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15 Most Tortured Cities in Pro Sports


monsoon

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't think the writer knows much about Charlotte or Atlanta. The Hornets had NBA record crowds at the largest arena in the league. They made the playoffs too! It was the owner and his greed that led to the team moving. The NHL team (Hurricanes) is in Raleigh, which is a long drive from Charlotte. The Braves won the World Series in 1995, not 1985. The Kansas City Royals won the 1985 World Series. The Braves had a playoff run in 1982, but didn't get in the fall classic.

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  • 9 months later...

as of recent years, i think san francisco could be a canidate for that list. take out boston and make some room. the sf (not ny) giants never won a world series (8 outs left and then.... NO RING!!), and the niners...ehh. sports in the bay area in general has just been dissapointing in recent years. i don't really care about hockey.

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  • 1 month later...

I think the city most matching your description is Oklahoma City. Think about. No professional sports, 1,300,000 people. Something seems fishy, right? Well, the city has one of the nation's best minor league baseball teams, and has been proffesionally considered for a baseball and football team atleast twice, all turning out negative. Oklahoma City is one of maybe 3 cities completely unaffected by the national recession (meaning a hot economy, based on mostly energy, but some gas, Oil, and fast food companies) and has plenty of large corporations to sponsor such a team. Such as Hertz Rent A Car, Sonic (fast food) Braums (fast food) Kerr McGee (energy and off shore drilling leader) there is Devon (nation's 3rd largest energy company) there is Myriad (owns many hotel chains, and even several attraction in OKC area) and this city has one of the nation's highest standards of living.

So what has put this city on the no list? University of Oklahoma Sooners, and Oklahoma State University Cowboys. With stadiums with the capacity of about 95,000 and 75,000 fans, on opposite sides of the metro, these football stadiums fill up every, every, every saturday, after saturday. This city has an abundance of outdoor sports (Oklahoma lakes, mountains, plains, state parks nearby, etc). But I really think it could incorporate two professional sports teams. Where the heck would they place a stadium? Bricktown. There is already the nation's 2nd nicest minor league stadium, with capacity for about 35,000 fans, would be fine to host a Major League Baseball team.

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you all make some good points . . . to be fair to all cities of every size i would include college sports too (Oklahoma U. for Oklahoma City metroplex . . . how far is Norman again from the city?)

instead of ranking them by number though I think a grouping would be better,

have the really suffering 5 like Cleveland, Buffalo, Seattle, Milwaukee

have the some rays of light like Houston, Philadelphia

have the needs improvement like Phoenix etc.

also one thing with Boston is all those Celtics and even Bruins championships.

it is a wonder how much reputation points we tie up in a cities sports teams when really the citizens of those metros have very little if any influence on how the team preforms, I mean really whats the difference between somebody from Pittsburgh or Cleveland both cities are EXTREMELY similar, Philly and NYC too, SF and Seattle have very similar traits as far as demographics, politics, climate, jobs, industries, tech, history etc. yet SF gets all the sport points, NYC over Philly, Pittsburgh over Cleveland.

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Norman is the second farthest suburb to the south, at about 30 miles (OKC metro is nation's largest size wise, and nation's 3rd largest city size wise) and Stillwater is the farthest suburb to the north, at 45 miles.

edit: not much buffer zone, eh?

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List seems a little out of date. Charlotte's on the list, and they went to the superbowl last year. For two relatively young franchises in the city, I wouldn't exactly call them tortured. In fact, I'd say they are doing good and have a lot to celebrate about.

Boston (until last year) and Chicago for baseball fans, in historically baseball towns, and Philly with the Eagles in football... those are tortured cities. All though close chances at titles, never pulled any of them off :lol:

Boston finally got rid of their curse, maybe Philly and Chicago are next.

Boston and Chicago aren't even on the list!

Very poorly written. Whoever wrote this just simply looked at the last time any of the teams in the city won a championship, and gave no thought to the actual sport or how popular those teams are in each city.

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For that matter Milwaukee could have been on his list.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I put Milwaukee in my groupings, I guess because its Packers country its not tortured.

As for Paul Boston is as much Redsox country as it is Celtics and Bruins country so no Boston i don't feel ever was tortured-- Redsox fans were--but not sports fans celebrating stanley cups and NBA finals as well as Superbowls.

If Boston is making your lists just because of the Sox, Pittsburgh isn't far behind with 3 Pirates blowups (2 in the final innings of the 7th game) in champ series and NO rings for 25 years! Steelers, Penguins and Pitt Panthers overcome that as those sports should for Boston.

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Despite a couple of championchips in the last few years, I think Tampa deserves a spot on the list. They suffered with the Bucs for ages. They were bright orange for goodness sakes. Then they flirted with Baseball for years, building that giant white dome that sat empty for years, only to be filled with the embarrassing Devil Rays.

