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The Dolphins Franchise

Teenwolf

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Being English, I am not used to sporting franchises, our sports teams are not franchises.

So I would like to ask you this;

What would it take for the Dolphins franchise to leave Miami? In the 30 years I have watched the NFL I have seen many franchises move and I understand some of those moves, but could it ever happen to our beloved Dolphins?
 
I can assure that Dolphins won't leave Miami unless both bucs and Jags leave Tampa and Jacksonville.
 
While we are a traditional franchise with a storied history, no club is unmovable. Just to put things into perspective for you, Woolrich had a soccer team at one time, they located near the Arsenal, named themselves Arsenal, then couldn't resist the urge to snuggle up to north London and be next to Tottenham … yeah, teams move.

It's much the same in the NFL. Sure, there are rules, like you can't move unless you put in a request with the owners and they approve the move … but it's a business, and they don't really stop people. Take the Arsenal owner, Stan Kroenke, he was a rich guy, born and raised in St. Louis, who married an even richer lady, then started buying up a bunch of sports teams in Denver Colorado. His crown jewel was his hometown St. Louis Rams. According to the rules, he wasn't allowed to leave St. Louis without a formal request and a showing of economic hardship or something similar to that. Despite being offered a sweetheart deal on a new stadium, which easily eliminated any economic hardship, he started building a new stadium himself in Los Angeles. Despite him having no real legal stance to move, he built the stadium, potentially offering the NFL a lucrative new stadium solution in a prized LA market, so they skipped the whole rules thing, screwed over the Oakland Raiders, and let Kroenke rip the lucrative St. Louis Rams out of St. Louis to return to a more lucrative LA stadium he was building. Because …. well …. money tends to win.

Yep, that's the same guy who owns that wandering team from Woolrich.

The Dolphins are owned by an incredibly rich guy in Ross--he donated the single largest donation ever to a school and they renamed the Michigan Business School after him. He's old. Eventually he's going to pass or sell the team, when he does, we are 100% at the whim of the next rich guy who comes along. Hopefully they don't get a better offer.
 
A new owner who wants a new stadium but is refused by the city of Miami and the contract to stay in Miami is going to end soon.

The fanbase to stop going to games like what happens to all NFL teams in LA thus causing the owner to lose a lot of money.

Our history is not going to prevent us from moving, the Browns were one of the OG teams in the NFL and they moved. Bottom line owners don't care about history, they care about money.
 
Being English, I am not used to sporting franchises, our sports teams are not franchises.

So I would like to ask you this;

What would it take for the Dolphins franchise to leave Miami? In the 30 years I have watched the NFL I have seen many franchises move and I understand some of those moves, but could it ever happen to our beloved Dolphins?

As a fellow Brit, I too wonder about this as our sports teams aren't franchised and the most recent move in soccer which saw Wimbledon (London) move to Milton Keynes (Not London) was met with massive negativity.

Ross has spent a fortune upgrading the stadium and it's usually on the list of SB cities when it comes to choosing the upcoming venue for future SB's. It may have even hosted the most in the modern era?

That can count for a lot too and the stadium is used for other events. The one thing I notice when watching the Fins is the stadium more often that not looks half empty. I wonder if this is due to team performance or kick off times as it's pretty darn hot in Miami at 1pm I would imagine.

The weirdest thing about moving the team would be what happens if a new Miami Dolphins emerges some years later like what happened to the Browns? Do you follow where the old Miami team moved to or support the reborn Miami team?

I have followed this team since around 1990 and wouldn't know what to do if they moved. I hope it never happens.
 
As I thought - money! It's not something I worry about; as soon as Ross upgraded the stadium he was invested in Miami, and not just the Dophins franchise.
 
Regarding attendances, I thougt the stadium looked fuller this year than recent years...
 
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