Fueled by the Braves’ late-season collapse and the Thrashers leaving town, Atlanta has reclaimed the top spot on Forbes’ annual list of most miserable sports cities.
Some people just can’t enjoy a game without getting involved. Here are a few such spectators.
Last year’s “winner,” Seattle, came in second on the list, followed by Phoenix, Buffalo and San Diego.
Also contributing to Atlanta’s sports woes in 2011 were the Falcons and Hawks making early-round playoff exits, pushing the city’s championship drought to 17 years.
The magazine explained that it ranks the cities based not only on losing over a long period, but also on the amount of heartbreak a city’s fans endure in a given year.
To be considered, sports cities must have “at least 75 total seasons of NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB play,” Forbes said.
“Over the past year, Atlanta fans have watched their hockey team leave for Winnipeg, their baseball team blow the playoffs on the final day, and their football and basketball teams bow out early in the playoffs. It’s enough to nudge the city past Seattle back into the top spot,” according to Forbes.
The Braves were up 8.5 games in the wild-card race in early September, only to blow the lead to the eventual champion St. Louis Cardinals, losing five straight to end the season.
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Atlanta is up there in heartbreak, I must admit...in the sense that the teams are generally pretty good but never win it all. Those crushing defeats have been hard to take, particularly on the Braves side where a few breaks would have meant 3 or 4 titles. Still, isn't it better to be in the hunt than to have no chance?
The hockey thing was ownership and the NHL being a bunch of jerkoffs, though. I guess that counts against Atlanta, but it wasn't really the city's fault.
While I agree that being bored with Jordan was the reason Malone won in '97 (and Barkley in '93), he actually wasn't a bad choice statistically. Certainly nowhere near the travesty Bill Simmons and others have tried to make it out in the years since.
But I thought having African-American players would really ignite the African-American fanbase.
With that said, I'm seriously hoping Matt Ryan does that "Peyton Manning when he turned 27" thing next year.
Depends. I can't see the team I root for come to town and kick their ass.
Exactly. And now Winnipegers got to enjoy their beloved Jets.*
Don't forget Atlanta lost TWO NHL teams. The Thrashers and the Flames! Loosing two franchises of the same league twice in 30 years is quite a feat. Interestingly enough, both the Flames and Thrashers moved "back" to Canada...
* Want a proof Canadians love hockey? Read this (from Wikipedia):
[Edited to add: they had to buy season tickets for three seasons, not one, which makes this above paragraph even more impressive].
Why doesn't the NHL move the Coyotes to Quebec or Hamilton?
Because the city of Glendale is subsidizing the team as justification for building the arena there.
I'm praying every night to get the Nords back. It's in the book and people are hopeful, but I'll believe it when it happens. That said, the league won't move a team to Hamilton. Toronto won't allow it (there won't be a MLB team in New Jersey for the same reasons). And Bettman's plan has been to open the US market. Moving too many teams back to Canada would just prove he was wrong (which he was, of course), so I doubt he'll do it. I'm still praying anyway.
That. But the team has an $35M annual deficit and Glendale itself is broke and the Goldwater Institute is raising he** over this. But there are supposedly three onership groups interested in buying the team and leaving it there.
You did it wrong.
Or Seattle. Although there are some plans proposed to build an arena to lure an NBA or NHL team.
Well, technically the tenant they built if for was the Big 12. Which nearly disbanded. So yes, we did it wrong. Although ultimately I am glad they built it.
As well they should. The city is broke and is bleeding money into the team, which they will never get back.
I've got some beach property to sell you down the street from the arena if you actually believe that, because this road has been heavily traveled by many people. If there was a viable ownership group that would keep the team there, they'd own the team by now. The NHL is incredibly desperate to sell the team to a group that will keep them there. The last guy to almost buy the team was going to get a loan from the city that was more than the amount he had to pay the NHL for the team. And that didn't work either.
The funny thing is the Rangers had a better deal, but the Nordiques screwed that up.
