. . . . To create our misery rankings, we compiled the number of postseason appearances by a city's teams and compared them to the number of titles won. Those cities that combine a lot of playoff losses and few championships score highest (final round losses, such as a Super Bowl or World Series, are given the most weight, followed by semifinal round losses, and so on). Records from the pre-merged American Basketball Association and American Football League count.

We also factored in the ratio of total seasons to championships (just one title for Phoenix in 88 cumulative sports seasons, for example), and the number of years since the city last won a title (it's 46 years and counting for Cleveland, No. 6 on our list).