ESPN picks Vancouver as most 'miserable' sports city in Canada
Any Vancouver sports fan knows that even with the highs of rooting for the city’s teams, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll end up breaking your heart.
And according to a new study, they just might be the worst in Canada at doing so.
In a recently released feature, ESPN challenges fans to check out just how miserable their teams ranked compared to the others.
“Whether thereās confetti falling from your teamās last title or youāre still waiting to see your first, you probably have an idea of how satisfied ā or miserable ā you are as a fan. But could you put a number on it?” the Sports Misery Index description reads.
If you end up selecting each Canadian team in the above leagues with the maximum allotted time of support, here’s how miserable each city is on a scale of 1-100.
- Vancouver: 88
- Ottawa: 88
- Calgary: 87
- Montreal: 84
- Winnipeg: 82
- Toronto: 69
- Edmonton: 63
What’s got Vancouver ranked so low?
According to the methodology, these ratings were “determined using a combination of regular-season wins, postseason success and expected win data in the form of preseason over-unders. This information was collected for each of the seven leagues, going back a maximum of 25 years.”
The Canucks are listed as an 88 misery ranking, with the Whitecaps listed as a 90.
While the Oilers may have lost the Stanley Cup final twice in a row, the ranking appears to value going deep in the postseason over not making a run at all, which is why Edmonton is the ‘least miserable’ Canadian sports city.
Toronto, for example, has a known history with the Leafs and Blue Jays having tough times in the playoffs, but has also seen championships in 2017 with Toronto FC and 2019 with the Raptors, which sees their average drop way down.
And while the Whitecaps are in the midst of arguably their best-ever run, it doesn’t outweigh the years of struggle between them and the Canucks, while CONCACAF Champions Cup run from this year doesn’t factor in either.
Ottawa and Calgary similarly haven’t seen much NHL success of late, but only have one team contributing to their ranking. Still, it’s a tight race for the most misery in the country.
Given that some Canadian teams are missing: the CFL, minor league teams in baseball and hockey, the PWHL, and the NSL, to name a few, it isn’t exactly a full capture of the sporting experience of each city, but it does provide an alright picture of the fan experience in the top-flight leagues.
In any case, if Vancouver wants to rid itself of the miserable label, it’s on the Whitecaps and Canucks to start doing some serious winning moving forward.
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