Atlanta as the most miserable sports city? Guilty as charged
Been there, done that. Been there a lot, done it way too often. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
Take a bow, A-T-L. After an agonizing near-miss last year — we finished second to Seattle — we made it this time. We’re now No. 1 in Forbes magazine’s listing of America’s Most Miserable Sports Cities. Time for another ticker-tape parade down Peachtree!
Here’s the rationale of Tom Van Riper, who compiled the rankings:
Since last spring, the NHL Thrashers left town for Winnipeg, baseball’s Braves blew a near-lock playoff spot on the final day of the season and the NBA Hawks and NFL Falcons got bounced out of the postseason early yet again. That was enough to push Atlanta, always among the top finishers in Forbes’ annual ranking of America’s Most Miserable Sports Cities, back to the top spot for the first time since 2008.
And what can we say in rebuttal? All of the above is, alas, true.
The Forbes “methodology,” to invoke Van Riper’s word, concerns “misery as defined by heartbreak — teams good enough to win a lot of games and advance through the postseason, only to disappoint fans in the end by falling short of a championship.” That’s not the same as being, say, the Cubs over the past century or the Cavaliers after LeBron. But it does describe Atlanta.
The Hawks were a hot ticket in the late ’80s, same as the Falcons were in the late ’70s, just as the Braves became in the early ’90s. But disappointment broke the Hawks’ and Falcons’ waves — our NBA club couldn’t close out Boston in 1988 and flopped in Round 1 against Milwaukee in ‘89; our NFL franchise couldn’t get past Dallas — and the players’ strike of 1994 cooled our baseball ardor more than any postseason defeat every did.
That’s the part outsiders don’t get. From September 1991 through the summer of ‘94, this city was as crazy for a team as any city has ever been. (Remember the rush to buy foam tomahawks?) The Braves could have sold two million tickets to the 1992 postseason, but after the strike and the washed-out World Series, demand wasn’t the same. In October 1995, even as the Braves were en route to winning it all, you could walk up to the box office and buy tickets to single games for both the NLCS and the World Series.
Attendance at the old stadium dropped from 3.88 million in 1993, the year before the strike, to 2.9 million in 1996, the year after the World Series was won. Even the bump that came with the 1997 opening of Turner Field waned by 2001. Not since 2003 have the Braves finished higher than 14th in home attendance. It’s not that we stopped caring altogether; it’s that we don’t care quite enough to pack the stadium on a nightly basis.
I know, I know. Every other baseball city suffered from the strike, too. But Georgia is a right-to-work state, and the distrust of unions is higher here. Besides, the Braves simply won too often to hold us through every game of the 14-year run of division titles. We came to bide our time until the playoffs, and the playoffs came to yield Round 1 exits.
And those, I submit, hardened our predisposition to wait and see. We’d gotten excited about the Falcons and then the Hawks only to have hopes dashed. Then the Braves, who were the best Atlanta pro team ever, started doing it, too. Leeriness became our default civic stance. Thus was the Braves’ epic September collapse met with the same cry that had greeted the Falcons’ blowout playoff loss to Green Bay: “See? Told you so!”
Loading ...We’ve had major-league sports teams since 1966, and only once has an Atlanta major-league team hoisted the big trophy, and that came a year after some among us swore we’d never watch that particular sport again. Our teams have since been undone by Jim Leyritz swinging and Aaron Rodgers flinging and Eugene Robinson getting arrested, and we have become fatalistic. We’re kind of like Red Sox Nation before Dave Roberts stole second in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS: We expect the absolute worst, and we’re seldom disappointed.
But here’s the difference. Even if the Red Sox went 85 years between World Series titles, folks in Boston still had the Celtics, who won 11 NBA titles in 13 years, and the Bruins, who won two Stanley Cups in three years, and the Patriots, who’d started on their run of Super Bowl victories. We’ve had only the Braves in 1995, and we’ve come to see that as the exception — the clincher was the function of a 1-0 one-hitter — that proves the rule.
America’s most miserable sports city? By Forbes’ definition, we absolutely are. But I would offer one quibble: We’re not the worst sports city. Our pro teams aren’t nearly awful, and our fervor for college football is unparalleled. So there’s that.
If/when another Atlanta pro team takes a title, our joyful deliverance will be unconfined. Until then, we’ll remain skeptical. We’re Atlanta, and it’s what we do.
