Let's be honest. The city of Denver has seen plenty of sports seasons better than what we've experienced so far over 2010-11. The Broncos hopefully reached their nadir with a 4-12 season; the Avalanche are mired in a morass; and the Nuggets just traded their star player.
But there's always hope to be found in such despair: John Elway is back with the Broncos as an executive and John Fox replaced Josh McDaniels as the head coach; Matt Duchene and Erik Johnson should form the core of the Avalanche for years to come; and the Nuggets--well, the early returns are promising.
Still, without any championships Denver is a miserable sports city. Well, at least according to Forbes. In their list of the top 10 most miserable sports cities, Denver comes in at No. 9.
How did Forbes comes to this conclusion? Well, they took the five major professional sports teams the city has had (the NHL Colorado Rockies are the fifth team), counted its record in championship games (4-6) and semi-final games (10-11) and counted the number of championships won over the total number of seasons the teams have combined to play (four in 123). And for good measure they added the year the city last had a championship (2001).
But Forbes disses Major League Soccer by not including it in the rankings. The Colorado Rapids won the 2010 MLS Cup, though how many people know that is up for debate.
With cities such as Cleveland, Kansas City, San Diego, Buffalo and Seattle ranked ahead of Denver, times don't look that bad for sports in the city. Right now, the dreams of many fans rest on the Colorado Rockies fulfilling the ultimate attainment of Rocktober: a World Series championship.