Toronto named 2nd most miserable sports city in North America
It's been more than 20 years since a Toronto sports franchise playing in one of the 'big four' professional leagues paraded through the city's downtown, hoisting a shimmering token of victory before a mob of jubilant fans.
In those years, the life of most Toronto sports fans has been defined by the agony of defeat, frustration and, well, crushing misery. If that life had a soundtrack, it'd be the ranting of incredulous talk radio hosts.
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This week a group of statisticians quantified that feeling of hopelessness and named Toronto the second most miserable sports city in North America.
The data website the10and3.com published a ranking of the continent's top five worst places to be a sports fan using teams from each city playing in the big four professional leagues — the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB.
They compiled the list using a calculation that included factors like the number of years since a city's pro franchises have won a championship or made the playoffs, for example. The calculation accounted for city's with multiple teams in the same sport, like New York City.
Each metropolis was then assigned a "Misery Score."
Alas, misery loves company and Torontonians are not alone. Cleveland, home of the perennially incompetent Cleveland Browns football team, took the top spot.
New York City, Houston and Minneapolis rounded out the top five worst cities, while Boston — where pro franchises have won a combined nine championships since 2000 — was ranked the best city in North American to be a sports fan.
