The 25 Worst Franchises in Sports History

Some professional sports franchises serve as models for the rest of the business to follow. Teams like the San Antonio Spurs, St. Louis Cardinals, and Baltimore Ravens are run with a top-to-bottom efficiency that pairs success in the actual competition with strong ownership and front office personnel as well. These teams succeed because there is a general air of competence in everything they do, and they manage to correct the little mistakes that can sink organizations into prolonged periods of mediocrity (or worse). These are not those kinds of organizations.

These are the ones that take a look at the mistakes they’ve made in the past, then immediately make the same ones. They spend recklessly, hire a long line of different people trying to fix the same problems, and oftentimes have a difficult go of getting their teams to even mediocre levels. Stupidity often rules the day as these teams continually find new ways to lose and torture their devoted fan bases. These are the 25 Worst Franchises in Sports History.

New York Knicks

Years of existence: 68
Championships won (years): 2 (1970, 1973)
Winning percentage: 0.500
No. of coaches: 24
Current owner: James Dolan

The New York Knicks are largely considered to be one of the preeminent franchises in NBA history, but that has largely been a function of where they play rather than the makeup of the organization itself. Whenever James Dolan and Isiah Thomas are involved in front office roles, your organization is rapidly going to become a joke. After making the playoffs 14 years in a row from 1987-88 through 2000-01, the Knicks returned to the postseason just once over the next nine seasons. Over that stretch, they posted a combined record of 279-459 (.378 winning percentage) and weathered, among other things, a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Years of existence: 19
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.484
No. of coaches: 5
Current owner: Shahid Khan

The Jacksonville Jaguars bucked the usual trend and actually experienced a lot of success upon launching as an expansion franchise in 1995, quickly becoming a playoff-caliber squad and peaking with a tremendous 14-2 season in 1999. From there, though, things quickly crumbled. Since that outstanding year they've gone 91-118, the eighth-worst mark in the NFL over that window. Maurice Jones-Drew has become a cornerstone player, but nobody has ever really replaced quarterback Mark Brunell. Byron Leftwich and David Garrard had their moments, but could not find the consistency to become the franchise player they needed. Now that we have to suffer through the Blaine Gabbert era, we shudder to think who the Jags will put under center next.

San Diego Padres

Years of existence: 45
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.463
No. of coaches: 16
Current owner: Ron Fowler

While the general rule in baseball is that an organization will go through some peaks and valleys over the course of their existence as new players emerge, peak, and decline, the San Diego Padres have experienced far more valleys. They've been to the World Series twice (losing both times), and apart from those runs have managed to win just one more playoff game in the team's history. They've finished below .500 in 29 of their 45 seasons, hitting the ignominious 100 loss mark five different times. Apart from a surprising run in 2010, the last six years haven't been kind to them; their record over that time is 441-512, 71 games under .500 even when counting their strong 2010 season.

Seattle Seahawks

Years of existence: 38
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.484
No. of coaches: 8
Current owner: Paul Allen

The Seattle Seahawks' run under Pete Carroll last season and the incredible power of Qwest Field has obscured fans' perception of the franchise, and that's probably just how they like it. For a majority of their 38 NFL seasons, the Seahawks have been the very definition of mediocre; they've finished either 7-9, 8-8, or 9-7 a total of 20 times, including an impressive run from 1993 through 2003 where they went exactly .500. Their playoff dry spell between 1989 and 2002 (just one appearance) coincided neatly with some significant turnover at quarterback, and it wasn't until the Matt Hasselbeck/Shaun Alexander duo emerged that they finally began to win on a regular basis.

Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies

Years of existence: 19
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.383
No. of coaches: 11
Current owner: Robert Pera

The Memphis Grizzlies have become a contender these last three years, but we would be remiss if we forgot the preceding 18. From the 1995-96 season through 2009-10, they had the worst winning percentage in the NBA (.337) by a pretty healthy margin, losing 22 more games than the next closest team during that time. They managed to murder basketball in Vancouver, a city known for embracing its teams , and were so bad that their top draft pick in 1998 (Steve Francis) flat-out refused to play for them. In their best season before moving to Memphis, they won just 23 games and averaged a pitiful 13,737 fans per contest. They went through five coaches in six years in Canada, and have continued to make changes at such a prolific rate that their coaches average less than two seasons on the bench before being sent packing.

