Between the NHLs Sabres (established 1970) and the NFLs Bills (established 1960), Buffalo has never experienced a sports championship in 62 years of having teams. Ottawa. Buffalos drought tops the next-highest city by nine years, and only two other cities besides Buffalo have championship droughts longer than 50 years. It could be tantalizingly close misses, like the Buffalo Bills run of four straight Super Bowl losses in the 1990s. Check out our Cyber Monday Shoppers Guide! In that span since the 1984 title, theyve also found themselves on the precipice of the World Series three additional times -- losing the ALCS in 2013, 2011 and 1987. Sacramento Kings - 1951. Led by quarterback Stan Humphries, the Chargers came back from a 13-3 deficit to win 17-13. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The longest drought since a championship of any kind is that of the Cardinals, at 75 seasons. All Rights Reserved. Salt Lake City has only one active team, the, The most recent championship for Montreal was the, There have been no championships in Sacramento history. It is the second largest city on this list. Under Coach Tom Coughlin, the Jaguars were a remarkably successful expansion franchise. The Cleveland Cavaliers snapped a 52-year championship drought June 19, 2016, when they toppled the Golden State Warriors in a best-of-seven series. The Arizona Cardinals have the longest championship drought in the NFL, with their last title coming in 1947 as the Chicago Cardinals. In their second season in Nashville, the Titans reached the Super Bowl for the only time in an amazing season that included surviving a near upset in the Wild Card game thanks to the infamous Music City Miracle 75-yard kick off return. Charlotte is the 22nd largest metropolitan area and has a 2017 population of 2,525,305. Still, 15 of the 30 teams have gone at least the past 25 seasons -- since MLB's most recent expansion in 1998 -- without winning the World Series. In fact, the last time Toronto hosted an Eastern Conference finals game came in 2002. From 1917-67, Toronto won the Stanley Cup finals 13 times, they still have the second-most Stanley Cup wins in NHL history. The Browns last appeared in the AFC Championship Game during the 1989 season when they fell . Which NBA team has the longest championship drought? Ranking the remaining 8 NBA playoff teams by their title droughts Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. The Sacramento Kings have a historic playoff drought to go along with their historic championship drought. That 10-year drought is twice as long as anyone else in the NFL, as the Cardinals, Bengals and Broncos have all most . Rangers/Senators: 62 seasons (No titles)The franchise didnt make the postseason in its first 35 seasons (the first 11 in Washington) after arriving as an expansion team in 1961. . With the Mariners getting the monkey off their back, here are the 12 active longest postseason droughts between the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL . Longest championship drought, by city (with multiple teams in current pro leagues) City: Most recent title: June 20, 2016 2:16 pm. Though no other American sports franchise has reached the century mark for years without a title, there . After that promising start, they have had only four winning seasons and three playoff appearances since 1999. Seattle tied the record for the most wins in an MLB season (116), but lost in the American League Championship Series to the New York Yankees. Kansas City Royals - 6 years. The team would move to Dallas in 1993, with the Minnesota Wild debuting in 2000. He started streaming early, back in 2007 when Netflix introduced what seemed revolutionary even then, "instant watch," or what would eventually become the totality of the company. The Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, Tennessee Titans. (See The Vikings: Tale of Glory and Doom.). Here are the US and Canadian metros with the longest active championship droughts. The 2007-08 Celtics rolled to a stop-the-insanity 131-92 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on June 17, 2008, after which no Boston team would win a championship until . While the Rays made the postseason for the fourth straight season in 2022, they fell to the Guardians in the Wild Card Series. Kansas City's last three playoff losses have come by a total of nine points a freak 18-16 loss to Pittsburgh in a divisional game after the 2016 season, a 22-21 loss to the Tennessee Titans after the 2017 season and a 37-31 overtime loss to the New England Patriots in the . 2023 HotDog.com | 1013 Centre Road, Suite 403S Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware, 19805. General manager Billy Beanes innovative roster strategies have kept the As competitive on small-market budgets, particularly during the clubs Moneyball period in the early 2000s, but the franchise has reached just two ALCS since last winning the World Series in 1989. Longest Playoff Droughts in Sports - Audacy The Toronto Maple Leafs have the longest championship drought in the NHL, a massive fall for a dynasty. While the Cardinals appeared in Super Bowl XLIII in 2009, their lone Super Bowl appearance, this organization has never hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Here is how they compare to those 12. Vancouver has only one active team, the, The most recent championship for Detroit was the, There have been no championships in Nashville history. The franchise is 0-4 in potential championship clinchers over its past two trips to the