By Mark Bradley
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247 comments Add your comment
Atl Teams = CHOKE
February 29th, 2012
1:41 pm
We always expect the worse to happen and it always does. Yet, it still feels like crap when it does happen.
SawThat1nce
February 29th, 2012
1:44 pm
Don’t know how many people care about the SEC, but they sure do win a lot of National Championships, don’t they.
TD1992
February 29th, 2012
1:45 pm
I won’t attend another Hawks game until ATL Spirit sells the team….they sold my hockey team after not even trying to put a winner on the ice the entire time the team was here. I’d rather spend my $$ going to UGA football, basketball, baseball, tennis, softball, soccer, & gymnastics than attend any pro sports in town. Much more entertainment value for the $$ than the pro sports teams.
Rodster
February 29th, 2012
1:46 pm
We are not the most miserable sports city. I’d place Seattle and Cleveland ahead of us for sure.
reckingball
February 29th, 2012
1:47 pm
I think that the 2012 Braves are going to kick a lot of that misery out of town this year, when they win the WS.
ChopAttack
February 29th, 2012
1:48 pm
Braves fans can’t blame ownership. The team is 14th in attendance and around the same level in payroll. If Atlanta had the same amount of support as the Cardinals the payroll would be higher.
It’s a shame because nationally the Braves are one of the top 3 most popular baseball teams, but it hasn’t translated to sell outs in Atlanta. Obviously, Atlanta has some issues with the Ted’s location, the lack of a real transportation strategy, and the fact that the city isn’t like New York. Atlanta is a big city but the population is spread out.
Dr. Warren
February 29th, 2012
1:50 pm
This is why I have become a Shanghai Sharks fan. After over 5 years in China, an Atlantan deserves to follow a winner.
Sonny Clusters
February 29th, 2012
1:52 pm
Mark, all you have to do is ask Mr Schuerholz and he will tell you the Braves have won 14 championships in a row and added another in 2010. What? Doesn’t that count for something? You mean people in other cities don’t think that 14 division “championships” and a wild card “championship” make this a winning sports town? How about Bark in the Park? That should count for something and Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami and Linebrink and Proctor and McLouth and more that we won’t mention. This “storied” organization has produced so many glorious moments that we should ignore all their failings and give ‘em a pass on the one thing that really distinguishes them in the game of baseball and that is the EPIC Collapse that they probably should be known for going forward (and probably will especially if they put up a little EPIC Collapse flag in the outfield). The other franchises in the city share the blame but the Braves are the ones that have failed again and again and again all the while telling us what a classy winning organization they have assembled. We always thought the winners won the last game of the post season.
Hoopster
February 29th, 2012
1:52 pm
Ah, I see your alarm went off to trot out this material for………..what the 6th or 7th time?
JSS
February 29th, 2012
1:53 pm
@ Rob and his ilk…
The Braves pandering to the scared of their own shadows suburbanites is what ran away some of the most loyal African-American baseball fans in the MLB… I grew tired of Chipper Jones and his act too… But they market to everyone except African-American and Latinos… It is sad beyond belief to look at a Braves ad campaign…
reckingball
February 29th, 2012
1:53 pm
In my opinion, the Braves should have won the WS in ‘91, ‘95(and did)
, & ‘96.
But, I think some of the games that the Braves have played in the playoffs, have been fixed.
billy mac
February 29th, 2012
1:54 pm
the reason i don’t support my “home teams” in person is that it costs a fortune to attend a game then you gotta worry about getting mugged or hit up by some panhandling bum,and also downtown ATL is a very dark and dangerous place,would’nt go downtown without an uzi.
Old School
February 29th, 2012
1:55 pm
MB, thanks for bringing back the painful ‘88 Hawks/Celtics memory
Bird and ‘Nique put on the greatest show I’ve ever seen on the hardwood. I used to love the Hawks with Spud, Doc, Kevin Willis, even Moses “Hands of Stone” Malone. Now it seems like I’ve lost all interest in the NBA. Maybe I’m just getting old but players like Jordan, Magic, Malone, etc. were much more likable than the players today. I’d still place Seattle and Cleveland ahead of Atlanta.
