In a message to Michael Nellis, James Walton wrote:
JW> I disagree here.  The corporations definitely own the teams.  The
JW> teams are named after the cities because the teams bring money into
JW> the cities and the cities in turn give tax breaks to the teams. 
JW> That makes it nice for everyone, but there is no rule that says the
JW> teams must be named after the city they paly in.  If a team has
JW> enough money to build a stadium/rink/etc. without city help, the
JW> team has no reason to give the city free publicity.
Yup.  Hence the growing tendency to name teams for states or regions when 
they service a market area without a single dominant city.
       Cheers,
           Rich
http://www.netside.net/~rveraa/
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