Series, having squandered a 3-1 advantage to the Cubs in 2016. Counted from the first Super Bowl season, 1966, to present. Oklahoma City has only one active team, the, The most recent championship for Green Bay was the, The most recent championship for Washington DC was the, The most recent championship for Toronto was the, The most recent championship for San Antonio was the, There have been no championships in Las Vegas history. Teams that have never made it beyond each successive milestone are listed under the year in which they began NFL play. Today, he streams pretty much everything while his library of thousands of Blu-rays and DVDs collects dust. Within two years, the Magic had the best record in the Eastern Conference and reached the 1994-95 NBA Finals. Of course, we saw two of the longest MLB playoff droughts end this year. Photo Credit: The Speedy Butterfly / Shutterstock, Photo Credit: Natalia Pushchina / Shutterstock, Photo Credit: nikitsin.smugmug.com / Shutterstock, Photo Credit: Songquan Deng / Shutterstock, Photo Credit: Andriy Blokhin / Shutterstock, Photo Credit: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock, Photo Credit: Richard Cavalleri / Shutterstock. 7 seed in the NFC with a Seattle Seahawks loss in Week 18 and a Lions victory over the Green Bay Packers. Researchers at HotDog.com ranked US and Canadian metropolitan areas according to active professional sports championship droughts, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS. There were World Series chances in '84 and 98, but the Padres won just one Fall Classic game in those years against the Tigers and Yankees, respectively. In the world of major professional sports, some cities are known as consistent winners, while others have a long history of hard luck in the search for a sports championship. The Cleveland Guardians have the longest active championship drought in MLB, with their last World Series title coming in 1948. Five Pro Sports Cities in a Championship Drought That Deserve a Ring. AMAZON -- HotDog.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Frank loves video. In 2017-18, they returned to the AFC Championship and had a 20-10 lead early in the fourth quarter over the defending champion New England Patriots, but Tom Brady led the Patriots back to a 24-20 win. After consecutive first-round losses in 2005 and 2006, the Kings fired Adelman despite a .633 win percentage over 8 years. While the Seattle Mariners are far behind some others in the length of their title drought, they are in MLB history for another unfortunate reason. What is the longest championship drought ever? And in some cases, it could be all of a citys sports franchises struggling simultaneously, like in Cleveland, which experienced a 52-year championship drought from the Browns 1964 NFL title to the Cavaliers 2016 NBA championship. They also won the pennant in 2006, when they lost in five games to the 83-win Cardinals. It snaps a decade-long absence from October baseball, a step in the right direction for the franchise. But the magic hasnt been sufficient enough in the years since, though the Mets did enjoy plenty of memorable moments during their NL pennant runs in 2000 and 15. The Mariners have gone 20 years without reaching the MLB playoffs, it is the longest active postseason drought in the top four American mens sports. We have seen one of the longest Stanley Cup droughts end in recent years. Active droughts are listed in bold type. The Seattle Mariners snapped one of the longest playoff droughts ever, making it into the MLB postseason . Top 10 Longest Championship Droughts in North American Pro Sports This list only shows droughts of 30 or more seasons for teams. Having played more seasons naturally makes it more likely that a team would win a championship at some point. Three more MLB teams have World Series droughts that extend 50-plus years: the Texas Rangers (61), Milwaukee Brewers (53) and San Diego Padres (53). Rays: 25 years (No titles)Tampa Bay debuted as the Devil Rays and began with some lean times, averaging 97 losses over its first 10 seasons. This is a sortable table of all 32 current NFL teams. A good VPN provides extra security and unequalled privacy for everything you do online. The Phoenix Suns have the longest championship drought by a team without a single title. The team left town in 1934. Following the 2021-22 NBA season, Sacramento has missed the playoff in 16 consecutive seasons. Tennessee also stands out for its pro sports struggles. . In this installment, we cover the 10 cities who have not seen a championship in 20 years or more in any major sport San Diego, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Charlotte, Orlando, Cincinnati, the Twin Cities, Jacksonville, and Nashville. But cities that have been awarded franchises recently have an additional disadvantage, because there are now more teams to compete against than in earlier years. Buffalo Last Title: Never Others, meanwhile, are annually telling themselves Maybe next year just to repeat the cycle. Since then they have had only 7 winning seasons and 4 playoff appearances, never getting past the second round (most recently in 2017-18 when they lost 34-14 to the defending champion New England Patriots). Cleveland Guardians (MLB) - 73 years. Sacramento has only one active team, the, The most recent championship for Miami was the, The most recent championship for Ottawa was the, There have been no championships in Orlando history. 