I'm sure the NBA and NFL have some stories that could play out in their early days. Say if Canton or Dayton have better financial backing in the early NFL days, do they stick around and become a similar Green Bay type team.
Not relocation, but for branding purposes,
the New Jersey Nets were supposed to become the Swamp Dragons. The vote passed 26-1, but failed because the lone nay vote was from the Nets themselves. The ownership group took turns at board meeting, and the guy at the meeting that day got cold feet.
For MLB, it's been a continual 150 year story of one city or owner trying to steal a team from another area. The Giants made plans to move at least twice after moving to SF that were stopped by 11th hour lawsuits. They were supposed to go to Toronto in the 70s in a move backed by the Labatt group, but the mayor sued at the last minute and the deal was eventually nixed. There were plans to move to Tampa in the early 90s, also involving a lawsuit that eventually nixed the idea. The White Sox were reportedly close to moving to Tampa as well, though no lawsuit emerged stopping that one, the deal just fell through. As highlighted in the Browns article, the Padres were supposed to move to DC and become the Stars in the 70s, stopped by a lawsuit regarding the lease on the stadium. MLB voted to contract the Twins and Expos in '02, but a lawsuit on the HHH Dome lease kept them around for one more year and allowed for different arrangements to be made.
Then there's the fact that the Mets exist basically to fend off a third major league (Continental) from forming, a campaign spearheaded by someone who wasn't even going to own one of the teams (Shea). That move also gave Houston and the Angels their teams immediately, and the Rangers would eventually come about a decade later as the fourth team, the Senators, failed and moved to Texas.
Funny enough, things have settled down the last 15 years or so, with the exception of the Vegas group courting the Dbacks that leaked last year, while NBA has seen SEA to OKC and NFL has had three relocations in the past four years.