ATL's record: 154 seasons, one championship

If you’re counting — and we did — that puts Atlanta near the cellar in terms of big-league championships won by a city in that time period.

Twenty-four cities have won more NBA, MLB, NBA and NHL titles during that time than Atlanta, a list led by the two metropolises that will be represented when the Giants and Patriots play in Super Bowl XLVI.

The New York metropolitan area, with nine teams spread across the four leagues, has claimed 23 championships since 1966, including nine World Series titles (seven by the Yankees and two by the Mets) and four Super Bowl wins (three by the Giants and one by the Jets).

And Boston has won 17 titles, including nine NBA championships by the Celtics and three Super Bowl wins by the Patriots. Just in the past 10 years, Boston teams have won seven championships — three Super Bowls by the Patriots, two World Series by the Red Sox and one title apiece by the Celtics and Bruins.

Atlanta’s lone championship, of course, came 17 years ago, when the Braves won the 1995 World Series over Cleveland.

Speaking of Cleveland: Of the cities that have won fewer championships than Atlanta over the past 46 years, which is to say cities that have won none, only Cleveland has had teams in all four major-league sports. (Although, it should be noted, Cleveland’s NHL franchise, the long-forgotten Barons, lasted only two seasons in the late 1970s.)

Other than the Braves’ 1990s run, which included World Series losses in ’91, ’92, ’96 and ’99, Atlanta has had only one team play for its sport’s ultimate championship: the 1998 Falcons, who lost the Super Bowl to Denver.

The Hawks have not reached the NBA finals since moving here from St. Louis in 1968. And the Flames and Thrashers, Atlanta’s departed NHL teams, lasted eight and 11 seasons here, respectively, without reaching the Stanley Cup finals — and, in the Thrashers’ case, without winning a playoff game.