Paul in NH
February 29th, 2012
1:55 pm
Rickster
February 29th, 2012
1:26 pm
One other thing to mention is the fact that it’s a miserable experience to get to games. Traffic stinks going and leaving. Parking at any of the downtown venues is expensive (if it’s even available.) Off site parking is in less-than-desirable locations where a Kevlar vest is a necessity.
——–
Wow Rickster – I didn’t realize you lived in Boston.
Andy
February 29th, 2012
1:57 pm
The only thing I agree with what you wrote is the second to last paragraph. I would use the word frustrated instead of miserable. The problem is that most people equate miserable and worst and this is only perpetuating the sterotype of Atlanta as the worst sports city in the country when it certainly is not. Making the playoffs in multiple sports is better than not making the playoffs at all. There are pleny worst cities than Atlanta. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot or has an agenda.
Mark Bradley
February 29th, 2012
1:57 pm
I wish I could think of another term besides EPIC Collapse, Sonny C., but somehow EGREGIOUS Flop doesn’t bear the same amount of oomph.
Warts by Brooks
February 29th, 2012
1:58 pm
Thanks for not mentioning Game 3 vs. the Giants in 2010, Mr. Bradley.
Mark Bradley
February 29th, 2012
1:58 pm
One difference between Fenway Park and Turner Field: There’s a T stop within walking distance up there. I’ve walked that distance.
Mark Bradley
February 29th, 2012
2:00 pm
I thought about mentioning Game 3, Warts by Brooks. Decided against it. But I will tell you that, having been in the ballpark for both that game and Game 4 of the 1996 World Series, Game 3 of the 2010 NLDS felt worse at the moment.
WAS
February 29th, 2012
2:01 pm
Great article, Mark and unfortunately, absolutely true for us miserable life-long ATL fans…
Sonny Clusters
February 29th, 2012
2:03 pm
We was at a game and a mugger came up to us planning to mug us but we used our Clusters quickness to jump out of his way and confuse him about whether we was in front of him or in back of him when he was getting ready to mug us. We cannot imagine a city with rail transit that doesn’t have a station at the ball park and as badly as MARTA has been operated and continues to operate we don’t think there will ever be service to the Ted and if there was look at all the entrpreneurs that would lose their jobs watching our cars for us while we’re at the game. The game day experience has improved from what it was awhile back but there’s only so much Bark in the Park can do for a real baseball fan when the team goes into EPIC Collapse and the little dogs can’t go on the field and bite somebody who deserves biting like Lowe or Fredi or Linebrink. Well, two out of three of them are gone this season so we can send the little dogs down to bite the guy that’s tipping his cap in the late innings.
Tide Rising
February 29th, 2012
2:04 pm
Don’t forget that the local college football teams also suck and are dominated by that state to the west- you know the one that has hoisted the bcs national championship in college football for 3 consecutive years now.
ChopAttack
February 29th, 2012
2:09 pm
Tide Rising,
The Alabama titles hurt less in college because college sports aren’t a level playing field. Joe Nameth couldn’t get into Maryland but Alabama had no problem taking him. That hasn’t changed that much today.
Educational requirements are different at each school and some schools are ethically challenged when it comes to over-signing. I don’t like Florida, but at least they haven’t sold their souls to win like other schools in the SEC.
Atlanta87
February 29th, 2012
2:10 pm
Didnt Shultz already do an article on this? Add the AJC and it’s writers to the list of miserable things to come out of Atlanta.
Steve
February 29th, 2012
2:10 pm
I have never heard Turner Field go from so loud (Hinske’s HR) to so quiet (Conrad’s collapse). Talk about a swing of emotions. R.I.P Conrad. Take McClouth with you.
Old School
February 29th, 2012
2:10 pm
Tide Rising, the pro teams here should pay our pro athletes as much as Alabama and Auburn pay their players
JSS
February 29th, 2012
2:12 pm
Scared of the shadow suburbanites proving my point… Not you Clusters, wit has it place… “Uzi?” You can’t shoot straight or something? Lot of firepower doesn’t equal skill to use it!
reckingball
February 29th, 2012
2:13 pm
“R.I.P. Conrad. Take McLouth with you.” ?????
Alabama did not dominate UGA last year.
Sonny Clusters
February 29th, 2012
2:14 pm
Magical Meltdown. Immaculate Implosion. Fredi’s Fiasco. Wren’s Washout. Lowe’s Lowest.
