Ranking the worst cities for sports fans

	Former Bucs coach John McKay was responsible for one of sports' most famous quotes when he said he'd be in favor of his team's execution. George Rose/Getty Images

Last week's column about fans who keep attending games of terrible teams brought e-mail from readers all over the country who took offense at my suggestion that Cubs fans have had to suffer through the most hopeless seasons.

So how do you determine which city has treated its sports fans worse than every other?

You know those lists that come out every year that tell you the best cities to live in? The selections are typically based on some formula that weighs climate, employment, cost of living, crime rate, attractiveness of the Real World cast that lived there, or any of the other things a normal person would take into account when choosing a place to live. But what if the rankings were based purely on the aggregated historic success of the local pro sports teams? Which cities would be at the very bottom of that list?

I'll give you a hint: not Chicago. Thanks to the success of the Bulls, Blackhawks, and, more recently, White Sox, the Cubs could lose every single game for the next 10 years and Chicago would still be one of the best sports towns. From bad to worse, here are my choices for the cities with the most unfortunate fans:

• Tampa: The Buccaneers may have won Super Bowl XXXVII, but that was one of only eight winning seasons in their 30-year history. Through the years Bucs fans have had to endure five seasons with two wins or fewer, not to mention four seasons of Keyshawn Johnson.

As for the Devil Rays, little needs to be said beyond mentioning that 2004 was their best season in team history because they lost "only" 91 games. In a city known for good weather, the Devil Rays play in a dome. A dome named after a drink that is not actually sold inside the dome.

Then there is the Lightning, which also had the honor of being mentioned in a 1997 issue of Forbes magazine as being in worse financial shape than every other franchise in the four major professional sports. They couldn't even afford a team name that's plural, for goodness sakes! Their Stanley Cup win in 2004 is the only thing preventing them from falling further down this list.

• San Diego: The Padres have never won a World Series. The Chargers have never won a Super Bowl. You know you're not a sports city when your total combined number of major pro championships is lower than your number of current mayors. Yes, the Chargers did win the AFL championship back in 1963, but that was back before the league's famed merger with the CIO. In the 37 years since they joined the NFL, the Chargers have gone at least eight years without making the playoffs three separate times. The Padres, for their part, have won a grand total of one World Series game, and in 2005 earned the distinction of being the worst team ever to earn a playoff berth. Oh, and did I mention that they were so close to moving to Washington, D.C. for the 1974 season that the baseball cards for several of their players said "Washington, National League"?