that didn't help the team, as it was mediocre, and the KC fans largely stayed away. For some time, as Omaha had also built a decent arena, the team played some games there, and the team was "re-sited" as KC-Omaha Kings for a few years. That arrangement failed to improve the team's sagging fortunes, although the then-state-of-the-art Kemper Arena opened n 1975, and, with the team's finances in a shambles, Sacramento entrepreneur and real estate develop Greg Lukinbill stepped in and bought the team in 1983, and moved it to Sacramento as soon as the Kemper Arena lease expired. The Kings were VERY well-received in Sac town, as, at last, NorCal outside the Bay Arena had a major league sports franchise! Lukinbill and his investment group put up a temporary arena that seated 10,003, with the intent to re-purpose the structure once the new arena was built. As the City of Sacramento, led by a rather radically leftist mayor, Anne Rudin, was actually OPPOSED to the Kings moving there, and the good "Madam Mayor" had made clear her opposition, advocating either "no-growth" or "smart growth" BS, the temporary arena was outside the Sac city limits. Other "movers and shakers" made her shut up about it, and was was deemed ARCO Arena, one of the first corporate namings of a sports facility. The joint was definitely "jumping" for several years, even though the team itself was perpetually mediocre, with a 30-win season being considered "good"! However, by the late 90s, under Rick Adelman, and some astute drafts and trade, the team became competitive in Sac town at last. Indeed, for the 2001-2002 season, the Kings were the NBA's best at 61-21, but unfortunately bowed out to the LA Lakers in a seven-game Western Conference Finals that was hard-played, including a dagger-to-the-heart "buzzer beater" in Game Four that kept the Lakers alive, and some rather lopsided refereeing that gave the Lakers 27 free throws in the fourth quarter of Game Six, including calling guard Mike Bibby for a foul after being punched in the face by the late Kobe Bryant. Many, myself included, considered the Kings "robbed" in a blatant case of biased officiating. The Kings would still make the playoffs for the following three seasons, but age and free agency took their toll, and the team again fell back into mediocrity during the mid-"aughts". There were several factors that kept making the Kings subject of relocation speculation from 2010 to 2015. The Clippers had made it clear that they were not interested in making Anaheim their home, so that left the Arrowhead Pond quite available. ARCO Arena (which was renamed "Power Balance" and finally "Sleep Train" Arena in its final years), having been built with private funds on a fairly limited budget, was functionally obsolete only a few years after it opened. The City, having had former NBA star and Sacramento native Kevin Johnson as mayor from 2008 to 2016, had entirely reversed its position on the Kings since Anne Rudin's tenure, having also lost out to neighboring West Sacramento, across the river in Yolo County, for the AAA baseball Sacramento Rivercats, with the excellent Raley Field (now Sutter Health Park) and excellent fan patronage, realized it had serious LOCAL competition. After the Anaheim bid failed, there was another attempt to get the new arena built at the Rail Yards, but the then-owners, the Maloof family, backed out of the deal, as by then, the Seattle Sonics had moved to Oklahoma City, becoming the OKC Thunder, so that left Seattle with a viable arena wanting a replacement team. There was some serious back-room dealing to keep the Kings in Sacramento, with mayor Johnson's involvement, as the Seattle group kept increasing the bid price for the Kings. However, the NBA owners figured that not only was Sacramento still quite viable as an NBA market, but they'd profit more by an expansion franchise with a larger FEE than a relocation. So the new arena was built in downtown Sacramento, making use of part of the blighted K Street Mall, and was readily accessible to light rail, with ample downtown garage parking for mostly night and weekend games. Recently, the Kings have "lit the beam" more frequently.

A baseball team called the "Nine" is the MLB equivalent to the NFL's Washington Football Team.

I was thinking more along the lines of Nashville Stars

I remember hearing a rumor that the saints were going to relocate to LA it was right after hurricane katrina

The San Diego padres came close to moving to Washington in the 70s

The Tampa Bay Nine? Where would they be located, 1872? :-)

1:58 is anyone questioning that perfect lake?

