A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when their current team ceases to exist or is merged with another team. Like most other
sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in
North America.
Dispersal drafts are more commonly seen in emerging sports (such as
soccer or women's
basketball in the
United States) or alternative leagues where initial support for a team failed to remain consistent and the team was unable to survive financially.
The
National Basketball Association (NBA) had two dispersal drafts in the 1950–51 season: In October 1950, a dispersal draft for the
Chicago Stags franchise was conducted, and in January 1951, the
Washington Capitols demise led to a second dispersal draft.
The
American Basketball Association (ABA) had a dispersal draft in June 1972 when two teams folded[2] and had two drafts within a month of each other in October and November 1975 as two more teams folded during what turned out to be the final season of the ABA.
On August 8, 1976, as part of the
ABA-NBA merger agreement, a dispersal draft was conducted to assign teams for the players on the two ABA franchises which had folded.
The
Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) had five such drafts over a seven-year period. In the 2003 season, a dispersal draft was held after
Miami and
Portland folded. This was followed by four other times: the 2004 season, after
Cleveland folded; the 2007 season, after
Charlotte folded; the 2009 season, after
Houston folded; and the 2010 season, after
Sacramento folded. In each draft, all remaining WNBA teams were allowed a draft pick in reverse order of their regular-season record for the preceding season.
In 1996, the
Canadian Football League (CFL) conducted a dispersal draft which consisted of players from the rosters of the
Birmingham Barracudas,
Memphis Mad Dogs,
San Antonio Texans and
Shreveport Pirates in order to return the CFL to a nine-team format with all franchises based in Canadian cities. The CFL conducted another dispersal draft the following year, when the
Ottawa Rough Riders ceased operations; those players under contract by the team were dispersed amongst the eight remaining teams.
In 1996 and 1997, the
Australian Football League held an
expansion and dispersal draft as part of the
1996 national draft and the 1997 pre-season draft as Port Adelaide would enter the AFL for the 1997 season, and the Brisbane Bears had taken over Fitzroy's playing operations after Fitzroy had folded at the end of Round 22. The Bears were allowed to recruit eight of the 19 Fitzroy players that nominated for the draft as part of the agreement to take the Lions nickname and Fitzroy's remaining AFL property, while three Fitzroy players were taken by Port Adelaide, and the remaining eight players were drafted by other teams.
The
United Football League conducted a dispersal draft prior to the
2011 season to accommodate the shutdown of the
Hartford Colonials. Five rounds were held among the UFL's four remaining teams, the twenty players who were drafted went to their new teams, and the remaining players became free agents.
On September 6, 2013, the
Arena Football League held a dispersal draft to distribute the players of the dormant
Chicago Rush and
Utah Blaze franchises. They referred to the dispersal draft as the "Offseason Assignment Process".
On January 5 and 15, 2024, the
United Football League held a dispersal draft to reallocate players from
XFL and
USFL teams that did not survive the merging of the two leagues.
Ice hockey
In June 1978, the
National Hockey League (NHL) allowed the financially struggling Cleveland Barons and Minnesota North Stars to merge under the North Stars banner. The North Stars were allowed to keep some of the players from each team, and the remaining players went into the
1978 NHL Dispersal Draft.
On January 5, 2007, the
Southern Professional Hockey League conducted a one-round seven team dispersal draft after the SPHL terminated the Florida Seals franchise midway through the season; the seven players who were drafted went to their new teams, while the remaining players became free agents.
The
Major Indoor Soccer League shut down the
San Diego Sockers and
Monterrey Fury in December 2004 as a result of various issues, including unpaid debts and insolvency. Players in those teams were then distributed to the remaining teams in a dispersal draft, and the order of player selection was in reverse order of the winning percentage of the remaining teams (excluding games against San Diego and Monterrey and the playoffs) from the 2003–04 seasons and the 2004–2005 season up to that point.