Denver loves its sports teams and is the proud home to professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, and soccer teams. Locals are quite vociferous when cheering for the home town team to win and they are not bashful about cussing them when they lose.
Residents have painted their houses blue and orange and sported only a barrel to lead cheers for the home team. In the past, state leaders made exorbitant bets with other state leaders when their home town teams faced off in the playoffs. Much to the chagrin of local leaders, they usually lost.
You couldn’t ask for a better sports town than Denver. What else can you want?
The answer is simple, “A world championship!”
It was with great disdain that Coloradans learned on July 31, that Forbes had ranked Denver as one of America’s most wretched sports cities (“America’s Most Miserable Sports Cities” by Tom Van Riper).
The common theme among teams on the list is their inability to win the big one.
Denver was on a roll between 1996 and 2001. In the bookend years, the Avalanche won two Stanley Cups. The Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1998 and 1999; however, they lost four Super Bowls prior to that. The Rockies and Nuggets have been 0-for-their existence. The minor sports don’t matter.
The list of most miserable sports cities includes:
- Seattle
- Atlanta
- Phoenix
- Buffalo
- San Diego
- Cleveland
- Kansas City
- Houston
- Washington, D.C.
- Denver.
There is always next year! Hopefully Denver won’t be on the list in July 2014.