The sights from the New York Knicks championship parade on Thursday in Manhattan were remarkable and fittingly large-scale in the biggest city in America.
The Knicks and their fans partied like it had been 50-plus years since the team’s last title.
As I took in some of the content from orange and blue clad spectacle, this tweet from Damon Amendolara sent me:
Notice which team D.A. referenced first, the club most front-of-mind for him — the Bills.
That became the crux of this article.
Technically, the Minneapolis-St.Paul area has the most amount of seasons since their last championship. Because they have four professional sports franchises, and the city’s last title was the Twins’ World Series victory in 1991, its title drought has spanned 130 seasons. But (older) fans in Minnesota have experienced a title. That matters.
Because of that, they’re disqualified from this Pain and Suffering Olympics.
Frankly, fans of New York City sports teams don’t qualify either.
While Knicks fans have waited a very long time for an NBA title, chances are almost all of those same people are either into some combination of baseball, football, or hockey. And we all know New York City has experienced its fair share of titles. Heck, the Yankees have won the World Series 27 times.
But if we’re only considering the amount of a seasons of a championship drought… Buffalo is next up at at 111 seasons. Two teams. 56 years (one lockout year). And, oh yeah, no championships yet. (yes, I know the AFL titles are recognized by some). But no NFL or NHL titles, of course.
Behind Buffalo is the city of San Diego, which has a 104 season streak without a championship (57 for Padres, Chargers left San Diego at 47) and now only features MLB’s Padres. It too has never won a title. All of the rest of the American cities that house a Big Four sports franchise are under 100 seasons without a championship and almost all of them have witnessed at least one championship parade down their city streets.
Back to Amendolara’s tweet — you’ve probably done it before, but now is the appropriate time to, just for a moment, envision a championship parade in Buffalo. It’d likely cruise down Delaware Avenue and either begin or end on the steps of City Hall in Niagara Square. Beyond those already residing within the city limits, hundreds of thousands of people would make the pilgrimage downtown from the all over the Western New York area. It would mark the most collective fluid ounces consumed of Labatt Blue in one locale, on one day in human history. Even for one of the smallest markets in professional sports, Buffalo would put on a glorious, large-scale extravaganza. Buffalonians and WNYers are Hall of Fame partiers.
Buffalo has both the longest season streak without a championship and has never experienced a title, making it the most deserving and most due city to win a Super Bowl or Stanley Cup title.