Seattle Mariners

Years of existence: 37
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.466
No. of coaches: 18
Current owner: Howard Lincoln (CEO)

The Seattle Mariners have been around for 37 years, and yet over that time have not really come close to making the World Series. They did put together a nice seven year run from 1995 through 2001, reaching the playoffs four times including three trips to the ALCS. However, they never threatened winning those series and in the years since have fallen on hard times. From 2004 on, the Mariners have finished over .500 just twice and have ended the year dead last in their division seven times. This of course comes on the heels of their brutal first 18 years where they again finished over .500 just twice and spent six of those seasons in the basement of the standings.

Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals

Years of existence: 45
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.479
No. of coaches: 12
Current owner: Ted Lerner

It's not a good sign for a franchise when what is generally accepted as their best overall season also happens to be one canceled by a strike. So it goes for the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, though, who have reached the playoffs just twice in the franchise's 45 years and saw their best chance at a winner brought down by the 1994 strike. This is an organization that wasted the best years of Vladamir Guerrero's career and traded away a young Pedro Martinez for pennies on the dollar. Olympic Stadium in Montreal was a horrific place to play, with its old Astroturf and very few fans. MLB even took over running the team, and the threat of contraction loomed over it for multiple years before it was moved to DC and purchased by Ted Lerner in mid-2006.

Arizona Cardinals

Years of existence: 94
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.414
No. of coaches: 38
Current owner: Bill Bidwill

The Cardinals moved from St. Louis to Arizona for the 1988 season, but that change did little to turn them into a winner. It wasn't until 1998 that they would cross the .500 mark, and overall they've been to the playoffs just three times. Had they not stumbled into the suddenly-resurgent Kurt Warner thanks to an injury to Matt Leinart, we very well could be talking here about a team with just one playoff appearance since 1982. They can't seem to settle on a quarterback, as apart from Warner they haven't had a stable presence under center since Jake Plummer left town in 2002.

Toronto Raptors

Years of existence: 19
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.407
No. of coaches:
Current owner: Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment

It has been tough for Toronto Raptors fans to grasp just why nobody wants to play for them. It feels like every time the Raptors had a blossoming star on their hands—whether it was Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, or Chris Bosh—the player would up and leave at the first opportunity. The result has been a feeble 19-year run in which they've mustered just five playoff appearances (only one trip outside the first round) and have finished above the .500 mark just four times. Their .407 winning percentage is the fifth-worst in the NBA over that 19-year window.

Tampa Bay Rays

Years of existence: 26
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.460
No. of coaches: 4
Current owner: Stuart Sternberg

The Tampa Bay Rays have at least finally righted the ship after spending many years as the laughingstock of baseball. After never winning more than 70 games during the franchise's first 10 years of existence, all the high draft picks finally started paying off as the Rays have broken the .500 mark six seasons in a row while averaging over 91 wins per season. But even that nice run can't mask the stink of their first 10 years, or the fact that they still refuse to pay for free agents and willingly lose their talented homegrown players, or the fact that they play in front of pitifully small crowds in what has to be considered one of the worst stadiums in all of sports.

Cincinnati Bengals

Years of existence: 46
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.441
No. of coaches: 9
Current owner: Mike Brown

There's a reason the Cincinnati Bengals were for a long time known as the "Bungles." This franchise had a way of screwing up pretty much everything; from 1991 through 2004, they did not have a single winning season. It was only after the arrival of Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson that things began to turn around, and in 2005 they secured their first playoff berth in over a decade. They also reached unprecedented heights for the number of players they had arrested, boasting an impressive total of 40 since 2000.

Sacramento Kings

Years of existence: 66
Championships won (years): 1 (1951)
Winning percentage: 0.463
No. of coaches: 25
Current owner: Vivek Ranadivé

It may come as a surprise, but the Sacramento Kings are actually one of the oldest franchises in basketball. Other than the Warriors, Knicks and Celtics, no NBA team has been around for more years than the Kings. Over that time, though, they've managed to accumulate more losses than every team but one (the Warriors), often counteracting small stretches of strong play with longer strings of complete futility. Over the last seven seasons, they've gone a combined 187-371, a .335 winning percentage that is the second-worst in the NBA over that stretch.

