Keeping your connection to a cooler place is typical in the US. All those NY teams are actually the New Jersey Giants, Jets, Nets. Also, Ed Rendell when he was mayor of Philadelphia threatened to ban the Sixers from using the Philadelphia name if they relocated to Camden and that’s just across the river. The Sixers stayed in Phila so nothing ever happened, but it’s basically the same thing as this MP is doing.

Of course, you have to realize that most British Football clubs are equivalent, not to American professional teams, but to American college teams, or even American high school teams. In most American states, there are at least two state universities, one of which is much more working-class than the other. For example, in Texas, there is the University of Texas, in Austin, the state capital, and there is Texas A&M (Agricultural and Mechanical), in College Station. The latter are known as “aggies,” and there is a whole genre of Aggie jokes, about their supposed stupidity. The same thing is true in nearly every other state, between the Gentleman’s school and the Farmer’s school. So, when the University of X and X State University play each other, the result is a kind of social grudge match, similar to what happens when, say the Glasgow [protestant] Rangers and [catholic] Celtics play. It is not unknown for a dormitory to get burned down on the night after a football game.

Alternatively, if a given American city has a college team and a professional team, or two college teams playing in different leagues, they will probably have very different audience demographics. A common basis of political disputes is that one publicly-funded state university refuses to play another publicly-funded state university, and their respective factions in the state legislature begin arguing.

To Snidely, #30

I used to live in Philadelphia myself. Benjamin Franklin famously defined New Jersey as “a keg tapped at both ends,” by which he meant that it is a state without an identity, part of it being de-facto part of New York, and part of it being de-facto part of Pennsylvania. Of course, in his day, the easiest method of transportation was to get in a boat and row, or even sail, along or across the Hudson River or the Delaware River. So it really doesn’t mean anything if a New York team has a stadium in New Jersey. Lots of people who work in New York, and think of themselves as New Yorkers, live in New Jersey. I would add that Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell was equally exercised about people going west into suburban Delaware County to do their business.

I suspect this is probably closer to the truth: that the intent is really to pressure them to stay. My reasoning for this is, as Liverpool FC fan, we had similar shenanigans not so long ago when LFC attempted to build a new stadium. After being refused permission to build on the selected ground very close to the present stadium, they picked a new site on the borders of (or just outside) the city.

Once it became clear they might move, taking a massive amount of business (and I mean MASSIVE) that would have a huge impact on the area, with them, the permission to build on their originally selected site was granted. As if by magic.. tada!!!!

BTW, some people refer to it as “loyalty”. Disgusting in our capitalistic world, I know.