Relations Between Leagues
Although they are competitors, the "big four" leagues also cooperate. Some owners have teams in multiple leagues; as mentioned above, the NFL restricts cross-league ownership but the other leagues do not. There are common business and legal interests; the leagues will often support one another in legal matters since the courts' decisions might establish precedents that affect them all. One recent example was the Supreme Court decision in 2010 in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, in which the NFL (which ultimately lost the case) received amicus curiae briefs from the NBA, NHL, and MLS. The leagues' commissioners occasionally meet in person, most recently in 2009.
In the early years of the NFL and to a lesser extent the NHL, it was not uncommon for teams to share nicknames with their MLB counterparts. For example, until 1957 New York City played host to baseball and football Giants. MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates shared its nickname with an NFL team (which ultimately became the Pittsburgh Steelers) as well as a now-defunct early NHL team, while the Canadian football team Hamilton Tigers shared a team name with an NHL team. The most recent example of two major teams sharing a franchise name was between 1960 and 1987; when the NFL's Chicago Cardinals relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, it was allowed to keep the Cardinals name despite the established existence of a baseball team of the same name.
In the early years of professional basketball, the American Basketball League, the de facto major league of the 1920s, was backed primarily by NFL owners.
The leagues also cooperate in the construction and use of facilities. Many NBA and NHL teams share arenas, and, in years past, such sharing was very common for MLB and NFL teams, though only one such situation currently exists. (Another such situation ended when the Florida Marlins completed their 2011 season. The team, which previously shared Sun Life Stadium with the Miami Dolphins, became the Miami Marlins and moved into a new, baseball-only stadium for the 2012 season.) More recently, MLS teams have used NFL stadiums as either full-time home fields or for special event games. Also notable in recent years have been the NHL's Winter Classic and Heritage Classic, which have been held in NFL, CFL and MLB stadiums.
Read more about this topic: Major Professional Sports Leagues In The United States And Canada
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