Welcome to our annual rankings of top five “happiest” sports cities in North America. The past two weeks, we looked at the 10 “saddest”cities, but this week we’ll run down those sports metropoli where few are crying in their beers, and in some cases, the champagne stains still are evident on the family coach.
To be included on these lists, the city must have at least three pro teams (and we’re not counting MLS), so that wipes from our rankings such prominent locales as Cincinnati, St. Louis, Las Vegas, and Buffalo.
The number of resident pro teams in that particular city are indicated in parentheses.
5. San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland (5)
Until the Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship in June 2022 over the Celtics, it had actually been a few years since a Bay Area team won a championship; that would have been those same Warriors, who had won their most recent NBA title six years ago, but that was on the heels of two other championships in 2015 and 2017. Not many people predicted the Warriors would return to championship form with an older roster and after a few down years, but they emerged from the West’s third seed in 2022 to rally past Boston in six games in the NBA Finals. Meanwhile, SF Giants fans have to be wondering what happened to their team after an MLB-best 107 wins three seasons ago, since the Giants are just a distant fourth in the NL West this season with a 62-62 record. However, local fans also still fondly recall the Giants’ three World Series titles earlier last decade (2010, 2012, 2014). The 49ers have had a bit of a resurgence the last few years after a long down period. They have reached the NFC title game four of the past five seasons and they got to the Super Bowl only to fall to the Chiefs four years ago, and repeated that feat just this past season, only this time they lost to Mahomes & Co. in overtime. So this is a darned good team, capable of winning a Super Bowl on a regular basis (even though they haven’t actually done so since 1994). Down south, the San Jose Sharks have missed the playoffs each of the past five seasons, but in 2019 they were in the conference finals, and eight years ago they were playing for the Cup, losing to eventual champion Pittsburgh. Across the bay, Oakland’s lone remaining pro team, the A’s — well, they’re moving for good after this season, so the less said about them, the better. Nevertheless, the recent Warriors dynasty and the consistent excellence of the 49ers puts the Bay Area on this list.
4. Denver (4)
Just three years ago, Denver was the seventh-“saddest” city on my listing, but a Stanley Cup championship from the Avalanche in 2022 and a first-ever NBA title for the Nuggets a year later has obviously changed the situation in the Mile-High City. The Nuggets and the Avs had been knocking on the door of a championship for quite a few years, but their efforts always seemed to get derailed by injuries or playoff failure until those back-to-back glorious seasons. That happiness and optimism in Denver also kind of soothes fans’ disappointment over the failures of the NFL Broncos, who haven’t reached the playoffs since winning Super Bowl 50 over the Cam Newton-led Panthers in 2016, but folks are cautiously optimistic about their team’s future now that they have their first legitimate head coach in a while: former Saints Super Bowl-winning coach Sean Payton. Meanwhile, the Rockies baseball team is down in the dumps again, currently sitting in last place in the NL West with a 44-78 record, and it has only qualified for the postseason three times since falling to the Red Sox in the 2007 World Series (and are in a five-season playoff drought, heading toward their sixth). The Rockies remain without a World Series championship since their inception in 1993. Still, winning a Stanley Cup and a Larry O’Brien Trophy in consecutive years is pretty darn impressive!
3. Dallas-Ft. Worth (4)
A perennial favorite on the “saddest” list finally won itself a world championship in Major League Baseball last season, the city’s first title in any sports since 2011. The Texas Rangers won their first-ever World Series title, coming out of a wild-card spot to knock off the Rays, the AL-East champion Orioles, and then the Astros in the ALCS before wiping out the NL’s Cinderella story, the Arizona Diamondbacks, in five games to claim the championship. They also opened a brand-new stadium in 2020. On the ice, the Stars have just one Stanley Cup (1999), but they were good enough to get all the way to the Cup Final four years ago, when they lost to the Lightning in the bubble, and this past season had the NHL’s best regular-season record and advanced all the way to the West Final before falling to Edmonton. The Mavericks own just one NBA title (2011), but they reached the NBA Finals this past season before the Celtics put their collective feet down and eliminated Dallas in five quick games. But with all this hopefulness in the other three sports, this football-crazy region is undeniably devoted to their Cowboys, and that team — despite three Super Bowls in four years in the early nineties — has only 10 playoff appearances since 1999 and four postseason wins since 1996. But they have reached the playoffs each of the four seasons, although they only have a single victory to show for it, and this season, with numerous contract situations still very much up in the air (and the head coach in lame-duck status), this could be another long season for those Dallas Cowboys.
