Poll of the Week: Miserable Sports Cities

Can Pete Carroll help turn Seattle sports around?

Poll of the Week is a weekly (duh) feature appearing every Monday or Tuesday. Please vote on the right sidebar, and back up your opinion in the comments. Feel free to email poll suggestions to ilrsmcblog@gmail.com.

This won't be the most positive post you read on this blog.

Especially if you're a fan of Seattle sports.

In his blog, Fields of Green, Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com writes,

But through a cumulative 111 seasons and 37 playoff appearances, Seattle boasts only one champion: the 1979 Sonics of Gus Williams, Jack Sikma and Dennis Johnson. The list of playoff busts includes some real gut-wrenchers: The 1978 Sonics blew a championship by dropping a Game 7 at home to Washington in the finals, while the top-seeded 1994 club lost a first-round series to the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets. And the 2001 Mariners went down in the playoffs to the Yankees after posting a 116-46 record during the regular season. Add it all up, and Seattle’s history lands it at the top of our list of the Most Miserable Sports Cities.

Oy vey. The rest of the top 10? After the jump. From, uh, "best" to worst:

10. Cincinnati

9. Denver

8. Cleveland

7. Kansas City

6. Houston

5. San Diego

4. Buffalo

3. Phoenix

2. Atlanta

Any surprises on this list? If so, familiarize yourself with Forbes' scoring system:

We scored each city on the number of times one of its teams has lost in the postseason, adjusting the misery points to give the most weight to losing in the final round (World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Final, Stanley Cup Final) and doling out progressively fewer points for losing earlier playoff rounds. We also factored in the number of years since each city’s last title (31 for Seattle), and the ratio of each city’s cumulative seasons to championships won (Atlanta, for instance, has compiled 153 MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL seasons while winning one championship, the 1995 Braves). And to keep the playing field even, we limited the contenders to cities with at least 75 cumulative seasons in the four major sports leagues.

That said, which sports city do YOU believe is the most miserable?

Also, which of the cities that Forbes ranked is most likely to play itself off this list in future years? Voting closes next Monday. Don't forget to comment below.

Most importantly, protect your fan base.

Last Week's Poll

Last week, we asked:

How many NFL games will be played next season?

In a close vote, 60% of voters believe that the NFL will stick to the normal 16-game regular season; however, 40% of the voters appear to be pessimists (or realists) and believe that there will be an NFL lockout in 2011.

Thanks for voting!