Membership in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL) is certified by a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

. A franchise is awarded by the league to each member club, and serves as the league's authorization to operate as a professional football club in their city. Franchises award member clubs the exclusive right to hold professional football games between league members within a 75-mile radius of their city, as well as the exclusive rights to market games in their area.NFL Bylaws, p. 6, 12-15. There are currently 32 clubs in the league, with any new members only being approved with the support of three-quarters of current members.NFL Bylaws, p. 3. In the event of egregious misconduct, the League Commissioner has the power to suspend or revoke a club's franchise.NFL Bylaws, p. 28-35. The NFL has had 49 franchises become defunct over its history, including ten of the league's twelve charter franchises: only the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

and

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play th ...

survive to the present day. Neither of these teams play in the same city as they did in 1920 - during the NFL's inaugural season it was the Cardinals who called Chicago home while the Bears (then called the Staleys) played in Decatur, a city about 155 miles southwest of Chicago. Often, when an NFL team went defunct, the franchise was not simply contracted. Folding franchises were often replaced by new franchises, typically in another city and under different ownership, which were then assigned the player contracts and other assets of the defunct team. In the NFL's early years, its teams were essentially gate-driven enterprises which relied on ticket sales to remain solvent.

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

was by far the most popular sport and even within American football the NFL often struggled to compete with

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

for an audience, much of which was still reluctant to accept

professionalism A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

in football. Moreover, the strict capitalization requirements and related measures taken by the NFL and other major professional sports leagues in the 21st century did not exist in the early NFL, its predecessors and early rivals. Instead, owners often simply paid team expenses out of pocket as they arose. In such circumstances, a community-owned club like the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the t ...

would quickly face bankruptcy if revenues were insufficient to meet team expenses, while the owners of privately-held teams often did not have the patience and/or financial resources to underwrite substantial losses. While the NFL expanded to 22 franchises by 1926, at a league meeting in April 1927, the decision was made to revoke the franchises of 10 clubs in weak financial situations. While the NFL was originally primarily based in smaller cities, as teams in larger markets such as

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

became established most teams in smaller markets found it impossible to remain competitive and profitable. A few of these teams moved to larger cities, while most eventually folded outright. Of these teams, only the

continue to play as of in a relatively small metropolitan area, their survival is credited to such factors as their ability to play part of their schedule in much larger

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

for several decades and a non-profit corporate structure that eliminates any financial incentive to sell or move the franchise. Five of these defunct NFL franchises (the Akron Pros/Indians, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Bulldogs/Indians,

Frankford Yellow Jackets The Frankford Yellow Jackets were a professional American football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, although its origin dates back to as early as 1899 with the Frankford Athletic Association. The Yellow Jackets won ...

, and

Providence Steam Rollers The Providence Steamrollers were a Basketball Association of America team based in Providence, Rhode Island. As of 2022, the Steamrollers were the last professional sports franchise from one of the Major professional sports leagues in the United ...

) won

NFL championships Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...

before they folded. As of , the most recent franchise to become defunct was the Dallas Texans in , which folded after playing one season. The Texans were immediately replaced by a new franchise to an ownership group in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

which acquired the Texans' player contracts and other assets. The Texans themselves had acquired the assets of the

New York Yanks The New York Yanks were an American football team that played in the National Football League under that name in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. Season by season overview 1949 The team began in 1944 as the Boston Yanks, owned by Kate Smith's manag ...

after they folded in . The most recent NFL team to be outright contracted and not continue to exist in any meaningful way as the organization of another franchise was the original Baltimore Colts, a former All-America Football Conference team which folded after one NFL season . The NFL elected to contract the original Colts in part to eliminate the awkward scheduling that had arisen from having an odd number of teams in the league. Within a few years of the original Texans' demise, the NFL was rapidly growing in popularity, resulting in massive revenue growth both in gate receipts and new sources of income, especially from television broadcasting rights. This eventually resulted in the establishment of the rival American Football League, which despite some initial instability achieved the extremely rare distinction of being a league in which no teams folded throughout its history. The AFL's success resulted in the NFL agreeing to a merger which was completed in 1970. Since the merger, the NFL has grown to become the world's richest sports league, primarily due to its lucrative television contracts. While ticket sales remain a significant source of income for teams, the league nevertheless proved it can forego most of this revenue for at least one season without causing serious financial stress when it played the 2020 season mostly behind closed doors or in front of limited crowds at the height of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. While there have been a few instances since the merger in which owners have come under controversy and/or financial distress, these matters have been resolved by the sale of the affected franchise as opposed to its revocation. Finally, there have been several occasions where NFL franchises have temporarily merged their teams and/or suspended operations without folding outright, such as during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

when there was a shortage of players. NFL franchises are not considered to have been defunct during any inactive periods, and while the records of the wartime merged teams are kept separately from their parent franchises, these are not considered NFL franchises in their own right. The most recent franchise to suspend operations was the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

, who were deactivated after the season as an alternative to owner

Art Modell Arthur Bertram Modell (June 23, 1925 – September 6, 2012) was an American businessman, entrepreneur and National Football League team owner. He owned the Cleveland Browns franchise for 35 years and established the Baltimore Ravens franchis ...

's original proposal to move the Browns to Baltimore. Modell's organization was re-enfranchised as the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

Defunct franchises

See also

Notes

References

General

Specific

External links