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We live in more sophisticated times, and they call for more strategic thinking when it comes to moving sports teams, writes Michael Ventre.

Los Angeles needs an NFL franchise, or at least some within the city think so. How soon will it be before a team like the Minnesota Vikings or New Orleans Saints are sold to a group that insists it wants to keep it in its present location and then turns around and moves it two years later?

And what of struggling NHL franchises? Yes, I know that’s redundant, but many of them could move in the Bennett fashion, although undoubtedly far less chicanery would be necessary.

After this, opportunists who want to bag a sports franchise and take it home with them can do so with minimal resistance, as long as they are willing to build an arena or stadium, put on an act and carry it to its conclusion. It isn’t the exclusive domain of good ole’ boys; anybody can get in on a flimflam.

If Al Davis were still running the Raiders — I know many believe he is, but that’s actually a scarecrow — he would not form a battering ram of lawyers and force his way into a new city. He would simply show one face in public, and another in private, and before long the suckers involved would exclaim, “What just happened?!”

If your town’s sports team is here one minute and gone the next, and all that remains is a layer of slime, you’ll know what happened.

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