ESPN have released their annual Ultimate Rankings of all major American sports franchises. Here are some highlights and the info on the Dolphins. Looks like Garfinkle might be having a review/brain-storming session. Top 10 No. 1: Tampa Bay Lightning Love -- offered and justified, frustrated or spurned -- has been at the heart of our Ultimate Standings for 14 years as we've used fan surveys and financial analysis to rank MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams by how they reward fans for the time, money and emotion they invest in them. So when Lightning captain Steven Stamkos answers a question about his team's fans, players and staff with "You can feel that love" -- well, that says it all about his team's place at the top. No. 2: San Antonio Spurs Last year's champs, the Spurs, ranked first in the players category -- for the sixth year in a row. That's in large part thanks to a No. 1 ranking in the category fans say is most important to them: players who always give their best effort. Almost across the board, the team's rankings are up from 2015 (they're also No. 1 in coaching and ownership and rank no lower than 11th in any category), but the Lightning's conference finals run moved them ahead of the four-time Standings topper. No. 3: Carolina Panthers The Panthers are No. 1 in bang for the buck: They won more games than any team in the NFL last season while charging the ninth-lowest average ticket price in the league ($78.22). No. 4: Green Bay Packers No. 5: Arizona Cardinals No. 6: Nashville Predators No. 7: Florida Panthers No. 8: Dallas Stars No. 9: Kansas City Royals No. 10: Texas Rangers Florida/AFC East No. 17: New England Patriots No. 32: Jacksonville Jaguars No. 53: Miami Heat No. 65: Orlando Magic Orlando's Amway Center was this year's top NBA stadium ... at 25th, behind 11 MLB, seven NFL and six NHL venues. Yikes. No. 73: Tampa Bay Buccaneers No. 76: Buffalo Bills No. 90: Tampa Bay Rays No. 91: Miami Marlins From the high of Ozzie Guillen in 2012 to the looooow of Mike Redmond and GM-weirdly-turned-manager Dan Jennings in 2015, the Marlins have had some coaching drama. But this year, with Don Mattingly signed on as skipper, Miami jumped 84 spots in that category. No. 94: New York Jets No. 106: Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins (by James Walker) Overall: 106 Title track: 99 Ownership: 96 Coaching: 98 Players: 113 Fan relations: 115 Affordability: 90 Stadium experience: 98 Bang for the buck: 61 Change from last year: -14 This year, the Dolphins fell in almost every category in these rankings, with slight increases only in stadium experience (thanks to a $500 million renovation) and coaching (excitement over new coach Adam Gase). But the Dolphins still have a long way to go to get to the top half of these standings, and none of it will come until the product on the field improves. [HR][/HR]Ultimate Standings As we have for the past 13 years, we asked fans to vote on their favorite teams, then ranked all 122 sports franchises from top to bottom. Full rankings: 1 to 122 | MLB ranks | NBA ranks | NFL ranks | NHL ranks What's good The Dolphins haven't had a winning record since 2008, but at least they still provide good value. With the fourth-cheapest ticket in the NFL, Miami's top ranking this year came in bang for the buck (61st). Stadium experience, though still ranked near triple-digits, did improve this year, thanks to the completion of a major phase of their $500 million renovation of Hard Rock Stadium. Besides the new name, the team has a state-of-the-art canopy which protects fans from the rain and does a better job of making it louder in the stadium. The team also has four new big screens at the corner of each end zone, which are the largest in the AFC East. [HR][/HR] What's bad A 115th-place rank in fan relations will be disappointing to Dolphins president and CEO Tom Garfinkel, who has spent three years with the team concentrating on community outreach. But he has been hamstrung with a consistently poor product on the field. The Dolphins have made the playoffs just once since 2002. They haven't had a playoff win since 2000. That's 16 years -- nearly a generation -- of fans who have been beaten down and suffered through mostly downtrodden results. [HR][/HR] What's new This year, the Dolphins' roster fell 15 places in the players ranking, now ahead of only two other NFL teams (the Lions and 49ers). This team lacks game-breaking talent thanks, in part, to average to subpar drafts over the past few years, and signing big-name free agents hasn't been a cure-all. QB Ryan Tannehill is a middle-of-the-pack performer at the most important position, which means the Dolphins must be deep in other areas -- and that hasn't been the case. Gase is working to get his kind of players in the building, but it will take a few years to accomplish that. _______________________________________________________________________ Here's the ESPN methodology: The method to our ultimate madness It takes four steps for us to rank the 122 franchises in North America. First: Consulting firm Maddock Douglas surveyed 1,031 fans to form 25 criteria for the things most desired in return for the emotion, money and time they invest. Second: Teaming with NetReflector, an opinion research firm, ESPN.com asked fans to rate their home teams in each area; more than 72,000 of you did! We grouped grades into seven categories. Third: Our final measure, bang for the buck, uses calculations developed with Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center to figure how well teams turn fans' money into wins. Finally: We combined each team's scores across all categories into a weighted average. The result? Rankings that combine fan opinions and how well teams turn your dollars into wins. Ultimately, it all counts. Affordability (12.2%): Price of tickets, parking and concessions Coaching (2.8%): Strength of on-field leadership Fan relations (27.2%): Courtesy by players, coaches and front office toward fans, plus how well a team uses technology to reach fans Ownership (12.8%): Honesty; loyalty to core players and the local community Players (14.7%): Effort on the field, likability off it Stadium experience (11.7%): Quality of arena; fan-friendliness of environment; frequency of game-day promotions Title track (3.9%): Championships won or expected within the lifetime of current fans Bang for the buck (14.7%): Wins in the past two years per fan dollar, adjusted for league schedules
I thought this might be interesting the first time that they did it. Then, I realized that it was just another way to push an agenda and prop up some teams while bashing others. Its nonsense.