New York Mets

Years of existence: 52
Championships won (years): 2 (1969, 1986)
Winning percentage: 0.478
No. of coaches: 20
Current owner: Fred Wilpon

While they may be known as the "Amazin's," there is little to suggest the New York Mets are actually such a model franchise. They've finished with a sub-.500 record 29 times, including each of the last five seasons. Their 1962 season was one for the record books, as the 40-120 record they posted is the single worst mark in baseball history since 1899. Their owners (the Wilpons) lost so much money to Bernie Madoff that Major League Baseball was worried about them making payroll. Especially compared with the Yankees, the Mets are at best the annoying little brother.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Years of existence: 44
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.456
No. of coaches: 18
Current owner: Dan Gilbert

Poor Cleveland. The Cavaliers have endured their share of heartbreak over the years, whether it was falling to Jordan's amazing shot in 1989 or being publicly spurned by LeBron James during his infamous "Decision" in the summer of 2010. They've been to the NBA Finals just once in their history, getting demolished by the Spurs in 2007. They've made the playoffs a solid 18 times, but the problem is that once there they don't really know what to do; until LeBron arrived, they only made it past the second round twice in their history. The post-LeBron years haven't been kind, either. Over those three seasons the Cavs are 64-166, trailing the Bobcats by just two losses in the race for the worst record in the NBA during that time.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Years of existence: 38
Championships won (years): 1 (2002)
Winning percentage: 0.395
No. of coaches: 9
Current owner: Malcolm Glazer

There's a reason they were known as the "Yucs" for so long. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were a truly abominable franchise for many years, beginning their existence with the NFL's first 0-fer season in 1976 when they went 0-14 and followed that up with a 2-12 campaign the following year that saw them open the season 0-12, setting a record for consecutive losses that even the Lions couldn't break. They also posted an impressive 20-game road losing streak against AFC teams that ended in 1993. They've finished at or below .500 in 27 seasons, including a 24-40 mark over the last four years.

Miami Marlins

Years of existence: 21
Championships won (years): 2 (1997, 2003)
Winning percentage: 0.470
No. of coaches: 12
Current owner: Jeffrey Loria

The Miami Marlins have experienced plenty of success in their brief history; in 21 seasons, they've won two titles. Offer that to 75 percent of the other MLB teams, and they'd gladly take that ratio. However, they've also shown a penchant for completely and utterly dismantling their team before they have a chance to defend their title. Not only have the Marlins finished above .500 just six times (and have never won the NL East), they finished below .500 in the seasons following both of their World Series wins. Couple that with the way they fleeced Miami into a new stadium then stripped the team down to practically nothing, and you get a group in charge that is virtually impossible to root for.

Cleveland Indians

Years of existence: 113
Championships won (years): 2 (1920, 1948)
Winning percentage: 0.509
No. of coaches: 42
Current owner: Larry Dolan

The Cleveland Indians were one of MLB's dominant teams in the mid-to-late 1990s, reaching the World Series twice in five years and making the playoffs in six of seven seasons from 1995 through 2001. However, it has been a healthy dose of agony for Clevelanders both during those playoff appearances (one of the most crushing losses in history during the 1997 World Series), and outside of them. Prior to reaching the 1995 World Series, the Indians hadn't made the playoffs in 40 years. They're currently on pace for their first season above .500 since 2007, and with some young talent making an impact they look like a team on the rise.

Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes

Years of existence: 33
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.482
No. of coaches: 21
Current owner: George Gosbee (Governor)

Although they've finished with winning records in each of the last four seasons, don't let the numbers fool you; the Phoenix Coyotes (formerly the Winnipeg Jets) are a complete joke. Along with the Carolina Hurricanes (formerly the Hartford Whalers), they have the worst combined winning percentage for a team that entered the NHL prior to 2000. They also had quite the little front office fiasco when it was discovered in December 2008 that they were completely bankrupt and the NHL was paying their bills. Their owner ended up being stripped of his authority and the NHL brought the team to bankruptcy court to settle their future.

