America's Most Miserable Sports Cities

For sports fans, misery isn't always a matter of pure incompetence. Sometimes it's a product of heartbreak--the anguish of getting close without bringing home the bacon. We added up playoff losses (with progressively more weight given to later rounds--more heartbreak), along with championship droughts and the loss of teams moving out of town to find the 10 most miserable sports cities.

1. Seattle
2. Atlanta
3. Phoenix
4. Buffalo
5. San Diego
6. Cleveland
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Kansas City
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul
10. Houston

http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/12/seattle-atlanta-phoenix-buffalo-business-sports-miserable-sports-cities.html

According to the article, in 109 cumulative sports seasons for all Seattle pro teams, the city has only won one title..

Abandon all hope, ye who move here.

I'm sorry, but I had to laugh and laugh at San Jose whining about their "jinx". Ha ha ha! The team is only 19 years old.

With Chicago, it's 54 years since they've won a Cup. Now that's a drought.

A bunch of cities on that list pretty much all have teams younger than Chicago's Stanley Cup drought. Guess what? That's what happens with expansion. Fewer championships. So what? It's great to win, but it's also fun just to go to the games and cheer for your team.

Its no where NEAR as bad as Cleveland.

Long live The Dream!

have had one NBA championship in 1974. Given that the five NFL championship will always carry an asterisk because of the criminal that owned them, I guess that would make San Francisco a pretty miserable city. At least there is pot!!!

:spank:

:hide:

and Athletics and Raiders (I'm a glutton for punishment).

Seattle? SERIES? None since 1979 is now > none since 1964? NO.

We've won nothing, nada, zip, zilcho, bupkis, DONUT HOLE in ANY sport since 1964.

See, this is what other cities don't seem to understand about being a long-suffering Cleveland SPORTS fan. Examples:

BOSTON. Call me nuts, but I highly doubt I'm gonna feel sorry for fans that had to suffer through an 86-year WS drought when you have the 2004 and 2007 WS wins, the 3 recent New England SUPER BOWL wins (complete with the Browns old coach, no less) and several Celtic championships scattered over decades, including one last year, not to mention a Celtic team loaded with all-stars.

Nueva York? Fuggedaboudit. 29 WS championships between the Yanks and the Mets, five Super Bowl wins by the Giants and Jets, five Stanley Cups between the Islanders and the Rangers and the biggest payroll in all of sports doesn't allow you to have any grumblings about how sorry the Knicks are.

America's favorite "wait 'til next year" gang, the Cubs, are STILL in Chicago. Please. Your city has SIX NBA titles, a 1985 SB win and a 2005 White Sox WS win.

The list goes on.

LA? Dodgers, Lakers and Raiders all have at least 2 titles in their sports since 1980 (the Lakers have NINE). Count nearby adopted Anaheim, and the total title count rises two more (Ducks & Angels).

DC? Three Redskins Super Bowl wins. Nope.

Detroit? Red Wings, Pistons and Tigers all have multiple titles since the 80s, so you get no support group pass, Lions fans.

Pittsburgh? Six Steelers SB wins, Pirates winning the WS in 1979 and two Stanley Cups by the Penguins. No heartbreak allowed. SORRAH!

The entire state of Texas has so many damned titles to choose from: Houston Rockets, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, UT's 2006 NCAA title, etc.

Even the Florida Marlins, established in 1993, has two World series wins in their young age. One of them over Cleveland, which they had no business losing and still stabs our hearts to this day.

A mid-market team like Kansas City won a WS in 1985.

Even the former three sport teams closest to us in misery are no longer on the books. The Phillies won the WS last year, effectively stopping their champion-less season streak at 100 (while Cleveland's still going strong at around 134). Seattle is no longer a three-sport city, yet their last title came in 1979.

When Cleveland loses, it's almost always in the most heartbreaking fashion possible. Our pitching sucks. Our defensive coordinator has no plan. We can't stop the superstar. We have a superstar but no offensive plan. There's eternally one missing piece to the puzzle. Our bats take a vacation. We lack killer instinct. We play not to lose instead of playing to win. We can't FINISH THE DAMNED JOB AGAINST A JOURNEYMAN RUNT LIKE CRAIG COUNSELL, JOSE MESA!!!!

Being a fan in the most snake-bitten city in all of sports means never having to feel sorry for other people's supposed "futility".

Somehow, I'm just thinking it simply isn't meant to BE with this city. Always the bridesmaids, never the bride.

Cleveland is #1 in sports futility. At least give us that.

not so much that this year they should have gotten past Boston, but last year they really should have beaten Orlando.

Many of these cities only got their teams through expansion. I think Cleveland is the most snake bit, and the most wronged - losing the Browns was just a terrible, terrible thing, a slap in the face to the world of fandom. Yes, Art Modell will rot in hell forever and ever, but that's not much consolation now.

Anyway, the point is, expansion = dilution = fewer dynasties, fewer championships per city. Detroit has been lucky, I think we all know that. But they have good fans who deserve it. When the Wings won the Cup in 1997, I'd never seen them win it in my entire lifetime. I felt that we deserved it, as will the Lions, when we finally get good again.

I've been to games in Cleveland, and it's a good time. The fans are nice, fun, and full of spirit. Fans in Seattle are crap. They parse the game to death. They are boring. They barely made a peep when the Sonics were stolen, and most of the people I know here seemed ready to see the Mariners and Seahawks go, too, when that was threatened.

but passion of the fan. Here in atlanta we are talking passionless. Most new cities are passionless about pro sports. The older original cities live and die with their teams. That is the true measurement.

I did notice, though, when the Mariners got to be about 20 years old (the team having been successfully saved from the brink of moving to Tampa/St. Pete), that I saw young dads who'd gone to Mariners games with their fathers, with their kids - a second generation of fans. It did make a noticeable difference, though nothing to the extent that you see with the older franchises.

I consider myself lucky to be a Detroit fan, and to be able to root for the same teams that my great grandparents did.