I don't think. I remember the NYR deal included Kovalev, Mike Richter and?
Philly gave Peter Forsberg (who was superior to Lindros) + Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, a 1st round selection (Jocelyn Thibault) and $15 Million cash.
The Rangers offered Alexi Kovalev, Doug Weight, Tony Amonte, John Vanbiesbrouck, $12 million and three 1st rounders. Which the Nordiques accepted... after they agreed to a trade with the Flyers. Todd Bertuzzi's uncle was the arbitrator.
The Flyers wound up giving up the best player, the Rangers would have wound up giving up the best package IMO. Extra players doesn't matter when it's Duschene and Huffman, and the extra picks make up for it.
Minneapolis doesn't have an NHL team.
/St. Paul Pride
Fixed.
I watch what accumulates to 4 periods of NHL hockey a year, and can maybe name a half dozen or so current players, and even I completely agree with this. Professional hockey should not be played in Phoenix, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Miami, etc over Canadian or northern US cities.
It was nearly 70 degrees today. Absolutely miserable. I can't go on like this.
Cincy is also ~100 miles from both Columbus and Indianapolis, which makes it an unlikely future home for any NBA or NHL team.
Did you bang her?
I love this site sometimes.
One NBA title and one Stanley Cup. (Plus two WNBA titles, if you count those.)
Maybe I missed the sarcasm, but Brett Lawrie was born in 1990. Jays won the Series in 1992 and 1993.
Philly gave Peter Forsberg (who was superior to Lindros) + Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, a 1st round selection (Jocelyn Thibault) and $15 Million cash.
Remember when Eric Lindros was so valued that they made a baseball card for him?
I have no idea where the Izod Center is, but I have to assume that alligator wrestling happens there.
One could also argue Atlanta sports improved when hockey left town. In 19 years the Flames and Thrashers won 2 playoff games. That's games, not series.
Glendale is tapped, the Goldwater Institute is looking over their shoulder and Pierre-Karl Peladeau has the money to outbid anybody looking for a discount hockey team. A new arena is coming and the Colisee is already being updated to meet NHL standards to serve as a temporary home.
It's in the Meadowlands. Used to be Continental Airlines Arena and pre-corporate naming rights, Brendan Byrne Arena. It was built for the Devils and Nets, but both have moved to the Prudential Center.
Well, Duchesne, a defenceman, had 82 pts in 82 games with the Nords. Not bad. He had 752 points during his 16 season career, which is a lot, even when you account for the period he played in. Besides, he was always smiling and having fun. He left the team after a bitter fight with management.
Hextall loved the city but had to be left unprotected following the 1992-93 season because of the expansion draft (the Nords wanted to protect Fiset because he was younger). So instead of loosing him for nothing, he was traded to the Ilses.
Ricci had his best season in Quebec, Simon became a good enforcer. Only Hoffman was really a throw in.
Forsberg was the gem and he played an instrumental role in both Colorado cups.
I think the key here is that bad teams at least have hope that one day they'll be good. Atlanta essentially is trapped with an extended case of blue balls that at this point no one even bothers to think will go away.
I think that's silly. If you are good most years, you should have hope that one day you'll eventually win it all unless you believe in some stupid magical hex. If you are the fan of a team that is just bad every year, what hope do you have to win it all? I envy Atlanta. I became a sports fan around 1988. That was right after we lost our NBA team. And I have never seen my teams compete in a championship game, and only once did they even compete in league/conference finals. The Royals have never made the playoffs over that time and the Chiefs haven't won a playoff game since 1997. I don't think you can be the most "miserable" sports city when other fans envy you.
No, that's not. They sold high trading him after that season. He was a better player than I remember.
Agreed. The city has 3 teams and they're all playoff teams. You can do worse.
1993 season, divisional round game over the Oilers in Houston.
And the Rollergirls and the derby league draw far more fans than the NHL ever did.
Fact.
Peter Forsberg is so clearly a cut above all of the players in the NYR deal (some very, very, good players themselves) that the Flyers offer was richer.
