There is no question that Boston is one of the best (if not the best) sports cities in the country. With the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics all having won championships in the past decade, and the Bruins streaking toward the 2011 postseason, sports fans across the country have plenty of reasons to envy what we’ve got going on in New England.
Based on a study recently released by Forbes.com, some teams and cities could stand to live by Boston’s example.
Seattle, Wash., and Atlanta, Ga., earned the top two spots, in Forbes' list of the country's Top 10 Most Miserable Sports Cities. Other cities making the cut include Phoenix, Denver and Cincinnati.
The Forbes committee did not tread lightly when selecting the most miserable cities. It took into account a range of criteria extending far beyond number of championships to include playoff heartbreaks and postseason busts.
As Tom Van Riper, a writer for Forbes.com, puts it, "We decided to add it all up and create a sports heartbreak index to identify where fans have been exposed to teams good enough to get their hopes up, only to let them down in the end."
Seattle and Atlanta are certainly notorious for their letdowns. As we saw with the Falcons this past season, coach Mike Smith saw his team "rise up" to clinch the NFC South and earn a bye only to be slaughtered by the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers a week later.
In a combined 153 MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA seasons, Atlanta has only seen one championship come to the city when the Braves won the World Series in 1995.
Van Riper claims what pushed Seattle ahead of Atlanta for the title of most miserable city was the sale of the Sonics in 2008, earning "bonus points" for the loss a pro team. Through 111 seasons and 37 playoff appearances, only one Seattle team has won a championship –- the 1979 Seattle Sonics. Since then, the city's teams have done nothing but come up short.
A complete list of the top 10 most miserable cities is on Forbes.com.
