Nomadic Sports Teams

There was once the possibility that the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames could have operated as s single franchise, the Alberta Oilers, in the now-defunct WHA. Of course that plan stalled, and the team took up fulltime residence in Edmonton, and upon the WHA/NHL merger, the Edmonton Oilers joined the NHL.

Of course it would have been a stretch that the NHL would permit a team to join that operated out of two cities. Still, it would have been a very unique situation, to have a pro team shared in such a manner.

I am reminded of this scenario in the wake of the NBA contraction rumors, where it is speculated the league would kill 2 franchises to help with it’s bottom line. Major League Baseball also attempted contraction 10 years ago, nearly ending the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins franchises.

I understand the need to kill a few franchises. If you’re bleeding money, you have to cut costs somewhere. Even the once-mighty Starbucks had to close almost 1,000 stores worldwide in the last two years.

So with all this talk of shared teams and dead teams, I thought of an idea to create ‘Nomadic Teams’, which are teams without a home, who play all of their games on the road. They do not represent a city - sort of like the Harlem Globetrotters minus the Harlem.

These Nomadic Sports Teams benefit the League in a few ways: they provide more home dates for all teams - this means more gate revenue. And because they have no home stadium/arena, there is much less overhead and upkeep.

In the NHL, a single nomad team would play 82 road games. That is 41 more home dates for the other teams to enjoy.

To truly make this work in any of the big 4, you’d need two Nomad teams to benefit both conferences (NHL, NBA, NFL) or leagues (MLB). The addition of Nomad teams would help preserve League alignment as well.

Who would want to own a Nomad team? The League could very easily operate these franchises themselves, by means of revenue sharing. A Nomad team would be more attractive in terms of operating expenses, which may interest a frugal-minded sports owner.

But what could really help buoy a Nomad team is merchandise. A team that is not tied down to a city market in it’s branding (e.g. Boston Red Sox) could very well broaden it’s appeal on a national level. You name your team ‘The Americans’ and it has a country-wide appeal.

The one downside would be felt first-hand by the team’s players, all of whom forced to live out of a suitcase. Oh life is cruel. 5-star hotels, 7-digit salaries. I’m sure they can cope.

I believe Nomadic teams would still draw and attract their own fan base. All teams in any pro league manage to attract fans outside of their own market, so a team without a home should also garner a fanbase eventually.