Atlanta is No. 2 on Forbes' ‘miserable sports cities' list

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This can’t be surprising for most Atlanta sports fans.

Forbes puts the city as No. 2 on its list of “America’s Most Miserable Sports Cities.”

Stop. This has nothing to do with the debate over whether Atlanta sports fans are loyal or the arenas are cushy or the news media is nice to a team’s owner. Or, a group of arguing owners.

Forbes, in this case, looked at something else.

It’s “the kind of misery that comes from teasing the fans by getting close to a championship, only to let them down in the end,” the magazine says.

Perhaps the Hawks come to mind after being swept 4-0 by the Magic in the NBA's Eastern Conference semifinals.

And then there’s the Falcons, who, for the first time since 1966, had back-to-back winning seasons in 2008 and 2009 – but failed to make the playoffs in ’09.

But, according to Forbes, it’s the Braves that are the main reason why Atlanta is so high on the “miserable cities” list.

“ … with 14 division titles and four league pennants since 1991, but only one World Series championship to show for their efforts.”

What’s more, the Braves’ 1995 World Series title is the city's only championship in 147 cumulative seasons of major league sports, Forbes points out.

Forbes created its misery rankings this way:

It took the number of postseason appearances by a city’s teams and then compared that to actual titles won.

The cities that had a lot of playoff losses but few championships scored the highest, Forbes said.

Forbes gave more weight to losing in a title game, such as the Super Bowl. So, just making it to the first round of a playoff series and then going home isn’t as bad as losing in the Stanley Cup final, for example, Forbes said.

One last factor? How long it’s been since a city has last won a title.

Seattle tops the list. Then, it’s Atlanta, followed by Phoenix, Buffalo and San Diego.

Cleveland, Washington, Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Houston round out the list of ten.