Major League Baseball Expansions and Relocations

To conclude my doctoral studies as a graduate student in economics at Georgia State University in 1977, I completed a dissertation titled “An Economic Analysis of Franchise Relocation and League Expansion in Professional Team Sports, 1950–1975.” Then 22 years later, I co-authored with John J. Guthrie, Jr., a book named Relocating Teams and Expanding Leagues in Professional Sports: How the Major Leagues Respond to Market Conditions. That volume, in turn, analyzed the expansions of various leagues and movements of their teams from 1950 to 1995. The book highlighted the strategies of such American-based professional sports organizations as Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Football League....