According to Forbes, Coyotes Fans Aren’t the Nation’s Most Miserable
But they’re close.
In a study done by Forbes and released this morning, Arizona/Phoenix fans are the second most miserable sports fans in the nation, coming in just under Atlanta fans.
This list was created based on more than just having “losing” teams (or I’m fairly certain that Buffalo, who haven’t hoisted a championship trophy since the 1960’s, would be much higher than their given ranking of fifth). The higher a team made it in their playoff runs, the more points their city was awarded. This really devastated Atlanta, since the Braves have an uncanny habit of making the playoffs only to lose- the baseball team has only won the World Series once in 19 years of postseason appearances. This probably also hurt Phoenix, who Forbes grouped the Coyotes and Razorbacks into- I don’t think I need to remind anyone about 2012.
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The Phoenix Suns are another team of Arizona’s that can’t seem to bring home a championship.
Distance of post-season runs wasn’t the only stat plugged in to the misery chart. A city’s championship dry spell would earn it bonus points, as well, while losing a sport to another city earned points. Too bad they didn’t take away points for obtaining a sport from another city…
While Phoenix has a pretty dismal record of making it far in the playoffs, though, they have made a pretty solid semifinals showing- of the city’s nine professional sports semifinals appearances (of which the ‘Yotes can proudly claim one), they have advanced to the finals four times. That’s an almost fifty percent record, when down to the final four- at least, of making it to the finals. Of those four finals appearances, though, the city has only won one championship- the Diamondbacks lay claim to this, back in 2001.
Other NHL cities that are keeping Coyotes fans company in the misery department are Buffalo (duh), Denver (Colorado), Minneapolis (Minnesota, who get a nod for losing the North Stars), and Philadelphia. The Flyers almost didn’t get a chance at cracking the top ten, since a city doesn’t qualify if a team has won a championship in the past five years, but this exemption expired this year- the last time a Broad Street team won a championship was in 2008, when the Phillies took it home.
It’s never fun to be put through the wringer by a sports team. I can say this with certainty- for the majority of my life, both my Red Sox and my Bruins were TERRIBLE, and I now live in Houston (who, incidentally, also made the top ten list). Watching the Texans win the first two games of the season last year, then spiral downwards on a trail of consecutive losses, actually PHYSICALLY hurt my heart.
They Coyotes aren’t going to stay on this list forever, though. GMDM has drafted some amazing prospects, and the team still has plenty of cap space- I can’t wait to see how they do this upcoming season, and in the two or three seasons to follow.