Loserville, USA: Twin Cities Ranked The #1 Saddest City in Sports

For those of you who have patiently been waiting for Minnesota sports to win something—ANYTHING—that we can hang our hats on, your long wait is over! For the month of October, Minnesota (or more accurately, Minneapolis-St. Paul) has been named the Saddest City on the Sports Landscape. That’s right…our sports teams have done so poorly in recent months that we are officially being recognized as the most depressed fan base. And just think…we didn’t even have to wait for the Lynx to win Game 3 of the WNBA finals in order to win something! Leave it to our pathetic loser of a sports town to steal the Lynx’ thunder and overshadow what could be the Twin Cities’ first professional championship since 1991.

The honor itself was bestowed on the Twin Cities by the website Grantland, an offshoot of ESPN.com and the brainchild of former ESPN Page 2 writer Bill Simmons. After being ranked fourth in the initial September poll, Minneapolis-St. Paul climbed four spots to the number one ranking this month. And lest you think the award was randomly assigned by a singular sadistic sportswriter, and that we failed to actually earn it, think again. The prestigious title was the result of a formal voting process that involved hundreds of voters. Okay, fine…there were only ten voters, each of whom was tasked with ranking the top eight saddest sports cities, with points being awarded for each vote. Overall, the Twin Cities garnered a total of 42.5 points, allowing them to edge out other nominees such as Seattle, Kansas City, Indianapolis and Boston.

This isn’t the first time the Twin Cities have appeared on such lists. In 2008, we were ranked the tenth most miserable sports city by Forbes magazine. Other rankings have consistently listed us among the nation’s worst sports towns when it comes to winning championships. Our two professional sports titles since 1970 rank for 3rd worst among major metropolitan areas.

While we aren’t winning championships, things could be worse…at least we’re winning something! It’s just too bad we’re winning something for losing. I guess Rosie Perez’ character in the movie White Men Can’t Jump was right. Sometimes when you win, you really lose. And sometimes when you lose, you really win. Those words have never been so true.

To the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul…the saddest city on the sporting landscape!

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