Phoenix ranked among ‘most miserable sports cities’
Aug 1, 2013, 3:44 PM | Updated: 3:44 pm
How do you measure sports misery?
Forbes Magazine measures it by the lack of championships and pro teams “teasing” their fans by reaching the cusp of greatness, only to fall just short.
So the folks over at Forbes did a little research and ranked all cities with 75 cumulative seasons among their pro franchises in terms of “sports misery.”
Unfortunately, Phoenix ranked high on that misery scale.
In 101 cumulative seasons between the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Coyotes, the Valley has produced just one champion — the 2001 D-backs. That’s enough to have Phoenix ranked third on the misery list, behind only Seattle and Atlanta.
Forbes also points out that Phoenix owns a 1-3 all-time championship round record and that the Suns have reached the Western Conference Finals nine times without winning it all.
Seattle claims the top spot with just one championship (1979 SuperSonics) in 115 seasons. Add in the fact that their beloved basketball team left town in 2008, and well, that’s misery.
Atlanta claimed the number-two spot partly because they’ve had more hockey teams relocate (Flames to Calgary and Thrashers to Winnipeg) than championships won (1995 Braves) in 159 cumulative seasons.
Buffalo, San Diego, Cleveland, Kansas City, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Denver round out the top ten.
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