Sports teams in Virginia

Sports teams in Virginia include several professional teams, but no professional major-league teams. Virginia is by far the most populous U.S. state without a major professional sports league franchise playing within its borders, although two of the major-league teams representing Washington, D.C.—the NFL's Washington Redskins and NHL's Washington Capitals—have their practice facilities and operational headquarters in Northern Virginia.

Major league teams

There have been proposals to locate stadiums for Washington teams in Northern Virginia or to locate teams in the Hampton Roads metro area surrounding Norfolk, but none have come to fruition. When Jack Kent Cooke decided to build a replacement for the aging RFK Stadium as home of the Washington Redskins, he considered a site in Alexandria until public opposition developed. An attempt to bring a National Hockey League expansion franchise to Norfolk in the 1990s was rejected by the NHL.

The Houston Astros were nearly sold and relocated to Northern Virginia in 1996, but Major League Baseball owners stepped in and scuttled the proposed transaction in order to give Houston time to approve a new stadium deal. A proposal to relocate the Montreal Expos to Norfolk was considered by Major League Baseball in 2004. MLB had also considered a site near Washington Dulles International Airport in Loudoun County as a possible new home for the Expos. However, a reluctance by state officials to dedicate funds to the project along with concern about traffic helped lead MLB to select Washington as the Expos' new home. The ownership of the Florida Marlins had mentioned Norfolk as one of the cities to which it could relocate the team, but the Marlins will now remain in South Florida for the foreseeable future since they moved to a new park in Miami in 2012.

The Virginia Squires played in the American Basketball Association from 1970 to 1976; the team was left out of that league's partial merger with the NBA after the 1975–76 season.

Other teams

The Virginia Destroyers played in the United Football League in 2011, and began playing in the 2012 season, however the Destroyers folded, along with the rest of the UFL.

List

Club	Sport	League
Bluefield Blue Jays	Baseball	Appalachian League
Bristol Pirates	Baseball	Appalachian League
Danville Braves	Baseball	Appalachian League
Lynchburg Hillcats	Baseball	Carolina League
Norfolk Tides	Baseball	International League
Potomac Nationals	Baseball	Carolina League
Pulaski Yankees	Baseball	Appalachian League
Richmond Flying Squirrels	Baseball	Eastern League
Salem Red Sox	Baseball	Carolina League
Lynchburg Titans	Basketball	Premier Basketball League
Virginia Rampage	Dodgeball	National Dodgeball League
Virginia Cyclones	Football	East Coast Football Association
Richmond Raiders	Football	Professional Indoor Football League
Norfolk Admirals	Ice hockey	ECHL
Northern Virginia Eagles	Rugby League	USA Rugby League
Hampton Roads Piranhas	Soccer	USL Premier Development League
Hampton Roads Piranhas	Soccer	W-League
Northern Virginia Royals	Soccer	USL Premier Development League
Richmond Kickers	Soccer	USL Professional Division
Richmond Kickers Destiny	Soccer	W-League

References

Sports teams based in Virginia

Baseball	IL Norfolk Tides EL Richmond Flying Squirrels CL Lynchburg Hillcats Potomac Nationals Salem Red Sox ApL Bluefield Blue Jays Bristol Pirates Danville Braves Pulaski Yankees ALPB Virginia Beach Neptunes CPL Martinsville Mustangs Peninsula Pilots Petersburg Generals VBL

Basketball	ABA Richmond Elite

Football	WFA Richmond Black Widows

Ice hockey	ECHL Norfolk Admirals SPHL Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs

Roller derby	WFTDA Charlottesville Derby Dames Dominion Derby Girls NRV Rollergirls River City Rollergirls Rocktown Rollers Star City Roller Girls

Rugby league	USARL Northern Virginia Eagles

Soccer	USL Richmond Kickers PDL Northern Virginia Royals NPSL Virginia Beach City FC

College athletics (NCAA Division I)	George Mason Hampton James Madison Liberty Longwood Norfolk State Old Dominion Radford Richmond Virginia Virginia Commonwealth Virginia Tech VMI William & Mary

Commonwealth of Virginia

Richmond (capital)

Topics	Administrative divisions Climate Colleges and universities Colony Congressional Districts Delegations Environment Furniture Geography Government History Historic Landmarks Law Homes Music People Rights Rivers Scouting Slogan Sports teams State Fair State parks Symbols Transportation Tribes Visitor attractions

Society	Culture Crime Demographics Economy Education Politics

Regions	Allegheny Mountains Atlantic Coastal Plain Blue Ridge Chesapeake Bay Cumberland Mountains Delmarva Peninsula Eastern Shore Hampton Roads Middle Peninsula Northern Neck Northern Virginia Piedmont Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians Shenandoah Valley South Hampton Roads Southside Southwest Virginia Tennessee Valley Tidewater Tri-Cities Virginia Peninsula

Metro areas	Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Bluefield Bristol Charlottesville Danville Harrisonburg Lynchburg Martinsville Richmond Roanoke Staunton-Waynesboro Norfolk-Virginia Beach Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Winchester

Counties	Accomack Albemarle Alleghany Amelia Amherst Appomattox Arlington Augusta Bath Bedford Bland Botetourt Brunswick Buchanan Buckingham Campbell Caroline Carroll Charles City Charlotte Chesterfield Clarke Craig Culpeper Cumberland Dickenson Dinwiddie Essex Fairfax Fauquier Floyd Fluvanna Franklin Frederick Giles Gloucester Goochland Grayson Greene Greensville Halifax Hanover Henrico Henry Highland Isle of Wight James City King and Queen King George King William Lancaster Lee Loudoun Louisa Lunenburg Madison Mathews Mecklenburg Middlesex Montgomery Nelson New Kent Northampton Northumberland Nottoway Orange Page Patrick Pittsylvania Powhatan Prince Edward Prince George Prince William Pulaski Rappahannock Richmond Roanoke Rockbridge Rockingham Russell Scott Shenandoah Smyth Southampton Spotsylvania Stafford Surry Sussex Tazewell Warren Washington Westmoreland Wise Wythe York

Independent cities	Alexandria Bristol Buena Vista Charlottesville Chesapeake Colonial Heights Covington Danville Emporia Fairfax Falls Church Franklin Fredericksburg Galax Hampton Harrisonburg Hopewell Lexington Lynchburg Manassas Manassas Park Martinsville Newport News Norfolk Norton Petersburg Poquoson Portsmouth Radford Richmond Roanoke Salem Staunton Suffolk Virginia Beach Waynesboro Williamsburg Winchester

Lists of professional sports teams in the United States by political division

States	Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Federal district	Washington, D.C.

Insular areas	American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands

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