Atlanta87
February 29th, 2012
2:15 pm
Hey stevo, mclouth is not on the team so you don’t have to worry about that.
Steve
February 29th, 2012
2:18 pm
I know this, thanks!
Mark Bradley
February 29th, 2012
2:19 pm
Epochal Exit? A September Not To Remember? One-sixty-two Skidoo?
DawgFan
February 29th, 2012
2:20 pm
Something else hurting us, Mark, that you left out is ownership. Owners of Atlanta sports teams have a tendency to suck. The Braves owners haven’t really spent to build a winner lately, and as a result the Braves have lived off a farm system that is beginning to show signs of depletion(it was recently ranked very low). The Hawks and Thrashers, owned by the same group(ASG) never really stood a chance. The Thrashers were marched out of town by an ownership group that paid more money to a single basketball player than it got for the entire hockey club. The only owner that seems to give a crap about his team is Arthur Blank.
tmc
February 29th, 2012
2:24 pm
I agree w/ reality Gator. (1:01 pm post).
The sentiment in this town is largely determined by the media (not just the ajc, but radio/tv too). NONE of these people do any hard hitting reporting on the local teams and hold them accountable to what they spew to their fans. So the fans are routinely disappointed by every pro team in this town because of the build up and soft parachute landings the media allows.
I don’t blame the teams because if you don’t have to answer tough questions… why would you. (ALL of the local media is extremely SOFT)
Until the people of Atlanta change their tunes toward the local media and the local teams demanding accountability and asking/answering hard-hitting questions… nothing is going to change.
Sonny Clusters
February 29th, 2012
2:25 pm
Playing ball is what we do best but we have found good work on the second shift and we like the benefits. Being second shift means we get to watch all the Braves’ evening games and we feel like we stay on top of the game by doing that and by reading Mark all the time. Having said that, we did not know how much hogwash we was being fed until we started thinking about watching other teams playing in the National League Championship Series and the World Series while our players was out huntin’ and then we realized we wasn’t really champions at all. It was all a homeboy dreamup and we fell for it. Then, we got to thinking like another blogger said that we never saw Heyward hitting those cars outside the park and breaking their windshields. If he was going to damage something last year they’s have to park it out by second base and when the ball got there it would have already bounced a couple times and probably wouldn’t even leave a dent. We thought like a Clusters sometimes thinks . . . “this is a bunch of hogwash.” When the Braves say they’re going to excite the fans with lower concessions prices and Bark in the Park we think maybe they have their priorities wrong and somebody needs to remind them about the EPIC Collapse and not let them think they can continue to get away with sloppy baseball like FrediBall appears to be.
blazerdawg
February 29th, 2012
2:37 pm
This is the year it ALL changes-
Despite P-nicky setting the MLB record for errors at SS, the Braves will average 5 runs a game and relay on the young guns in relief to beat the Rangers in 7
GM Dimitroff will find just the right pieces for the OL and DL putting the finishing touches on the Falcons team which will go 12-4, get hot in the playoffs, and beat Steeler in the SB
ASG will take shocking initiative and realize the potential to rebrand the Hawks by trade/sign Dwight Howard and will make it to the Eastern Conference finals, losing respectfully to the Heat in 6 games
Rumors out of Calgary will be that the Flames are not happy with their facility lease and will consider relocating to Atl. The Carolina Hurricanes will beat the Calgary orgainization to the punch by signing a lease with Philips Arena. Calgary will negotiate a new arena deal in Alberta and sell the Flames name to the new Atlanta franchise and will become the Calgary Broncos.
Happy 2012-13, everybody!
Lester Green
February 29th, 2012
2:39 pm
Hawks regular season nationally televised 13 games (not including playoffs). Also were in the final 6 teams playing last year.
UGA football is nationally televised with the exception of at the most three games.
This makes both pretty relevant on the national stage.
Rk Warren
February 29th, 2012
2:39 pm
I read this and I hear it. And then I go out and I see so many people doing attractive things all over Atlanta. It cities sports participation may be average, but the overall quality of life here is great.