2. Miami (four teams)
This is what happens when your team wins the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup: you vault from the “sad” list to nearly atop the “happy” one. The Panthers clawed their way all the way to the Cup Final last season as an eighth seed, but this year they finished the job, finishing first in the East during the regular season before mowing down playoff foes Tampa Bay, Boston, the Rangers, and finally the Oilers to hoist the silver chalice for the first time since they entered the league in 1993. Otherwise, this previously title-starved city has the Heat, who have three NBA titles since 2005 (thanks LeBron), the last 11 years ago, along with two appearances in the NBA Finals in the past five years (along with two other East Finals appearances). Meanwhile, the Dolphins can revel in their NFL glory years, but pretty much everyone who is under the age of 55 in the Sunshine State cannot remember the last Dolphins Super Bowl championship, because you’d have to go back 50 full seasons to track down the last time Don Shula guided the Fins to the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Since 2001, the Fins have made the playoffs just four times, getting knocked out in the first round each time. You heard that right: four playoff berths, and they have gone through 12 head coaches during that time, which is amazing, given that Shula oversaw the team for 26 seasons. The MLB Marlins are currently in a spot to which they’re very accustomed: far down the NL East totem pole, with a 45-76 record. Other than two World Series championships in 1997 and 2003, Miami has reached the postseason just two other times in 31 seasons of existence: in the bubble in 2020, and last season, when they were blanked by the Phillies in the wild-card game. But a Stanley Cup changes the outlook for every Miami-focused sports fan, and the Panthers were very deserving champions last season.
1. Boston (four teams)
Well, why not? Yes, the Red Sox, Bruins, and Patriots have all struggled somewhat the past few seasons, and Boston hadn’t celebrated a Duck-Boat championship parade since the Patriots won their most recent Super Bowl in Feb. 2019. But that all changed when the Celtics practically went wire-to-wire this past season, collecting the franchise’s 18th championship in fairly sweat-free fashion. That championship has been somewhat overshadowed by the recent Olympics, the Patriots’ Drake Maye saga, and the will-they-or-won’t-they Red Sox. But one always has to look at the big picture here: New England has had 13 sports championships since 2001, and only Los Angeles with 10 is even close (and it has double the number of teams), so there still must be some residual happiness by sports fans around here despite assorted recent disappointments. Most cities would kill for that kind of championship mettle spread over all four major sports. And need I remind you that that Patriots’ championship was just months after the championship parade for the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox in the fall of 2018, and shortly after the Pats’ parade, the Bruins were playing for the Stanley Cup and the Celtics were in the second round of the NBA Playoffs? With a little bit of luck (and perhaps one less Kyrie Irving), the Boston area in the summer of 2019 could have boasted champions in all four sports simultaneously, and that’s never come close to happening. That 2018 championship was the Red Sox’ fourth title in 15 seasons, which is the most of any MLB team this millennium. Yes, there’s been a bit of frustration around Boston in recent years, including the Bruins’ failure to get out of the first round of the 2023 playoffs despite a truly historic regular season that saw them break numerous league records. But spoiled-rotten Bostonians should still relish those 13 championships along with appearing in the final round of their respective sports a mind-boggling seven other times.
Honorable mention: Kansas City. Yes, the Missouri city only has two pro teams, so they don’t count on this list, but the Chiefs have won three of the past five Super Bowls, including the most recent one over the 49ers, and the MLB Royals are in the thick of things in the AL wild-card race a year after finishing 56-106, and nine years removed from their last World Series title.
RIP Joseph Gately and George Labonte.
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Publish date : 2024-08-15 13:00:00
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