“Most owners buy and hold because they are not buying for the team itself. They are buying for ancillary revenues. When it comes to selling the teams, you have to wait for the ancillary businesses to mature and that doesn't happen overnight. It can be a 10-and-20-year investment,” Hutton told Private Wealth.
While selling may be out of the question, moving is often one way that owners try to profit from the team they own. It is also a good way to become an object of scorn by entire cities or regions.
“When owners move a team it's because they lost more money than they can tolerate and they are looking for a better market,” said Weiner.
In the 1990s, fans vilified the owners of the Houston Oilers NFL football after they moved the team to Nashville, Tenn., renaming the team the Tennessee Titans.
Art Modell, who died in 2012, was similarly loathed by fans after he took his Cleveland Browns—an NFL football franchise that had existed in the city since 1945—and moved them to Baltimore in 1996. Modell’s team, renamed the Baltimore Ravens after a court ruled that the Browns rightfully belonged to Cleveland, went on to win a Super Bowl four years later.
“It's difficult for owners to buy a team and then move it because it competes with the owner’s investment goals and the local cultural identity of the team,” Hutton said. “They don't often match.”