Your favorite team doesn't give a damn about you

[PRC]

I don't watch Hockey

It's too bad... St. Louis is one of the best teams in the NHL this year.

[Gups]

So gald we don't have this fanchise system in England. The idea that the owners can just move the team hundreds of miles is horrendous. Happened once here to a small team and the outrage was so huge it will never happen again.

Nicely written piece.

[katmai]

So gald we don't have this fanchise system in England. The idea that the owners can just move the team hundreds of miles is horrendous. Happened once here to a small team and the outrage was so huge it will never happen again.

Nicely written piece.

Which team is that? MK Dons?

[The Larch]

So gald we don't have this fanchise system in England. The idea that the owners can just move the team hundreds of miles is horrendous. Happened once here to a small team and the outrage was so huge it will never happen again.

Nicely written piece.

MK Dons?

[Gups]

Yep, Franchise FC the most universally hated club in England, still boycotted by most decent fans.

A colleague at work helped set up AFC Wimbledon who started from stratch and have had 5 promotions up to League 2. The club is wholly owned by its fans.

My own club Charlton have had a horrible few years and are now back on the up.  We're currently top of League One (division 3). Horrible league but one of the good things is that the fans are much closer to the players and management e.g. they often get the same train to away grounds - on the way back from a win in Exeter earlier this season, they were buying the fans beers...

[derspiess]

Well the market area goes beyond simply Missouri.  I'm told that Southern Illinois is Cardinal country.  I doubt it's also Ram country though.  Hell, I don't think St. Louis is really Rams country. 

From my travels through southern IL it does sound like it's Rams country, just not as strongly as it is Cardinals country.  Seems to be a bit of an anti-Chicago vibe down there.  You definitely don't see a whole lot of Bears stuff.

STL is definitely a baseball town.  The best, in fact.

[CountDeMoney]

The football Cardinals should still be in St. Louis.  NEIL LOMAX FOREVAH

[derspiess]

The football Cardinals should still be in St. Louis.  NEIL LOMAX FOREVAH

Better yet, Chicago.  PAUL CHRISTMAN FTW

[fhdz]

The football Cardinals should still be in St. Louis.  NEIL LOMAX FOREVAH

They wouldn't have gotten sold if they hadn't sucked so badly.

[Admiral Yi]

Gups: with English footie is it just fan culture that prevents teams moving, or are there legal or other barriers?

[Josquius]

Yep, Franchise FC the most universally hated club in England, still boycotted by most decent fans.

A colleague at work helped set up AFC Wimbledon who started from stratch and have had 5 promotions up to League 2. The club is wholly owned by its fans.

My own club Charlton have had a horrible few years and are now back on the up.  We're currently top of League One (division 3). Horrible league but one of the good things is that the fans are much closer to the players and management e.g. they often get the same train to away grounds - on the way back from a win in Exeter earlier this season, they were buying the fans beers...

Yeah, thats something the modern game really misses.
My grandad pre retirement used to run pubs (nothing special, just standard regular guy's pubs). Back in the 70s he had one over Sunderland way and often got the Sunderland team popping in. One day, shortly after they won the FA Cup....they came in with the trophy. It seemed to be some sort of semi-scam they had going so that people would buy them a tonne of free drinks.
My uncle (who was just a kid at the time) still has this photo of him with a bunch of players and the cup.

I've never really known that, football really exploded and hit the big time in the 90s with the premier league (which had very unfortunate effects for north east football....) but I do remember Sunderland's old ground, Roker Park. In large part it was probally just because I was a kid at the time but it did feel so much more....grander and alive than their current, modern 48,000 seater stadium.

Back when I was living at home I was really getting tempted to start supporting the closest big team to me- Gateshead. They're in the conference (or whatever its called these days). The whole more town to earth feel really appealed.  A few years back when Newcastle were in big trouble it seemed a common thing for their fans to talk of defecting.
Unfortunately Gateshead currently play in an athletics stadium which is....less than ideal for football. They're apparently moving to a new,smaller one soon though. Which should be interesting. I hope it has terraces. Probally not.

[Sheilbh]

Gups: with English footie is it just fan culture that prevents teams moving, or are there legal or other barriers?

I think one issue is whether they keep their place in the pyramid of leagues - the fan-owned team founded in the aftermath had to start in the bottom.  MK Dons did keep their place in the league so, presumably, the FA approved it.  Though my understanding is that as well as fan anger, the football authorities have more or less said it won't happen again.

It's not an English footie thing though so much as a footie thing.  I don't think it's happened in Spain or Italy and it certainly couldn't be allowed in Germany where the fans own 51% of the club - except for a couple of ones that were basically the clubs of company towns, I think Volkswagen has a club.

[katmai]

The football Cardinals should still be in St. Louis.  NEIL LOMAX FOREVAH

They wouldn't have gotten sold if they hadn't sucked so badly.

Ah Bill Bidwell.

[katmai]

Gups: with English footie is it just fan culture that prevents teams moving, or are there legal or other barriers?

I think one issue is whether they keep their place in the pyramid of leagues - the fan-owned team founded in the aftermath had to start in the bottom.  MK Dons did keep their place in the league so, presumably, the FA approved it.  Though my understanding is that as well as fan anger, the football authorities have more or less said it won't happen again.

It's not an English footie thing though so much as a footie thing.  I don't think it's happened in Spain or Italy and it certainly couldn't be allowed in Germany where the fans own 51% of the club - except for a couple of ones that were basically the clubs of company towns, I think Volkswagen has a club.

I wish the US leagues would move to such a system, but no it is unlikely to ever happen, the smaller teams have to be content with US Cup (similar to England's FA CUP)

[sbr]

The football Cardinals should still be in St. Louis.  NEIL LOMAX FOREVAH

They wouldn't have gotten sold if they hadn't sucked so badly.

They didn't get sold, the Bidwell's still own the team.