Relocation of professional sports teams in the context of "Promotion and relegation"

The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The Lakers play their home games at Crypto.com Arena, an arena they share with the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA with 17 championships, the second most in the league behind the Boston Celtics.

The franchise began in 1946 as the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League (NBL). After one season, a new ownership relocated the team to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and renamed the team as the Minneapolis Lakers. The Lakers won the 1948 NBL championship before joining the rival Basketball Association of America, where they won the 1949 BAA championship. Following the merger of the NBL and the BAA into the NBA in 1949, the Lakers won four of the next five NBA championships. After struggling financially in the late 1950s, they relocated to Los Angeles before the 1960–61 season.

The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. Founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, the team was renamed the New York Giants three years later, eventually relocating from New York City to San Francisco in 1958. The Giants play their home games at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

The franchise is one of the oldest and most successful in professional baseball, with more wins than any other team in the history of major American sports. The team was the first major-league organization based in New York City, most memorably playing home games at several iterations of the Polo Grounds. The Giants have played in the World Series 20 times. In 2014, the Giants won their then-record 23rd National League pennant; this mark has since been equaled and then eclipsed by the rival Los Angeles Dodgers, who won their 26th NL crown in 2025. The Giants' eight World Series championships are the third-most in the NL, and are the sixth-most of any franchise.

The Atlanta Thrashers were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta. Atlanta was granted a franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL) on June 25, 1997, and became the league's 28th franchise when it began play in the 1999–2000 season. They were members of the Southeast Division of the NHL's Eastern Conference, and played their home games at what is now known as State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta. Despite several high-level draft picks and some high-profile player acquisitions, including two first-overall selections, the Thrashers were futile for the majority of their existence. They qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs only once, after winning the Southeast Division in the 2006–07 season, but were swept in the first round by the New York Rangers.

In May 2011, the Thrashers were sold to Canadian-based ownership group True North Sports & Entertainment. The group moved the franchise to Winnipeg, which became the second incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets (the first incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets relocated to Phoenix in 1996 to become the Coyotes). The sale and relocation was approved by the NHL on June 21, 2011. With the sale and relocation of the team, Atlanta became the first city in the NHL's modern era to have two ice hockey teams relocate to different cities. In both cases, the team moved from Atlanta to a Western Canadian city; the city's previous NHL team, the Atlanta Flames, moved to Calgary in 1980 to become the Calgary Flames.

The New York Giants were a Major League Baseball team in the National League that began play in the 1883 season as the New York Gothams and became known as the Giants in 1885. They continued as the New York Giants until the team moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, where the team continues its history as the San Francisco Giants. The team moved west at the same time as its longtime rival, the Brooklyn Dodgers, also in the National League, moved to Los Angeles in Southern California as the Los Angeles Dodgers, continuing the National League, same-state rivalry.

During most of their 75 seasons in New York City, the Giants played home games at various incarnations of the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan.Numerous inductees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum played for the New York Giants, including Christy Mathewson (a member of the Hall of Fame's inaugural class), John McGraw, Mel Ott, Bill Terry, Willie Mays, Monte Irvin, Frankie Frisch, Ross Youngs and Travis Jackson. During the club's tenure in New York, it won five of the franchise's eight World Series championships and 17 of its 23 National League pennants. Famous moments in the Giants' New York history include the 1922 World Series, in which the Giants swept the Yankees in four games, Bobby Thomson's 1951 home run known as the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", and the defensive feat by Willie Mays during the first game of the 1954 World Series known as "the Catch".

The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. They are one of two major league clubs based in Florida, alongside the National League (NL)’s Miami Marlins. The team plays its home games at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Following nearly three decades of unsuccessfully trying to gain an expansion franchise or enticing existing teams to relocate to the Tampa Bay area, an ownership group led by Vince Naimoli was approved on March 9, 1995. The team began play as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1998 Major League Baseball season.

The 2010 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2010 season. The 106th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Texas Rangers and the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants; the Giants won the series, four games to one, to secure their first World Series championship since 1954 and their first since relocating to San Francisco from New York City in 1958, ending the Curse of Coogan's Bluff. The series began on Wednesday, October 27, and ended on Monday, November 1.

In their respective League Championship Series, the Rangers and the Giants eliminated the 2009 World Series teams—the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies—each in six games. The Rangers' victory in the AL Championship Series gave the franchise its first World Series appearance in its 50-year history, dating from their inauguration as the second Washington Senators club in 1961. Meanwhile, the victory in the NL Championship Series gave the Giants their fourth World Series appearance since moving to San Francisco prior to the 1958 season; their most recent appearance had been in the 2002 World Series, when they lost to the Anaheim Angels in seven games. Coincidentally, the Giants and Rangers faced off in the first regular-season interleague game, on June 12, 1997, at the Ballpark in Arlington; Rangers reliever Darren Oliver, then in his first stint with the club, threw the game's first pitch.