What is the difference between a sports team being a "team" or a "club? For example, soccer teams are called football clubs, baseball teams are called baseball clubs, but football teams are just called teams.
A sports club, athletics club or sports association is an eclectic institution oriented to multiple sports, which fields many teams and in several sports, working under the same umbrella organization. In a larger sense, it may also refer to any sports institution, even those that have only one sports team or a single sports department. In order to differentiate a single-sport institution from a multi-sport one, the term multi-sport club is used. The term athletics club may either mean a sports club or a club for the sport of athletics outside of the United States and Canada.
Examples abound of sports clubs that are in effect one sports team. Each team from the NBA (basketball), NFL (American football) or MLS (association football) American sports leagues, can be called sports clubs, but in practice, they focus solely on a single sport. On the other hand, American varsity teams are generally organized into a structure forming a true multi-sport club belonging to an educational institution.