Detroit Lions

Years of existence: 84
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.456
No. of coaches: 25
Current owner: William Clay Ford, Sr.

You simply can't go 0-for-the-season and not expect to make this list. The historically bad 2008 Detroit Lions didn't just go 0-16; they redefined what it is to suck. They set a new standard for ineptitude in both football and sports in general. But let's not forget that, prior to their 10-6 2011 season, the Lions were comically bad for a significant stretch. They lost 121 games between 2001 and 2010, an average of over 12 per season and 19 more total losses than the next closest team.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Years of existence: 25
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.397
No. of coaches: 10
Current owner: Glen Taylor

In the last 10 years, the Minnesota Timberwolves have lost more games than any other NBA team. They've had exactly one signature player in the history of the franchise (Kevin Garnett), and haven't been to the playoffs in a decade. Before Garnett, they had never won more than 29 games in a season, never mind making the postseason. While Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio represent an interesting bridge to the future, this team may well continue to be one of the worst in the NBA given their inability to get all their players healthy and on the floor.

Cleveland Browns

Years of existence: 68
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.539
No. of coaches: 16
Current owner: Jimmy Haslam

The poor, poor Cleveland Browns fans have certainly suffered at the hands of their beloved team. They've been victims of Red Right 88, The Fumble, and The Drive. They've had their team moved to Baltimore, then gone on to watch that franchise win two Super Bowls. They sat without football for three years, and the new team that came back has gone 73-152 over 15 seasons, with a record above .500 in just two of them and only one playoff appearance. It's really just another feather in the cap for what has risen to become America's most tortured sports city.

New York Jets

Years of existence: 53
Championships won (years): 1 (1968)
Winning percentage: 0.459
No. of coaches: 17
Current owner: Woody Johnson

Particularly over the last few years, the Jets have become a complete laughingstock. Having Mark Sanchez as your franchise's signature player can do that, we guess. Things have gotten bad enough in New York that last year even their No. 1 fan (Fireman Ed) retired out of embarrassment. And things haven't really ever been rosy for Gang Green; other than Joe Namath's guarantee, the Jets don't really have a signature moment in their history. They've won double-digit games just 10 times, with half of those coming since 1998.

Charlotte Bobcats

Years of existence: 10
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.346
No. of coaches: 6
Current owner: Michael Jordan

By most measures, the Charlotte Bobcats are the worst franchise in NBA history. They lose at a prodigious rate, producing by far the lowest winning percentage (.346) of any active NBA franchise. The best player in franchise history, despite the fact that they've had just one pick outside the top 10, is Gerald Wallace. They've finished above .500 just once. There is really no end in sight to the losing either. Sorry, Bobcats fans.

Los Angeles Clippers

Years of existence: 44
Championships won (years): 0
Winning percentage: 0.375
No. of coaches: 23
Current owner: Donald Sterling

It's kind of hard to know where to begin the discussion about the Los Angeles Clippers' ineptitude. In their 44 collective seasons between L.A., San Diego and Buffalo, they've finished above .500 nine times, have made the playoffs nine times, and never gotten past the second round. Their owner is notorious for his discriminatory practices in his business life. They hire and fire a coach, on average, in less than two years. Things look to be turning around, given that they have just recorded back-to-back .500-plus seasons for just the third time in franchise history and the first in 20 years.

Chicago Cubs

Years of existence: 138
Championships won (years): 2 (1907, 1908)
Winning percentage: 0.512
No. of coaches: 56
Current owner: Tom Ricketts

The failures of the Chicago Cubs are legendary. Did a disgruntled fan with a smelly goat really curse the team back in 1945? It's hard to argue with the people who say yes; the Cubs haven't won an NL pennant since that infamous incident, and lately haven't even come close to sniffing the playoffs (269-361 since 2010). They haven't won a playoff game since Steve Bartman's mistake, one of the seminal sports moments of the 21st century. Given the current state of their team, there's no telling how long this stretch of futility is going to continue, either.