Washington D.C. – Worst Sports City in America
Yeah, Washington D.C. sucks as a sports city, according to the crack research of Jamie Mottram. But there’s a lot of ways to positively spin this sobering realization.
First, I predicted this very conclusion almost two years ago. The issues then were more surrounding Joe Gibbs’ shortcomings as a game manager, Wizards’ injuries, and the lack of big names willing to come to the Washington Nationals. Two years later, ain’t much changed in the Diamond City.
But a significant reasoning behind the city’s pro sports failure is due to the malaise of the fan base. When the teams lose, by and large they are getting ripped apart on sports talk radio and in the streets. We don’t show up consistently to games, we don’t buy paraphernalia, and we don’t make our voices heard in various fan ballots and contests. Were it not for the Capitals, the Washington Post sports section would likely be solely comprised of Steinz’ blogging exploits.
Well, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
There have been worse teams in the history of the NBA than the Wizards. They are getting close to shattering that idea, but its true. There have been baseball teams who have lost hundreds of games, and there have been hockey teams in the doldrums far longer than the recently resurgent Caps. The truth is, D.C. could easily be home to franchises like the Milwaukee Bucks, or the Pittsburgh Pirates, or the St. Louis Blues. You’d think we be grateful. Instead, we’re a light draft version of spiteful against our teams.
Save for the Redskins, who have pretty much created the biggest sports-related propaganda campaign in media history, no other team has captured enough respect throughout the leagues to garner consistent national media empathy or attention. And that’s not just on wins and losses. That’s on fans not being true to our teams.
So here’s to Washington, and the teams we barely deserve.
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