Relocation of professional sports teams in China

Relocation of professional sports teams occurs when a team owner moves a team, generally from one metropolitan area to another, but occasionally between municipalities in the same conurbation.

Team moves in China are very common, as teams are privately owned or owned by businesses, and there are neither rules regarding moves nor many established fan bases outside of the handful of established top teams.

China, although has a European style promotion and relegation league system, the teams themselves are North American-style franchises which means the teams are overwhelmingly privately owned and therefore favour relocation practices. Owners who move a team generally do so seeking better profits, facilities, fan support, or a combination of these.

Association football

• 1996 league season.^[1] Where the club really struggled was their ability to hold on to their contingent of Chinese international players such as Hao Haidong, Hu Yunfeng and Jiang Jin who started to leave the club for better offers. This saw the club struggle being unable to replace them through the transfer market and ultimately see them relegated to the second tier for the first time in the club's history. With less money coming in the club decided to disassociate themselves from their traditional Beijing home and took offers from other cities and sponsors to play for. They moved to Xinxiang and Liuzhou to accommodate their sponsors and while this worked for a brief period, which saw the club gain promotion back into the top tier the Chinese FA launched the rebranded Chinese Super League
  , which required more stringent conditions for the club to work in. Unfortunately this coincided with the loss in form of the team who were relegated at the end of the 2003 league season. The loss of prize money and stricter regulations ultimately forced Bayi to disband.
• Dongguan Dongcheng who moved the club to the Hong Kong First Division League
  . The club folded in 2009.
• Shaanxi Wuzhou following the club's move to the Shaanxi Province Stadium in Xi'an
  .
• Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium and then again to a 22 370 capacity newly built Tianjin Tuanbo Football Stadium
  .
• Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard in February 2014.^[2]
• Hohhot Dongjin for short).^[3] The club finished in the bottom of the league and was relegated to China League Two
  .
• Kunming Ruilong was established at Yunnan's capital city Kunming on March 20, 2012. The club moved their home stadium to Dali
  , another city in Yunnan, adding "Dali" to their name on March 22, 2013.
• Chongqing Longxin
  .
• Jiaodaruisun Stadium, Shaanxi to Ningbo in 2004 and to Harbin
  a year later, before folding in 2005.
• Shanghai Shenxin
  .
• Guizhou Renhe
  .
• Pudong Yuanshen Sports Centre, in the Pudong
  area of Shanghai. he club was dissolved at the end of the 2012 season.
• Shanghai Shenhua
  in 2007.
• Nei Mongol Zhongyou^[5]
• Guangzhou R&F
  , although the R&F is officially short for "Rich" (富) and "Force" (力).
• Chongqing Lifan
  in 2003.
• Tiexi Stadium in Shenyang
  . The club was officially dissolved on February 27, 2015.
• Hohhot Black Horse
  , but folded later that same year.
• Shijiazhuang Ever Bright
  .
• Harbin Sports City Center Stadium did their fortunes changed and they won their first piece of silverware, the 2011 China League Two division and promotion back into the second division.^[6]

• Beijing Tigers played at the 5,000-capacity Beijing Fengtai Baseball Field until 2006, when the stadium was destroyed and rebuilt as the Fengtai Softball Field. Their stadium for the 2006 season was relocated to Lucheng, a rural area to the south of Beijing.

Basketball

• Bayi Rockets, founded in 1955 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, in 2018 moved to Nanchang, Jiangxi.
• Shenzhen New Century Leopards
  .
• Beikong Fly Dragons
• Shanxi Zhongyu. The team has fared little better since moving to Shanxi
  .
• Foshan Dralions
  .