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Who takes the Crown as the next Cleveland?

Now that Cleveland has won the championship in a major professional sport for the first time in 52 years, every sports media outlet has been clamoring about which city will take the throne for the next “Cleveland.” The articles and lists are obsessed with “the drought,” which is very important in deciding which city is most desperate for its next championship, but doesn’t tell the entire story. Part of what made Cleveland and the 52-year ‘curse’ so fantastic to watch was how close they would come, and then how magnificently they would crumble. Misery and depression weren’t the driving factor to get you watching the drama unfold - it was the frustration of getting so close to the pinnacle, only to have the red carpet pulled out from under the Indians, Browns and Cavaliers at the last second.

So what’s the difference between misery and frustration? It’s pretty simple. A miserable sports town is one that fields teams that aren’t expected to win anything. They go out every season expecting to lose. Frustrated sports towns are the cities that produce the playoff teams, but find a way to lose when the stage gets big. When the teams are good, but not great, the expectations build and disappointment awaits.

Now that we’ve distinguished between misery and frustration, it’s time to analyze which cities frustrate their fans the most and which city is closest to replacing Cleveland as the most frustrated fan base. Here’s how I measured frustration:

Ranking the Championship Droughts in cities with at least three professional teams

  1. Minneapolis/St. Paul: 25 years - 1991 World Series Champs

  2. Washington DC: 24 years - Super Bowl XXVI (1992) Champs

  3. Toronto: 23 years - 1993 World Series Champs

  4. Atlanta: 21 years - 1995 World Series Champs

Of those four cities with the longest championship droughts, the next ranking is the Percentage of Playoff Appearances in combined Seasons since last Championship

  1. Atlanta Braves/Falcons/Hawks/Thrashers: 35/74 (47%)

  2. Washington Redskins/Capitals/Wizards/Nationals: 32/86 (37%)

  3. Minnesota Twins/Vikings/Timberwolves/Wild: 33/91 (36%)

  4. Toronto Blue Jays/Raptors/Maple Leafs: 19/66 (28%)

Playoff Record and Playoff Winning Percentage

  1. Toronto Blue Jays/Raptors/Maple Leafs: 87-104 / .455

  2. Washington Redskins/Capitals/Wizards/Nationals: 91-133 / .406

  3. Atlanta Braves/Falcons/Hawks/Thrashers: 85-125 / .404

  4. Minnesota Twins/Vikings/Timberwolves/Wild: 53-100 / .346

Number of League/Conference Championship games and World Series/Super Bowls/NBA Finals/Stanley Cup Finals appearances

  1. Atlanta: 12 appearances

  2. Toronto & Minnesota: 4 appearances

  3. Washington: 2 appearances

Finally, the frustration rankings - which are ranked based on the highest average rank in the previous indexes

  1. Atlanta: 2.25 score

  2. Washington: 2.25 score

  3. Minnesota: 2.5 score

  4. Toronto: 2.5 score

Even though Atlanta and Washington tied for the highest average rank in the frustration indexes, Atlanta gets the edge because of the disparities in Championship and Finals Appearances and Percentage of Playoff Appearances over Washington. The gaps in those categories are outstanding. In addition to just the numbers, Atlanta is the champion of being good enough to let you down on the national stage. The Braves won 14 consecutive division championships, an absurd streak. They had three Hall of Fame pitchers in the SAME ROTATION, the ‘Jones brothers’ (Chipper and Andruw) and a Hall of Fame manager - but only one championship in 1995 to show for it. Even though 1994 doesn’t qualify as a year in the frustration metric, it was a year when the Braves were favored to win the World Series before their 1995 title and the season ended due to a player’s strike… little did people know it was a sign of frustrating times ahead. Just last year during the 2014-2015 season, the Hawks had the best record Eastern Conference by seven games and they would make it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals only to get swept in four games, and a year later they were swept out of the playoffs by the same team in consecutive seasons. In 2012, the Falcons had the best record in the NFC and tied for the best record in the entire NFL, and they fell 10 yards shy of the endzone to make the Super Bowl. In 2004, the Falcons inked their franchise quarterback and human highlight machine Michael Vick to the largest NFL contract at the time of signing and just one month later the Falcons were manhandled by the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. They were also the victims of John Elway’s retirement party in the Super Bowl XXXIII (1999), losing 34-19 the night after the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award winner was arrested in a sting operation on a prostitution ring. Let’s also not forget that the Thrashers only existed in Atlanta for 11 years (2000-2011), before moving to Winnipeg, Canada - becoming the second NHL franchise to leave Atlanta for a much smaller Canadian market (Atlanta Flames, 1972-1980).

Atlanta has consistently been a better team than the DC, Toronto and Twin City teams - but without a championship, they are no better than anyone in the group - they are only more frustrating.

To put Atlanta’s frustration into perspective, we will compare the frustration to Cleveland’s frustration before their most recent championship. Before their drought ended, Cleveland had 31 additional years over Atlanta’s 21-year championship drought. Cleveland had almost double the amount of combined seasons over Atlanta, but their percentage of playoff appearances (43/147 seasons, 29-percent) out of those seasons was 18-percent less than Atlanta’s 47-percent. Even though Cleveland teams made the playoffs far fewer times, when they did make the playoffs they had a higher winning percentage and they advanced in the playoffs to conference/league championship and finals much more often. Cleveland’s playoff winning percentage is 21 percentage points better than Atlanta’s and their 23 total appearances in the conference/league championships and finals is eleven more than Atlanta’s 12. Atlanta and Cleveland have also contributed to each other’s frustration. The Braves last championship was a World Series title over the Cleveland Indians in six games. Cleveland has recently had Atlanta’s number in basketball though, during the Hawks’ 60-win season the Cavaliers swept Atlanta to advance to the NBA Finals, and just two months ago the Hawks swept the Hawks in consecutive seasons to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Before their championship last month, Cleveland defined sports frustration for more than half of a century. They found a way to combine misery and frustration, and it is honestly good for sports that their curse is over. Let’s just hope Atlanta’s much younger curse doesn’t continue and add to the frustration of this fan base.


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