Columbus Crew were almost moved to Austin Texas but the city and fans rallied to keep them in Ohio and they stayed. Great story and worth a mention because American sports love to see teams ripped out of cities and planted somewhere new and shiny because their owners get a hard on for $$$$

Be a heckuva thing if a team relocating to Music City named themselves the "Villains."

The Minnesota vikings almost moved to Los Angeles in 2011, a year after the roof of the metro dome collapse. That was due to the vikings wanting a new stadium and the city of Minneapolis lacking money for a new stadium at that time.

Virginia is about to get at least two sports franchises when the Caps and Wizards move to Arlington VA in a few years. They may also get the Commies now that Dan Snyder is out of the way. Gov Youngkin will pay a pretty penny to get them to move to a new stadium somewhere in Loudoun County.

New Jersey Swamp Dragons 🐉 expansion team for NBA needs to happen

Edward Jones Dome. Not Edwards Jones Dome.

Those jerseys for the rhinos go hard 🔥🔥🔥

The patriots potential connecticut stadium was gorgeous to bad it didn't work out

White Sox almost moved to Tampa also.

I have a St. Louis Stallions cap in my collection.

Hampton Roads Rhinos was trying to get a expansion team in the early 90s when Sharks came in to the league .the New Jersey Swamp monsters the almost name changed happen like 3 to 4 years before the Raptors where in the NBA the ownership group was trying to tie the name in with the New Jersey Devils and the logo had a dragon looking creature in it and from pictures i saw the Detroit Pistons old horse and motor logo was a take on the unused Swamp Dragons uniforms the same colors and the logo had some changes to it to

SF Giants packed and out the door. McGowen in the middle of the night bought them from Bob Lurie for a bit less then the St. Pete group offered MLB blocked that sale knowing a local group was viable. Then they built Oracle on their own dime without one cent from tax payers. 25 Million dollar loan a year for 25 years that and PSL paid for the park. One of the very best. Only local team that did it right.

The rams had Toronto as a backup location if they for some reason could not move back to Los Angeles At one point there were three other proposed expansion nfl teams besides the Carolina panthers & the Jacksonville jaguars they were the Baltimore bombers, St. Louis stallions & the Memphis hound dogs St. Louis looked like it was going to get the expansion team however the nfl ended up going with Carolina & Jacksonville the rams had Toronto as a backup location if for some reason they could not move back to Los Angeles the Minnesota Twins almost moved to North Carolina in 1997-1998

Kraft had no desire to let pats go to st Louis or hartford. he owned the facility so the previous owner couldn't relocate without paying a hefty bill. So the guy sold and he used leaving as a art of negotiation.

That Hampton Roads Rhinos logo looks like the Grand Rapids Rampage Arena football team logo

You forgot about the kings impending move to seattle

Hey Depressed Ginger guy can you do a video of cities that almost got a MLB, MLS NBA,NFL and NHL expansion Team

New Orleans lost their minor league baseball team; there's no way in hell they'd come close to getting an MLB team.

The Nets did go to the Finals back to back years 2002/2003

No NJ Devils threatening to move to Nashville?

When I heard the possibility that the Marlins were going to move to San Antonio, I panicked.

Patriots in St. Louis wouldn’t make sense

St Louis Blues to Saskatoon and the Seahawks to LA

Philadelphia eagles almost moved to Arizona

I'm pretty sure that the Oakland Athletics would relocate to Las Vegas in 2025.

Always remembered the Nets being horrible team in early 2000s…didn’t they make a NBA Finals?

New Orleans wasn’t even able to support a AAA minor league team.

Nashville has a milb team. They are called the Nashville sound and they are the triple a team of the Milwaukee Brewers

Raiders moved to LA in 1982 not the 90's or after

Check out the nets all time leading scorer 🤣🤣🤣

The Cleveland Indians were going to split games to New Orleans and Cleveland

New Jersey Swamp Dragons sounds like a minor league team name. Especially for hockey or baseball

Petition to move the Charger back to San Diego and move the Clippers there too 😊