I formerly lived in Seattle, and the SuperSonics were the city’s pride and joy. But curiously they weren’t very devoted to keeping them, and the problem centered on building the team a new arena (Key Arena, their home until 2008, was like a pair of worn sneakers, ready to fall apart at any moment). So off the team went to Oklahoma, and the Pacific Northwest have pined for them ever since.
So what went wrong? Even San Francisco, as dysfunctional of a sports city as you’ll ever find, managed to build the Giants a new home in 2000.