Next "one team" cities to win a championship

The Game Room
1

Using the 4 major sports leagues in North America (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL) the following cities have only one team:

[ul]
[li]Columbus, OH - NHL Blue Jackets[/li][li]Ottawa, ON - NHL Senators[/li][li]Montreal, QC - NHL Canadiens[/li][li]Winnipeg, MB - NHL Jets[/li][li]Calgary, AB - NHL Flames[/li][li]San Jose, CA - NHL Sharks[/li][li]Edmonton, AB - NHL Oilers[/li][li]Vancouver, BC - NHL Canucks[/li][li]Raleigh, NC - NHL Hurricanes[/li][li]Las Vegas, NV - NHL Golden Knights[/li][li]Orlando, FL - NBA Magic[/li][li]Oklahoma City, OK - NBA Thunder[/li][li]Salt Lake City, UT - NBA Jazz[/li][li]Sacramento, CA - NBA Kings[/li][li]Memphis, TN - NBA Grizzlies[/li][li]San Antonio, TX - NBA Spurs[/li][li]Portland, OR - NBA Trail Blazers[/li][li]San Diego, CA - MLB Padres[/li][li]Jacksonville, FL - NFL Jaguars[/li][li]Green Bay, WI - NFL Packers[/li][/ul]

Did I miss any?

There are a bunch of Canadian hockey teams on the list which skew things a bit, but which of these cities is likely to be the one to next win a championship?

There are a few you could add to the list, such as San Jose but I figured they act as suburbs of major metro areas so they don’t count. You might make the same case for Green Bay.

If you add MLS to the leagues you would eliminate the following cities from the list:

[ul]
[li]Columbus, OH[/li][li]Montreal, QC[/li][li]Orlando, FL[/li][li]Portland, OR[/li][li]Vancouver, BC[/li][li]Salt Lake City, UT[/li][/ul]

2

San Jose might have been a suburb of San Francisco in the past, but at this point, it’s actually the largest city in the San Jose-San Franciso-Oakland Combined Statistical Area. Also, San Jose is classified as being in a separate Metropolitan Statistical Area from San Francisco and Oakland. Even so, I think the point that it’s so close, geographically, to both San Francisco and Oakland (and is the only NHL franchise in northern California) means that it probably doesn’t belong on the list.

Green Bay (my hometown), OTOH, really isn’t a suburb of Milwaukee by any stretch; it’s over 100 miles north of Milwaukee, and is in a completely different media market, CSA, and MSA from Milwaukee. However, I think it’s safe to say that the Packers are, effectively, Wisconsin’s team, and the fact that they don’t play in Milwaukee (anymore; they used to split home games between the two cities) doesn’t keep most football fans in Milwaukee from being Packer fans. Similarly, most baseball fans in northern Wisconsin are probably Brewers fans, and most basketball fans there are probably Bucks fans.

3

Just playing the odds, given that both the NHL and NBA are partway through their playoffs, there’s a reasonable chance that the answer to your question will be Portland or Columbus, as they’re both still alive in their playoffs. (Or, San Jose, if you want to consider them to be in a separate city/market from San Francisco and Oakland.)

4

The Las Vegas Knights have only one more year for their attempt before they become a multi-team city when the Raiders (NFL) move there. And at that point, you add Oakland to the mix, because both the NFL and NBA will have moved out.

And note than San Jose would also be removed if you include MLS.

As for the next winner, I’ll jump on the bandwagon and go with the Carolina Hurricanes.

5

Oakland is a suburb of SF, so even with just the A’s left there I think they count. I’m not going to put Newark NJ or Brooklyn NY on the list either.

The Padres could be fairly good this year with their recent signings, but they’re new to the “one team” city list. In the NBA Portland is the obvious choice. Columbus probably isn’t a Cup ready team this year but they’re surprisingly good. In the NFL the Packers stand a better chance than Jacksonville.

6

Depends whether you consider the Twin Cities one metro area or not but you could maybe include the Minnesota Wild.

Technically - the Vikings, Twins, and Timberwolves play their home games in Minneapolis (at US Bank Field, Target Field and Target Center respectively). The Wild play their home games at the Xcel energy center in St. Paul (though the MLS team also has their stadium in St. Paul).

Maybe all moot, however, as the Wild missed the playoffs entirely this year…

7

It’s still weird seeing San Diego as a city with only one professional team. It was easy to get used to the Los Angeles Rams, since I grew up with the Rams being an LA team and never got used to the St Louis Rams.

But, LA Chargers will always sound weird to me.
This has been one weird NHL playoff series, so I’ll say Columbus has the best chance right now of being the next one sport team to win .

8

The San Antonio Spurs (NBA) are the only big 4 professional team in San Antonio. They won in 2014, but don’t seem like top contenders these days.

9

Speaking as a lifelong Packer fan, it feels to me like the Pack is now on the downside of their run as an upper-echelon team. I have serious doubts that they’ll be back to the Super Bowl before Aaron Rodgers’ career ends…but, OTOH, they may still make it there long before the Jaguars. :smiley:

10

:dubious:

Oakland is a major city on its own. It’s the county seat of Alameda County. The A’s have never been called the San Francisco A’s, and the Raiders have never been called the San Francisco Raiders.

11

If you apply that logic, the Blue Jackets are both Cincinnati’s and Cleveland’s hockey team.

12

I’d say Newark, NJ deserves consideration. Since the Nets jumped ship for Brooklyn they are left with just the Devils. I know they get lumped in with the NYC media market usually but NYC does have both the Rangers and Islanders. The Giants and Jets playing in Jersey does muddy the waters a bit though.

When the Raiders and Warriors leave town the A’s will be left as the only team in Oakland, so unless you lump that into the SF market - which is an even tougher sell than San Jose IHMO - they’ll be on the list.

13

True enough. My post was initially just meant to dispute the implication that Green Bay is a suburb of Milwaukee, but then I started rambling. :smiley:

14

I guess after the Warriors and Raiders leave I might consider Oakland to be a city in it’s own right, but I think it would be important to see where the fan base lies for the A’s. I have no idea if it’s like Chicago with clear delineation between north and south. My cousins who live in Alamo are Warriors fans, and I don’t think they ever really identified with Oakland. They were 49’ers fans as well, not sure about their baseball affiliation.

15

The Warriors are no analog, there isn’t another SF-based NBA team and the Warriors started life in the Bay Area as the San Francisco Warriors playing in the Cow Palace.

The Giants-A’s geographic split is as clean as the Cubs-Sox.

16

Brooklyn is not a separate city at all; it’s part of the City of New York. Oakland is a separate city from SF, pone that has long had its own municipal identity and sports history.

I’d call San Jose a separate city too, for the purpose of this discussion. It’s a reasonable distance from SF and is a larger city now. The Sharks and Hurricanes are looking good and one or the other might well have this thread won in four weeks.

17

Not this season. They’re headed for the golf course.

18

I think of a suburb as a place you can commute to the city from. Very few people live in San Jose and commute to San Francisco; if they do, they can count on looks of pity and horror when they tell people about it. Off the top of my head it’s about 60 miles, and traffic is usually awful. Granted, it’s easy to commute from SF to Oakland or vice versa, but Oakland is a real city with its own history and character, so I wouldn’t call that a suburb either.