Relocated teams and rusted dreams

The impact of shifting economies on American sports

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After seven long months, the National Football League (NFL) has finally returned. After an offseason of blockbuster roster moves, the 32 teams are eager to begin their quest towards Super Bowl glory. Before the league moves forward with the 2026 season, however, one specific story from the past couple of months is worth discussing, as it demonstrates an interesting pattern observed throughout the history of the NFL.

In June, news broke out of the Chicago Bears organization’s intention to leave the Second City in favor of the neighboring state, Indiana. The Bears have long been trying to move out of their current stadium, Soldier Field, even purchasing a plot of land in the Arlington Heights area, just to the northwest of the heart of the city. The decision to move the team appears to be motivated by tax politics. 

The Indiana government passed legislation in February that created a stadium authority, which provided one billion in incentives in the hopes of attracting the Bears to the area. The legislation also provided the Bears organization with a clear property tax outline, which was something that Illinois was struggling to pass in its government. This saga is just one in a long legacy of teams leaving these “Rust Belt” cities for favorable economic pastures.

The “Rust Belt” loosely refers to an area around the Great Lakes where the manufacturing of steel historically dominated the local economy. The term was coined in the 1980s and refers primarily to the decline of industry in the area, which began in the late 1970s. This decline was caused by increased competition from foreign markets and new trade agreements, leading to the industry moving elsewhere; many people subsequently migrated from the Rust Belt region to the Sun Belt, which was experiencing economic growth. The Sun Belt in question refers to the area stretching from the Southern Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

The history of the Rust Belt hardly has any tangible ties to the history of the NFL and the history of team relocations. This raises the question: why tell this story? The decline of the Rust Belt laid the groundwork for not just the movement of teams seen in the following years, but the current stadium economy of the NFL.

Let’s return to Indiana, where a 15-year period of team exchange first began. In 1984, the Baltimore Colts and then owner Robert Irsay grew weary of the city, as a new stadium deal was unlikely. Alongside that, the city’s fans were irritated with the Colts’ poor performance, and the team was in a distant second compared to the true darling, the Major League Baseball’s Orioles. What ensued was perhaps the most unbelievable move in NFL history, as on the night of March 28, 1984, the team packed up and essentially fled to their current home of Indianapolis. The city of Baltimore was in shock and was without a team until the late 90s.

The Cleveland Browns called the Ohio city home for decades prior to 1994, when the city approved new stadiums for all its professional teams, save for the Browns. Their stadium was in desperate need of repair, and then owner, Art Modell, began looking for an out. In 1995, Modell announced that the team was relocating to Baltimore after lengthy negotiations with the Maryland Stadium Authority. As the Browns’ lease was still in effect, the city of Cleveland filed a lawsuit against Modell, leading to a settlement in which Modell relinquished the Browns legacy. This deal created the team now known as the Baltimore Ravens in 1996. And while the Browns were re-established as a team in 1999, the move had a lasting impact, as they were known as one of the worst teams in football year in and year out.

Missouri, a state often associated with the Rust Belt region, has another long history of team relocations, particularly in the city of St. Louis. In 1960, the St. Louis Cardinals moved from Chicago and made the city their home for the next twenty-eight years. As was typical of a Rust Belt team, owner Bill Bidwill began to look for a new home as a new stadium deal became unlikely, and fan support began to dwindle. In 1988, the Cardinals relocated to the state of Arizona, which was beginning to experience massive growth around the time of the move. The move of the Cardinals to Arizona is perhaps the most obvious example of a team moving from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt in search of economic growth.

St. Louis once again became the stage for a relocation battle three decades later, this time over the Rams. In 1994, the Rams left their long-time home of Los Angeles for the Midwest city and enjoyed great success during their time there, winning a Super Bowl in 1999. In 2016, however, team owner Stan Kroenke began to see Los Angeles as a rich market. The desire to move the team led to a vicious battle between owners, though ultimately the league approved the move. The move to Los Angeles brought with it the state-of-the-art facility, SoFi Stadium, a stadium that now also houses the Chargers, who moved from San Diego in 2017.

The move of the Los Angeles Rams, the defining example of the new era of team relocations in the NFL, is just another chapter in the history of the ever-shifting United States economy. During the Rams relocation debates, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones put it succinctly: this move, as well as the previous Cardinals move, was done “for the money.”