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During this period, the Minnesota Vikings have lost in the NFC Championship four times (1998, 2000, 2009 and 2017). See where the Miami Dolphins rank among the current longest title droughts in American major sports. HotDog.com Blog Cities With the Longest Active Championship Droughts. This list only shows droughts of 30 or more seasons for teams. Meanwhile, the New York Rangers are now at a 27-year championship drought. The Panthers have reached the Super Bowl twice. The Chargers were 19-point underdogs against Steve Young and San Francisco 49ers, who jumped to a 42-10 lead and coasted to a 49-26 win. Your email address will not be published. But the team has had its stars -- including Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Johan Santana -- who led Minnesota to six AL Central titles from 2002-10 before the club suffered early postseason exits. Here are the U.S. and Canadian metros with the longest active championship droughts. Additionally, each location must have had at least one professional sports team operating in all years of its championship drought for that losing streak to count. Buffalos future is bright, but it is currently riding the longest playoff drought in NHL history with 11 consecutive seasons without an appearance in the NHL playoffs. 12 longest active playoff droughts in NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL Longest Championship Droughts By City - Champs or Chumps Unfortunately for the Padres, they faced the New York Yankees, who at 114-48 had posted the second-best record in Major League history. In 2015, the MLS added Orlando FC, which has yet to qualify for the playoffs. Colorado has yet to capture an NL West division title. The Sacramento skyline, as seen fromThe ZigguratinWest Sacramento, California. Led by Dwight Howard, the Magic stunned LeBron James and the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in six games. But cities that have been awarded franchises recently have an additional disadvantage, because there are now more teams to compete against than in earlier years. The Cubs last win came in 1945 against the . After Kareems Sky Hook gave the Bucks a dramatic overtime win in Boston in Game 6 sending the series back to Milwaukee, a second title seemed assured. Jacksonville has only one active team, the, The most recent championship for Newark was the, The most recent championship for New Orleans was the, There have been no championships in Columbus history. In 2015-16, Cam Newton would lead the Panthers to a 15-1 season that was capped off with a 49-15 rout of the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game. The Kings had a mini-dynasty under Coach Rick Adelman from 1997-2006 making the playoffs 8 consecutive years, including winning back-to-back Pacific division titles in 2002-2003. . Basketball fans must go all the way back to the 1051 NBA to find the last Kings championship. The team was an original WNBA team as the Utah Starzz starting in 1997 before turning into the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2003 and the Aces in 2018. semi-final defeat to a Manchester City side headed . Mariners: 46 seasons (No titles)With the Nationals making it to the Fall Classic in 2019, that left the Mariners as the only franchise without an appearance in baseballs championship event. 10 of those cities have seen at least 2 teams total (in 2 different sports) win a championship ; 10 have seen at least 1 championship since 2010; 11 have seen at least 1 team win a championship since 2000 As a one-sport city, Sacramento lives and dies by its Kings. Last championship: 1994 Getty Images The Rangers are one of the NHL's "Original Six" teams and last hoisted the Stanley Cup in 1994 to end a 54-year title drought. Pittsburgh Pirates - 6 years. Of active NFL teams 20 have won the Super Bowl, Of active NFL teams 7 have won AFL or NFL championship pre-merger Of active NFL teams 5 have not won any championship or Super Bowl. To make matters worse in Sacramento, the Kings set an NBA record for the longest playoff drought in league history. breaking their respective curses this century, the longest World Series drought now belongs to the Cleveland Guardians. For current droughts, Minnesota leads all states in the U.S. for the longest championship drought. After losing in the NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics have now gone 14 years without winning a title. It could be tantalizingly close misses, like the Buffalo Bills run of four straight Super Bowl losses in the 1990s. The other seven clubs (Cardinals, Lions, Oilers/Titans, Chargers, Browns, Bills, and Vikings) all won an NFL or AFL championship prior to the AFLNFL merger; in the case of the Vikings, however, the Super Bowl existed at the time they won their only league title (in 1969), leaving them and the Falcons as the only two teams to have never won the highest championship available to them. The Bucs only three postseason appearances since then (2013-15) all fell short of the NLCS. 12. They are one of 11 teams without an NBA championship. In 2016-17 they claimed the final playoff spot in the Western Conference and then swept the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks and then beat the St. Louis Blues (4-2) and Anaheim Ducks (4-2) to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time. Updated with completion of NFL season ending in 2023. Which MLB team has the longest World Series drought? Over the last 25 years, 62.7% of cities have won a championship in either the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, or MLS.