BTW, Steve Duchesne was a pretty useful player.
This is heresy!
"Please welcome your 2012 Cleveland Mayans!"
Malone led the league in PER that year, if you believe in PER.
True, they traded Duchesne. He was traded during the mid-season because he refused to report. Why had I forgotten that? I would not say they sold high, however. Ron Sutter despised Quebec and the other two (Garth Butcher and Bob Bassen) were below replacement-level (I would think). Both Butcher and Sutter were dumped in June of that year.
There are ~34 million people in Canada. ~1.5 million of them live in the Winnipeg and QC metropolitan areas. ~4 million live in the 'peg, QC, London, Hamilton, Kitchener, Niagara and Halifax areas combined.
There are ~5.2 million people in Atlanta alone. There are ~27 million people in the "southern strategy" cities, not including the California teams. (Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix, Tampa, Nashville, Raleigh). What's more, nearly all of the people in those Canadian cities are already hockey fans, and are monetized whether there is a local team or not (most of that ~4 million population is within driving distance of Buffalo or Toronto).
It was destined that hockey would fail in some of the southern cities, but it would be absolutely insane not to try. You know that huge national TV contract the NHL just signed this summer? That came from having nationwide coverage, which you don't get by abandoning 3/4 of the country completely. TV is where the money is. And over time, you might just develop new hockey fans in places where the sport is not endemic, like we see now with players coming out of Texas and California.
Southern expansion did not fail. The Thrashers failed because the ownership group deliberately tanked the franchise.
#### the Jets and their literal AHL arena. Make it six.
(Caveat: I actually had a giant Malone poster up on my wall at that time in my life. And I always, always hated Jordan.)
As for Atlanta, this outcome makes sense if you don't factor in to degree to which people care.
Malone led the league in PER that year, if you believe in PER.
Exactly. Maybe I'm more than a little biased since I'm a lifelong Utahn and such a diehard Jazz fan that I'd probably tattoo their logo across my face if I thought it would help them win a championship, but it bugs me that so many people talk about the 1997 MVP voting as being such a blatant travesty and no one even makes any attempt to prove it using you know, actual statistics. I've looked at the numbers many times, and Jordan would have been a fine choice. But so was Malone.
He was a 50 point defenseman who had an 80 point season. Trading a guy after a career year is the definition of selling high.
I admit I have been to a Rollergirl derby and unlike the Thrashers they packed the house. Granted it was a small house, but it was packed.
I don't blame Bettman at all either. Also, at the time, wasn't the Canadian economy at a worse position vs. the American economy? Wasn't there a problem with Canadian teams selling tickets and taking in Canadian dollars, but paying out salaries in American dollars? I can see why they'd want to mitigate that problem and have more American teams. And the south is a huge potential market. And FWIW, I'm betting the presence of an NHL team has exposed more kids to hockey in the south and there are more kids playing than there used to be. From what I understand, Dallas has become a decent youth hockey market when they had very few ice rinks before the Stars moved there.
The Thrashers failed, and other south teams are struggling, but weren't teams rather successful in Dallas and San Jose?
That huge NHL TV contract is a fifth of what the NBA gets. Wow, congratulations on getting 20% of the NBA's TV money. You know what? It's also the first time, EVER, that American TV money outstripped Canadian TV money, but that may no longer be true once CBC renegotiates the Hockey Night in Canada. So in a year or two's time, this amazing awesome TV contract that was no doubt due to Phoenix and Atlanta (even though NBC would rather die than show those two teams over Philly, Boston, Detroit, New York or Chicago) will be outstripped by the new round of Canadian TV contracts.
It is 20 years and over that period the NHL has developed some fans in California and Texas, but not very many. Almost all of the Sun Belt teams struggle to turn a profit and most are in the bottom half of revenue. With the Canadian economy buoyant, it makes cents to return the game to places who care, like Winnipeg, whose team will probably outstrip every Sun Belt team in revenue except for LA.
