Talk:Expansion team

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should the Washington Nationals be included here? They were merely a relocation of the Montreal Expos, rather than a new team to the league.

I concur. If someone wants to have a list, rename it some to the likes of "Most Recent Expansions" and list a few teams with first season. EX Charlotte Bobcats 2004-05, NHL Minnesota Wild and Colomus BlueJackets (2000-01). ccwaters 02:56, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In addition, the Baltimore Ravens were a relocated team as well (formerly Cleveland Browns)

Not officially. As part of the deal that brought back the Browns, the official status is the Ravens are an expansion team from 1996, while the browns never moved. The franchise was suspended for three years, but officially it is the same team with all the old stats and records.--oknazevad 17:23, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

That's just feel good marketing. See Talk:Ottawa_Senators#Old vs New for similar situations. ccwaters 21:25, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Feel good marketing or not, it's the official word from the NFL. Even though I personally agree with you Gialloneri (talk) 09:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

2001 - Wests Tigers and Northern Eagles were NEVER 'expansion' teams. They were merged 'joint ventures' between two clubs - Wests Tigers between Balmain Tigers and Western Suburbs Magpies and the Northern Eagles were between Manly-Warringah and North Sydney. Technically (although highly unlikely) Wests Tigers could dissolve into two seperate clubs once again, while Northern Eagles simply reverted back to Manly once the North Sydney side went bankrupt. Weststigersbob 15:55, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] San Jose Sharks

Regarding the text that says the Sharks are actually a re-activation of the California/Oakland Seals - is there any official reference to this? While I've heard of this line of thinking before so won't discount its legitimacy or remove it, I've never seen any official reference to this being the case from the NHL or the Sharks organization itself? Gialloneri (talk) 09:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Nope, it is officially an entirely new team. The California Seals article has a rather confusingly written section about the Sharks connection. As I understood the article, the Seals became the Cleveland Barons, who merged with the Minnesota North Stars in 1976. Officially, the Seals/Barons franchise ceased to exist after the 1978 season. The North Stars almost moved to San Jose in the late 1980s, but instead they stayed in Minnesota (for a while.) Eventually a new franchise was placed in San Jose. The owners of the San Jose Sharks ended up being the same Gund Brothers who had previously owned the North Stars as well as the Seals/Barons. The Stars moved to Dallas in 1993, and the Minnesota Wild are an entirely new team. Timothy Horrigan (talk) 06:15, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Expansion" because the league is "expanding" into new cities?

There are some cases where expansion teams go into cities which already have teams. Cases in point: the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Angels, and the New York Islanders. Maybe the term just means the size of the league is growing. Timothy Horrigan (talk) 02:48, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Should we limit the number of leagues?

Of the Australian leagues listed, only one is a true major league, i.e., the Australian Football League. The others are minor leagues in the sense that the top-level competition in their soprst takes place elsewhere. And as much I personally enjoy watching Aussie Rules Football when I find ot on American TV, it is not really a major spectator sport worldwide. It seems to me that the list would be more coherent if it was limited to the five major team sports in North America (although even then it is hard to decide which soccer leagues qualify as major.. there were top-level American soccer leagues which flourished briefly and died in the 1920/1930s and 1970s before today's Major League Soccer was founded. Timothy Horrigan (talk) 05:33, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

There could be an argument for not including teams from leagues below the top-level (Minor Leagues), but it should include top-level expansion teams from around the world and not just from the N.American major sports. Wikipedia has to function as an international encycopedia. Lord Cornwallis (talk) 04:43, 2 June 2008 (UTC)