Every year, North America's four major professional sports leagues (Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball association, and the National Hockey League) each crown a new champion, and in that team's home city, there is much rejoicing. (Yay.) For some cities, though, there has not been much rejoicing for a very long time.

Time in sports is not measured in years but in seasons. Some cities endure more painful seasons than others. Also, just because one or two teams are in the perennial dumper does not mean that a city cannot cheer a champion in another sport. In my home market, for example, the Chicago Cubs have played 93 seasons since their last championship, the Chicago White Sox have gone 84 seasons, and the Chicago Blackhawks just completed their 40th successive campaign without raising the Stanley Cup. However, the 1998 Chicago Bulls reset the city's counter to zero. A scant three years later, of course, it was at 15, as all five teams failed to bring a title to Chicago in that span. (The 1998 Detroit Red Wings won their last title within a month of those Bulls, yet Detroit's counter is behind Chicago, because Detroit only has four teams.) The clock ticks fastest in two cities these days: Chicago and New York each have five teams, while all the rest have at most four. Chicago has the longest streak I have been able to find all-time, with 106 consecutive non-championship seasons (from the 1963 NFL champion Bears to the 1985 Super Bowl champion Bears). However, the closest competition will eclipse that streak soon; barring a World Series win by the Indians next year, the 2002 Cleveland Browns will break the record and be the 107th straight non-champion to bear the pride of Cleveland on its shoulders.

The following cities are listed along with the number of full seasons since the city last won a championship in one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB). In the case of Buffalo and San Diego, two cities which won AFL titles prior to the Super Bowl era, two different entries are given; that will continue until each of those cities wins another title. All the remaining cities ever represented by the AFL (Boston, New York, Miami, Denver, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Oakland, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Houston) have won a title since 1970, and so their AFL seasons are no longer relevant. In the case of teams with more than one home city (i.e., the Green Bay Packers prior to 1993 or the Kansas City-Omaha Kings), only the predominant home city is used (sorry, Nebraska).

If there are any errors on this page (such as a missed team or championship, a math error, a missing city, or a longer all-time streak than 106), please let me know below. Thank you, and enjoy the ride.