And sorry, the idea all Canadian hockey fans are monetized is absurd. Winnipeg proved that, in the 8 minutes where they sold more season tickets than Atlanta would sell in a year.
Yes, though Dallas is struggling currently due to some Hicks-related ownership shenanigans. Nashville and Florida have both picked up nicely lately, though. The only moribund NHL franchises are the Coyotes and the Islanders. The Islanders are saveable, although I wonder about the resource allocation of having 3 NHL teams in the NYC area. The Coyotes should have been the Jets rather than the Thrashers for so many reasons. It sucks that ownership, which should be nothing to sports fandom, is the driving factor behind franchise stability. I love the Nords but I also love the acid trip-Coyotoes (hate the Tippett-Coyotes), and nobody should lose their team.
I may have an irrational soft-spot for the Thrashers because the one time I showed up at Phillips' Arena, an on-duty APD officer handed me a free ticket to the lower bowl. That's the other sucky thing, Phillip's was a beautiful new arena literally at the intersection of the 2 lines of the rail system in a huge city, could not have a better stadium situation.
Roughly north of Trois-Rivieres and east of Drummondville, though there will be Canadiens fans everywhere. They're the most famous French-Canadian institution on the planet after Cirque du Soleil. Even in the 80s there were always thousands of Canadiens fans in the Colisee for rivalry games.
But it wasn't just Phoenix and Atlanta. Statistically, some of these teams would fail (ever notice that in every league, regardless of perceived suitability of the location, the majority of expansion teams remain second-class decades after their expansion?), and the lottery ended up in those places because of terrible ownership and terrible planning (Glendale? Really?). Would the NHL be better off today and in ten years if it were 18 teams in the NE, Midwest and Canada?
Besides, short-term profit chasing is what got the Jets out of Winnipeg and the Nords out of QC in the first place.
-Buffalo
2. I appreciated Bettman's attempt to move the NHL into the southern US, though I think he was a little overzealous (Florida didn't really need to 2 teams, nor did Raleigh). Dallas & Atlanta are huge markets, it would've been silly *not* to try teams out there. Also, I hate the "it's always warm down there so they shouldn't have an ice hockey team!" argument.
3. This is kind of a minor point, but over the last few years several top American draft picks have come from the western & southern US (specifically California). I'm not sure if these kids would be playing hockey if the NHL was limited to 10-12 teams in Canada/northern US.
It's a good hockey town now, with lots of youth leagues, and the team (until recently) had been competitive and popular.
The rise of the Mavericks and Rangers is going to hurt the Stars a bit, though it helps that the Cowboys are just as frustrating.
The return of the Nordiques would be great for the NHL.
As a Leafs fan (save your pity, I'm also a Buffalo Bills fan, so I know misery quite intimately), the Nordiques would provide another awesome Saturday night Canadian match-up for TV:
Habs vs Nords (provincial pride)
Leafs vs Sens (provincial pride)
Oilers vs Flames (provincial pride)
Canucks vs Jets (uh...sure!)
Side note:
If the Leafs don't make the playoffs (again!), I'm really hoping the Jets make it. That arena will be absolutely jumping (and blindingly white).
It's like Leafs fans in English-speaking Canada. They are a virus that infect the Vancouver/Winnipeg/Edmonton/Calgary arenas, with large pockets throughout. In Montreal, it's mutual, as the Habs fans flood Toronto, and vice versa.
In Ottawa, it's ridiculous, as the Toronto fans almost outnumber the Ottawa fans.
The only reason you can tell it's an Ottawa home goal is that the foghorn goes off. Otherwise, the cheering is LOUDER for the Leafs goals. Hell, the "Go Leafs Go" chants easily overpower the "Go Sens Go" chants.
It wasn't any of the Sun Belt teams, I'd argue.
The NBC is paying that money because of the revival in interest in Boston, Philly, NYC, Chicago and Pittsburgh. Look at how little West Coast or Sun Belt teams make NBC. They get play on Versus, but that's because Versus tries to show everybody.
