How can one professional team change cities and mascot names and be considered the same franchise, while another team can 'resurrect' an old team name and be considered a different franchise?
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mgonick78
ANSWERS: 1
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A charter is issued for a franchise to the owners of a specific team. The charter decides when a franchise is a "new" team or an "old" team. Two examples of this are the Cleveland Browns whose team owner moved them to Baltimore. The league allowed the city to keep the name, issued a charter for an expansion team and forced the owners of the Baltimore team to change the name even though they are the same team they were in Cleveland. The other example is an established minor league team in Dayton, Ohio. The team owners ceased operations, therefore the charter was taken away from these owners. A new ownership consortium put up money and the league offered the new owners a new charter. The charter was for an "expansion" team in the same town, with the same players and mascot.
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