JPM
February 29th, 2012
2:40 pm
I agree with DawgFan entirely. Only Mr. Blank seems to be an owner willing to pursue a title. The rest, particularly the notorious Atlanta Spirit, are worthless. As a town and a fan base, we were literally robbed by the AS organization. If ever there was justification for the return of tar and feathering, they deserve it.
dc
February 29th, 2012
2:45 pm
What a stupid article…..Buffalo, Cleveland, Charlotte, SL, the list goes on and on. Falcons just made playoffs. So Thrashers left….who cares. Hockey doesn’t work in the South unless it’s a bunch of snowbirds/Northern transplants, or a city with absolutely no decent alternative (Raleigh)
Frank Lane
February 29th, 2012
2:45 pm
College sports is alive and well here.
ATL 4 LIFE
February 29th, 2012
2:46 pm
Is everyone just missing the obvious? Atlanta has no ownership that’s “comitted” to winning. Arthur Blank is probably the closest thing to a passionate owner like Ted Turner was ATL has had since the 80’s. Can anyone name one real SUPERSTAR on any sports team right now? Absolutlely not. Certainly not Joe (The Mute)Johnson for the Hawks, nor even is Matt (Checkdown) Ryan for the Falcons,or anyone on the Braves Team. Fans will pay to see Superstars play. They come out in groves when Teams like MIami, Boston, Lakers, Cowboys, Yankees, etc come to town, not to see our Teams but the Superstars on other teams.
Frank Lane
February 29th, 2012
2:51 pm
ATL 4 LIFE is correct. There are only a few cities and teams with Brand loyalty. Everyone else has Player loyalty. Atlanta has none for either.
blazerdawg
February 29th, 2012
2:53 pm
Re: Marta @ Turner Field-
Almost half of MLB cities do not even have a train system, much less a stop at their ball park. For heaven’s sake, get off at Georgia State and take the short walk.
Or, if driving and traffic on the expressway is congested, then take Nside from Cobb, Piedmont from N Atl, Oakdale or DeKalb Ave from Decatur, or Moreland or Stewart Ave from the Southside.
It really is not that bad or dfficult to get to TF. Heck, Ernie Johnson used to brag that all roads lead to Atlanta Stadium.
Go Braves!
GTBob
February 29th, 2012
2:53 pm
College sports is alive and well here.
People pay attention to college sports here, but can you name any team that has accomplished anything to really be proud of? That just makes the Forbes opinion even more accurate.
George Stein
February 29th, 2012
2:55 pm
Game 3 of the 2010 NLDS felt like a college football game. I thought the place was going to blast off into orbit when Hinskie hit that bomb. But that 9th inning was a stomach punch like I’d never felt in a baseball game.
blazerdawg
February 29th, 2012
2:59 pm
C’mon GTBob – the Braves are an organization to be proud of – I know that you must have stayed-up to 1:00 AM with the rest of us watching those games against the Dodgers and Giants in the early 80s and 90s. They’ll be back. Falcons are working on it.
Section 303
February 29th, 2012
3:00 pm
I agree that college football is big here, but I think it is not as big as many claim. Georgia Tech has a small football stadium that sits half full for many games. If the town is so crazy about college football, how can that happen?
Curt
February 29th, 2012
3:02 pm
Much depends on how you define success. If you define it as winning championships then yes, sports teams in Atlanta have let their fans down. The promise each year of something big happening allows fans to dream big; only to be let down by what seems to be an endless array of mishaps and missteps.
On the other hand, Atlanta teams win more often than they lose. A fan can go the ballpark, stadium, or arena and expect to see a good game and there will be a better and 50% chance that the home team will prevail. There are cities who can only dream of having the kind of success that Atlanta teams as a whole have had.
We all woild like to have a chamionship team in Atlanta, ever year but there are so many factors that contribute to winning and losing games and some of those are out of a team’s control. Take Green Bay for instance. They had the best team for the entire season, were penciled into the Super Bowl and yet did not get deep into of the playoffs. the Phillies likewise seemed like a shoe-in for the World Series. Imagine spending the amount of money the Phillies, Yankees and Red Sox teams do, only to be let down.
I think that Atlanta fans are far too demanding when it comes to sports and especially when to attend and event. Why stay away, waiting for a team to win a championship when people can attend an event and expect their team to play hard and in most cases, win.
George Stein
February 29th, 2012
3:02 pm
From the math is hard department: Tech was at 87.6% capacity last season, Section 303.