I suspect the league would be more profitable, but I'm not really suggesting no NHL team should exist in the Sun Belt, just where it makes sense. The league clearly got addicted to expansion fees and thought the very short-term surge in popularity was going to continue indefinitely, otherwise nobody would have a team in Columbus, Nashville, Anaheim, or both Tampa Bay AND Miami.
Edit: I'll put Raleigh in there too, because my parents are from CT and my aunt was a season ticket holder. F you Karmanos! But there is little economic argument for the Whalers other than if somebody thinks they can make it happen then good for them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX17yd7hQk0
There was indeed an NHL team in Kansas City at one time -- the Kansas City Scouts, an expansion team that was established in 1974. They lasted two seasons there, moving to Denver and becoming the Colorado Rockies in 1976, then the New Jersey Devils since 1982.
Given this track record, I would doubt another such franchise will happen there again.
Which makes Seattle an interesting case. The only way Seattle can get either an NHL or NBA team is to take one from someone else, and many Seattleites are pretty angsty* about that idea. A month ago it was "95% certain" that the Kings and Coyotes would be coming to town, and now it's pretty clear that neither one is... local fans were pretty much OK with either franchise, as the perception here is that neither local fanbase cares, but now that they're looking at both teams staying put and having to poach some existing team, interest is waning a bit on the new arena
Seattle is, depending on how you count such things, the largest market to not have all Four sports. However, they do have the Sounders drawing at 36K twenty times a year. It's pretty unclear whether Seattle could also support BOTH NBA and NHL. I highly doubt there's enough suite buyers to go around.
*So, speaking of angsty, or karma, or whatever, I have a barely related question. Just flew for a business trip and they call for "1st class and club members". No less than 50 people went through. When I finally got on, I counted 20 first class seats. Are there seriously 30+ "club members" on a random flight? Do a good percentage of people ignore these announcements and gate attendants don't stop them? Are these the same people who think HOV restrictions don't apply to them? Anecdotally, it seems that the vast majority obey handicapped parking restrictions, but no one saves the handicapped bathroom stall for last. Why do I sound like Andy Rooney?
The question I have is, other than 1st/business class seats*, why are people in such a rush to get on the plane? When they call my section, I usually ignore it. I wait until they call the last regular section, and then get into the last spot in line. I'm in no rush to sit in coach for 20 minutes while they load the plane. I'd rather relax in the waiting area instead of being crammed in like sardines.
*1st class / business class seats with the individual pods, plus pre-flight drink service, makes it worth it to sit in your seat before the flight.
The Scouts were woefully undercapitalized and terribly managed. They won 27 games in two seasons. That was back when the NHL over-expanded to markets like San Fran and Cleveland despite not having nationwide notoriety yet. I don't see how that has anything to do with landing a franchise now, especially considering the NHL has re-entered markets before (like Atlanta, Winnipeg and Minneapolis).
Because ######## with their rollybags take up all the carry-on luggage space. If you're in the last 20%, good luck finding a place to put a bag now that airlines charge for checked luggage.
It perplexes me how, on one hand, airlines are charging you extra for any checked-in baggage, while allowing passengers to haul in half their bedroom closet in three enormous carry-on bags.
To stuff their giant rolley suitcases into the overhead bins before they fill up.
I'm with you, though.
Edit: Cokes. The solution is to travel light.
They don't charge to check your bag at the gate because they're booked.
It always amuses me that people rush to get on the plane like that. It's assigned seats, everyone just relax.
I don't think Bettman should get criticized for Raleigh - that's on Karmanos, right? (Mind you, I didn't and don't think it made any sense - they're the only pro game in town but not the subject of that much discussion among my peer groups.)
I tend to travel light, so I have a small backpack with my airplane essentials (ipod, couple of small books, a magazine, small snack, cold pop I grabbed at the gate) that fits under the seat in front of me without cramping my legs.
This is funny in at least two ways, maybe three.
I think NHL is probably a better fit with the Blazers close by.
Except the Canucks are even closer.
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