ESPN.com - ESPN 25 - Overall city standings: 1979-2004

ESPN.com

Which city can claim to be the city of champions during the ESPN era?

We added up all the wins and losses across the four major pro sports from the past 25 seasons and ranked the 36 North American cities with at least two franchises based upon overall winning percentage.

Peruse the rankings below as well the overall sport-by-sport rankings. Also, check out the highs and lows of some of the cities.

Key: Overall Win Pct. = combined winning percentage of all franchises in city; Team years = total number of team seasons played over the 25-year span; Finals = number of Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals reached; Titles = number of championships won; Make playoffs % = Percentage of seasons in which franchises reached the playoffs.

CUMULATIVE CITY STANDINGS DURING THE ESPN ERA
Team NFL MLB NBA NHL Overall
Win. Pct. Team
Years Finals Titles Make
playoffs %

1. San Francisco .650 .513 -- -- .582 50 7 5 50.0%

2. Nashville .643 -- -- .454 .556 13 1 0 38.5

3. Boston .495 .530 .579 .570 .544 100 12 5 56.0

4. Philadelphia .548 .488 .530 .587 .538 100 12 2 53.0

5. Montreal -- .505 -- .561 .533 50 3 2 42.0

6. Buffalo .520 -- -- .539 .530 50 5 0 62.0

7. Miami .614 .465 .470 .471 .526 63 5 2 46.0

8. St. Louis .478 .520 -- .541 .517 68 5 2 54.4

9. Denver .601 .474 .436 .552 .516 70 7 4 50.0

10. Los Angeles .527 .522 .523 .479 .515 124 18 11 50.8

11. Milwaukee/
Green Bay .530 .485 .529 -- .515 75 3 1 38.7

12. Pittsburgh .563 .480 -- .489 .511 75 5 4 42.7

13. Seattle .481 .483 .568 -- .511 75 1 0 36.0

14. New York .492 .529 .525 .501 .510 175 20 12 46.3

15. Kansas City .536 .491 .470 -- .509 56 2 1 28.6

16. Dallas .551 .484 .447 .597 .508 85 5 4 43.5

17. Houston .452 .523 .530 -- .505 70 4 2 48.6

18. Chicago .520 .492 .512 .505 .504 125 8 7 40.8

19. Washington .547 -- .416 .531 .498 75 5 3 46.7

20. Phoenix .348 .539 .572 .515 .495 55 2 1 49.1

21. Detroit .412 .476 .526 .539 .488 100 9 7 45.0

22. Minneapolis .536 .477 .432 .484 .488 83 4 2 44.6

23. Anaheim -- .494 -- .464 .485 36 2 1 19.4

24. Atlanta .410 .533 .518 .396 .480 81 6 1 44.4

25. Indianapolis .445 -- .500 -- .476 45 1 0 51.1

26. Toronto -- .509 .398 .470 .476 59 2 2 42.4

27. Baltimore .422 .503 -- -- .475 38 3 2 18.4

28. Charlotte/
Raleigh .444 -- .486 .488 .474 30 2 0 40.0

29. New Jersey -- -- .430 .521 .473 47 6 3 57.4

30. Oakland .516 .515 .404 -- .470 62 5 2 29.0

31. Cleveland .458 .494 .447 -- .467 72 2 0 34.7

32. New Orleans .459 -- .537 -- .465 27 0 0 25.9

33. San Diego .450 .476 .349 -- .453 55 3 0 18.2

34. Cincinnati .401 .504 -- -- .453 50 3 1 14.0

35. Vancouver -- -- .220 .476 .427 31 2 0 54.8

36. Tampa .409 .393 -- .417 .409 43 2 2 25.6

RANKINGS FOR CITIES WITH ONE TEAM
Team NFL MLB NBA NHL Overall
Win. Pct. Team
Years Finals Titles Make
playoffs %

1. Portland -- -- .588 -- .588 25 2 0 92.0

2. San Antonio -- -- .579 -- .579 25 2 2 84.0

3. Salt Lake -- -- .575 -- .575 25 2 0 80.0

4. Edmonton -- -- -- .544 .544 25 6 5 76.0

5. Calgary -- -- -- .532 .532 24 3 1 66.7

6. Jacksonville .507 -- -- -- .507 9 0 0 44.4

7. Orlando -- -- .491 -- .491 15 1 0 53.3

8. Ottawa -- -- -- .472 .472 12 0 0 66.7

9. Quebec City -- -- -- .459 .459 16 0 0 56.3

10. Sacramento -- -- .450 -- .450 19 0 0 42.1

11. Winnipeg -- -- -- .442 .442 17 0 0 58.8

12. San Jose -- -- -- .441 .441 13 0 0 61.5

13. Hartford -- -- -- .438 .438 18 0 0 44.4

14. Memphis -- -- .411 -- .411 3 1 0 33.3

Notes:

Seasons considered:

* NFL: 1979 through 2003
* MLB: 1979 through 2003
* NBA: 1979-80 through 2003-04
* NHL: 1979-80 through 2003-04

Some rankings under the various sports include more than one franchise. This includes cities with two teams in one sport (such as the Cubs and White for Chicago or Giants and Jets for New York) or cities with two different franchises in the same sport (such as the Colts and Ravens for Baltimore).

Methodology: First, the winning percentage for each franchise within a city was determined (for NHL teams, the winning percentage was considered as the number of points earned out of the total possible points); then, the average winning percentage is weighted by factoring in the number of overall "team seasons" for a franchise. For example, Denver has 70 team seasons -- 25 each for the Broncos and Nuggets, 11 for the Rockies and nine for the Avalanche. An overall city winning percentage is then calculated.