Fans of Nashville’s three professional sports — the Tennessee Titans, Nashville Predators, and Nashville SC — may feel they are among the most miserable in the country.
And according to a misery index published by ESPN, they are correct.
Advertisement
The “Sports Misery Index” is a tool that calculates the misery of your fandom among professional teams, giving you an average misery score that is generally higher if your team loses a lot of regular season games and has little to no postseason success.
The higher the misery index, the more miserable the fan. For example, the Colorado Rockies have a misery score of 95 (out of 100), one of the highest among professional teams. Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs have a score of zero.
Note that the number of years you’ve been a fan of the team does factor into the score. For example, if you’ve been a fan of the New England Patriots for just the past five years, your misery score is 92. If you’ve been a fan of the Patriots for 15 or more years, your misery score is zero.
So where do Nashville sports fans rank?
Advertisement
By combining the misery score of the Titans, Predators, and Nashville SC, fans can expect a score of 84 out of 100. That places them in the “Woeful” category, the highest level of misery possible. Note this calculates fans of 15 or more years of the Titans and Predators and fans of five or more years for Nashville SC.
These results may not be surprising considering how poorly Nashville sports have performed, especially recently. The Titans are coming off a 3-14 season and have not won a playoff game since January 2020, when they beat the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round. The Predators finished third worst in the NHL last season and have not won a playoff round since 2018, when they beat the Colorado Avalanche in six games. Though they did not make the postseason last year, Nashville SC has had the most recent success, making it to the quarterfinal round of the MLS Cup in 2021.
Overall fans of Tennessee sports — which includes the Memphis Grizzlies — can expect a score of 74, which puts fans in the “Flailing” category. The Grizzlies have qualified for the playoffs in four of the last five years, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the NBA playoffs in 2022.
Advertisement
Note that college teams are not included in the index.
Adding to the misery, none of Tennessee’s major professional sports have won a championship in their history. Two teams came close — the Titans lost to the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl 34 in 2000 and the Predators lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final in 2017.
ESTES: The Titans are trying hard to be a closer team. Will that make them a better one?
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Are Nashville pro sports fans miserable? Here’s how one site ranks them