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Chicago!?! Hey if you don't want the Bulls and their 6 World Championships let them move to Pittsburgh (Univ. of Pgh has a great bball program but still aint like pro ball). Da Bears of the 80s, and MJ ruling the world in the 1990s, this compared to a Cleveland that hasn't won didly since 1948! (nfl champ games not included, football only became more major than boxing and horseracing after the SB was created)

I know this is mostly about the cubbies and the last few years in FB and Bball . . . but seriously I know Clevelanders and Buffalonians and they'd switch trophy cases with Chicago in a second . . . think about it no trophy in any (at the time) major sport since black and white network TV was a brand new invention, and for Buffalo never (i believe). Chicago 10 years ago was on top of the world, 20 years ago the superbowl shuffle, count your blessings and then have the cubbies trade for Barry Bonds lol.

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Chicago has two futile baseball teams, not just one.  People always seem to forget about the Southsiders.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

didn't mean to exclude them . . . maybe it is true though the Bears, Bulls and BHawks could win every year, but Chicago would still be sad?

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As a citizen of Salt Lake City and a fan of the Utah Utes and Utah Jazz, I've seen quite a lot of pain in my 20 years of life. Granted it can't compare to that of Boston, Chicago (outside the Bulls and the Bears 1985 NFL championship), and of course Cleveland. But I've been tortured quite a bit in my past.

Firstly the Jazz were the second most successful NBA team in the 1990s, right behind the Chicago Bulls. Yet they only made two trips to the NBA Finals, and never won the NBA Championship; however they did come close.

Here's a run down.

1988 Utah Jazz meet the LA Lakers. They steal game 2 at the Great Western Forum, win game 3 at the Salt Palace but fall in game 4 and 5. A split of the last two games and the Jazz very well could have upset the Lakers and advanced to the Western Conference Finals. Utah lost the series in 7.

1992: Jazz meet the Blazers in the Western Conference Finals. Jazz go down 0-2 before coming back and tying the series at 2-2. In game 5 they go to OT and Utah loses, a win and they'd be in control of the series. They lost in 6.

1993: Jazz take the Sonics to 5 in the first round of their series, before losing by 8.

1994: Jazz get drilled in the Western Conference Finals by Houston.

1995: Utah has one of the best records in the NBA. Draw the Houston Rockets in the second round. The series goes to 6, Utah loses the 6th game by 4.

1996: This was probably the hardest season for the Jazz. They did pretty well throughout the season and met the Sonics in the Western Conference Finals. The series was tied 3-3 needing only one win to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. That one win would never come...Seattle won game 7 by 4.

1997: Finally the Jazz, on their fourth trip to the Western Conference Finals, advance to the NBA Finals. They meet the Bulls and play an awesome game one. Malone is fouled and goes to the line. If he made two free throws the Jazz probably would win. He misses them both, Bulls win at the buzzer. The Jazz would go down 0-2 before rebounding and sending the series to 6...where Steve Kerr killed them on a last second shot. Bulls win their 5th NBA title.

1998: The Jazz have the best record in the league, sweep the Bulls in the season series and go into the playoffs hot. After an early scare against Houston in the first round, Utah romps through the rest of their series....ending with a 4-0 sweep of the LA Lakers. Utah enters the Finals against a Bulls team that had just came off a very hard 7 game battle with the Pacers. Not only that, but Utah had home court advantage. They were the favorites. In fact, they won game one....but lost game two, three, and four. During that three game stretch they scored the lowest point total in NBA playoff history (it was 50 something). FINALLY, with their backs against the wall, Utah wins and sends the series back to Salt Lake City.....Jazz held the lead most of the night. Everything was looking good as with less than 1 minute left Stockton NAILED a three, putting Utah up. The Bulls would score a couple of times and Utah missed their chances. Of course Jordan hits his most famous shot -- the one that won the Bulls his 6th NBA title. Jazz fall.

1999: Everyone picks the Jazz to win the NBA Title now that MJ and the Bulls have fallen. NBA is locked out and the season shortened to 50 games. Since Utah was the oldest team in the NBA, the back-to-back-to-back games KILL them and they collapse late in the season. They enter the playoffs with the second best record in the NBA and draw the Kings. They win the series in 5, however it's clear they're tired. In the second round they'd go on to lose to the Blazers in 6.

That would start the downfall that leads us to today. Utah hasn't passed the second round since 1998 and missed the playoffs last season. Not only that, but they're probably going to miss it again this year. Talk about being so close, yet falling when it counts. That is torture! At least when you lose you expect to lose....but to be so close and have the NBA Championship ripped from you is just painful.

In fact, 1998 was a bad year for Utah sports. The Utes had an awesome run, beating top seeded Arizona and North Carolina before meeting Kentucky in the NCAA Basketball Championship game. After going into the break up by 10, they collapse and lose to the Wildcats. The Utes haven't made the Final Four since. Rick Majerus has retired and the basketball program, while good, isn't great.

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