This list just proves that ESPN hates the Miami/South Florida area. Jags over the Miami Heat, my dude? Over the Miami Heat?!
Here's the comparison between the Heat and the Jags: [h=2]Miami Heat[/h] Overall: 53 Title track: 26 Ownership: 72 Coaching: 43 Players: 39 Fan relations: 34 Affordability: 60 Stadium experience: 43 Bang for the buck: 88 Change from last year: -32 This Heat season isn't just the official end of the short-lived, high-intensity Big Three era. It's a whole new world. Dwyane Wade, who immediately made Miami relevant again and won three titles in 13 years, is gone. He was Miami's Kobe Bryant (without the final "Kobe contract" that would've kept him in Miami). Now this team is in the dreaded "rebuilding mode," one of Riley's least favorite terms, but there's a lot of young potential on board. [h=2]What's good[/h]Wade or no Wade, those three championship banners are forever, so it's no surprise that the Heat's best ranking comes in title track (No. 26), a result of that success. Another longer-term impact of the success of Wade and the Big Three era? The establishment of a true fan base (at 34th, fan relations also shows well for Miami). The relationship between the Heat and their fans used to be similar to that of any other (non-football) team: Call us when you're championship-level good. But the defensive stance that came with cheering for the Big Three while the rest of the league despised them created a unity among Heat fans. It also required Miami's fans to be more basketball-savvy. Combine that with the Heat's constant efforts to engage fans, in person and digitally, and Miami fans might be able to get through this rebuild relatively unscathed. [HR][/HR][h=2]What's bad[/h]This one hurts for Miami. Heat owner Micky Arison has long been lauded as one of the best owners in the sport, and alongside Riley, he was considered a great balance of player-friendly, financially responsible and strong desire to win. But what happens when the biggest force in your sport, LeBron James, leaves surprisingly, franchise fixture Wade leaves emotionally wounded and then fan favorite Chris Bosh's medical situation turns contentious? It suddenly appears Arison & Co. are the bad guys -- hence the 65-spot drop in ownership to 72nd overall, Miami's worst ownership ranking in 14 years of these standings. The Heat might need some phenomenal free-agency success next summer to get Arison's reputation back on track. [HR][/HR][h=2]What's new[/h]With Wade off to Chicago and Bosh battling a blood clotting condition that Pat Riley announced would end his Heat career, it's no surprise that the Heat's biggest drop this year came from their roster: down 20 spots in players to 39th (the team's lowest ranking since 2010, before the Big Three began). But as mentioned, there's hope on this roster: Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic have great chemistry, and Justise Winslow has the potential to be an All-Pro defender." [h=2]"Jacksonville Jaguars[/h] Overall: 32 Title track: 62 Ownership: 21 Coaching: 61 Players: 45 Fan relations: 43 Affordability: 3 Stadium experience: 13 Bang for the buck: 89 Change from last year: +32 The Jaguars are making progress much quicker in the Ultimate Standings than they are on the field. The team jumped up 32 spots to No. 32 -- a significant leap considering the Jaguars went 12-36 in 2013-15 (and 24 of those losses came by double digits). It's Year 4 of the rebuild under GM Dave Caldwell and coach Gus Bradley, and it's time for all that work to begin paying off. [h=2]What's good[/h]For the second year in a row, the Jaguars offer the most affordable game-day experience in the NFL, even after raising the average ticket price by 3.6 percent. That number still comes in just under $60, which is reasonable considering the premium seating the Jaguars have added over the past several season (cabanas with pool access and field-level seats are two examples) as well as the newly renovated club seat areas. In addition, the price of concessions and parking still comes in below the NFL average, which makes a trip to EverBank Field one of the biggest values in sports. [HR][/HR][h=2]What's bad[/h]But even with those cheap tickets, the team still isn't providing much value in terms of wins per dollar. The Jaguars did improve slightly in this category, thanks to five wins in 2015 (two more than the previous season), but that's as good as it has been for the franchise over the past five seasons. The Jaguars haven't had a winning record since 2007 -- also the last time they made the playoffs -- and have won more than five games in a season just twice in that span (seven in 2009 and eight in 2010). It's affordable to go to a Jaguars game -- but it's not very rewarding. [HR][/HR][h=2]What's new[/h]It's amazing what two more victories in 2015 and an offseason in which the team added a lot of defensive talent can do for expectations. The Jaguars jumped up 33 spots in title track, which represents championships won or expected within the lifetime of the current fans. (Of course, the voting was done in August, before the team's 2-3 start that included an embarrassing 24-point loss at San Diego in Week 2.) The Jaguars actually rank ahead of 13 other NFL teams, including Houston (72), Kansas City (71) and Cincinnati (75) -- but below San Francisco (51), which is led by former Jaguars QB Blaine Gabbert, whom the franchise traded away in 2014."
