We have funny examples a little bit like "imagine FC Barça moving to Madrid" in the US. Used for comedy (but these are all real examples) from the opening monologue of the film BASEketball
> The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles, where there are no lakes; the [Houston] Oilers moved to Tennessee, where there is no oil. The [New Orleans] Jazz moved to Salt Lake City, where they don't allow music.
Other names like that are
- the Baltimore Colts (named for Maryland's thoroughbred racing tradition) moving to Indianapolis (more known for open wheel auto racing),
- the Vancouver Grizzlies moving to Memphis, Tennessee (which never had Grizzlies even in the post-glacial period)
- the Brooklyn (Streetcar) Dodgers moving to Los Angeles in 1958 right when the LAMTA took over the few remaining street car lines before replacing them with buses in 1963.
The closest thing I can think of in European sports, and it's a stretch, is cycling teams. I picked this teams as the first example I could think of, not because it's some egregious example:
The parallel is that the name changes make tracking that team a real ship of Theseus problem: if the name, sponsors, riders, and staff turn over, is it worth calling it the same team? Similarly, if a football team changes cities, names, personnel, and owners, is it worth calling it the same team (Houston Oilers, Tennessee Oilers, Tennessee Titans)?
It's a little weird but the teams and the sports leagues are basically just corporations that engage in show business. They have no real connection to where they are located.
Happened once in English football: Wimbledon moved from south west london to the soulless new town of Milton Keynes.
It was radioactively controversial at the time, most fans never made the switch.
Eventually Wimbledon fans created a new club AFC Wimbledon who have since got promoted all the way to League One (the same league as MK Dons).
So the MK Dons owners ended up with nothing for all the trouble and they may as well have just made a new team. Nobody else has been stupid enough to try it since
Wimbledon FC moved from Wimbledon to Milton Keynes in the early 00's and quickly changed names to Milton Keynes Dons and AFC Wimbledon was created in it's place back in Wimbledon at their old stadium.
