Saints Rank No. 52 Among All Professional Sports Franchises

pESPN The Magazine recently released their seventh annual Ultimate Standings for 2009 and a href=”http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/teams/NOS” class=”sbn-auto-link”New Orleans Saints/a The Franchisenbsp;a href=”http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4294051″came in/anbsp;at No. 52, just a slight drop from their No. 53 spot last year, and fourteenth among all NFL franchises./p
pFor those readers who have never heard of these standings, as I hadn’t, every year the ESPN team ranks all professional sports franchises across the four major leagues: NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. These rankings are not based so much by teams’ on-field performance (otherwise No. 52 would just be ridiculous), though some of that is taken into consideration, but more on each organizations relationship with their fans.nbsp;It’s fairly unusual to see each franchise from all of the major sports being compared to each other so these standings are pretty fun examine.nbsp;/p

pnbsp;/p
p style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px;”For a little background on how the rankings were created, you can read the introduction articlenbsp;a href=”http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/teamrankings/_/sport/nfl#table”here/anbsp;as well as a bit more in-depth explanationnbsp;a href=”http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4297571″here/a. Basically, this is how it works:/p
blockquote style=”"The eight major categories that make up the Ultimate Standings were created based on feedback from fans about what they want most from their favorite teams (a href=”http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4297571″ style=”color: #c8181d !important; text-decoration: none !important; background-color: transparent;”click here/anbsp;for a more detailed account of the method to our madness.) The categories: nbsp; nbsp;
p style=”margin-top: 8px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;”bBang For The Buck (BNG)/b: Wins during the past three years (regular season plus postseason) per revenues directly from fans, adjusted for league schedules.nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bFan Relations (FRL)/b: Openness and consideration toward fans by players, coaches and management.nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bOwnership (OWN)/b: Honesty and loyalty to core players and local community.nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bAffordability (AFF)/b: Price of tickets, parking and concessions.nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bStadium Experience (STX)/b: Quality of arena and game-day promotions as well as friendliness of environment.nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bPlayers (PLA)/b: Effort on the field and likability off it.nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bCoaching (CCH)/b: Strength of on-field leadership.nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bTitle Track (TTR)/b: Championships already won or expected in the lifetime of current fans. nbsp; nbsp;/p
/blockquote
p style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px;”So how did the Saints score in each of these categories? You didn’t think I’d leave you hangin’, did you?/p
blockquote style=”"
p style=”margin-top: 8px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;”bLast Year’s Rank:/bnbsp;53nbsp;br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bTitle Track:/bnbsp;74br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bOwnership:/bnbsp;75br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bCoaching:/bnbsp;39br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bPlayers:/bnbsp;50br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bFan Relations:/bnbsp;53br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bAffordability:/bnbsp;53br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bStadium Experience:/bnbsp;80br style=”line-height: 0.75em;” /bBang for the Buck:/bnbsp;50 nbsp; nbsp;/p
/blockquote
p style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px;”The fellas at ESPN The Mag alsonbsp;a href=”http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4294051″provide/anbsp;their reasoning for the Saints’ inability to move up (or down) the charts between this year and last.nbsp;Basically, though the team improved significantly in five categories, the rise in ticket prices last year kept them stagnant. As you can see, the Saints’ strongest category was in bStadium Experience/b, in which they scored an 80, and were weakest in the bCoaching/b category with a paltry 39. You remember Gary Gibbs, don’t you?/p
p style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px;”All in all, I’m not surprised by the mediocre ranking for our mediocre team. But what about you? Any surprises?/p

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legendPoll/legend
h5 class=”poll-title”Are you surprised by this ranking?/h5

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li class=”clearfix”span class=”radio”input id=”poll_option_212831″ name=”poll_option” type=”radio” value=”212831″ //span
label for=”poll_option_212831″span class=”option”Yeah. It should be higher./span/label/li

li class=”clearfix”span class=”radio”input id=”poll_option_212832″ name=”poll_option” type=”radio” value=”212832″ //span
label for=”poll_option_212832″span class=”option”Sounds about right. /span/label/li

li class=”clearfix”span class=”radio”input id=”poll_option_212833″ name=”poll_option” type=”radio” value=”212833″ //span
label for=”poll_option_212833″span class=”option”Yes. It should be lower./span/label/li

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