Fourth & Value Power Rankings: The Best Franchise to Root for in Each Sport

There are easy ways to rank sports franchises. You can count championships, Hall of Famers, revenue, franchise value or national popularity. That tells you something about greatness, but it doesn't necessarily tell you what it has actually been like to spend decades rooting for the team.

Fourth & Value is asking a different question: Which franchises have given their fans the best overall experience?

Championships obviously matter, but fandom consists mostly of seasons that don't end with a parade. Fans spend years buying tickets, watching regular-season games, arguing about personnel decisions and convincing themselves that this might finally be the year. A great franchise should reward that investment more often than it punishes it.

So sustained competitiveness carries significant weight here. Ownership and organizational competence matter. Tradition matters. The stadium experience matters. Generational stars matter. And we're also applying what might be the most important category of all: the misery tax.

How many years has the franchise asked its fans to watch a team that had little realistic chance of accomplishing anything?

To keep one sport from overwhelming the ranking, we're selecting one franchise from each of five major North American professional sports: the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS.

If you were forced to inherit one franchise and remain a fan for life, these are five pretty good choices.

1. Pittsburgh Steelers

NFL

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the model for this entire exercise, and not simply because of their six Super Bowl championships.

What separates Pittsburgh is how rarely the organization has made its fans feel hopeless. The Steelers have appeared in eight Super Bowls and won six, with four championships coming during the legendary 1970s dynasty and two more following the 2005 and 2008 seasons. (Steelers Super Bowl history)

The championships matter, but the organizational stability between them may be even more impressive. Pittsburgh spent decades operating with a recognizable philosophy: build through the draft, develop players, avoid organizational panic and resist the urge to rebuild everything after one disappointing season. During former general manager Kevin Colbert's tenure, Pittsburgh went 226-124-3 in the regular season, won three AFC Championship Games and two Super Bowls. The Steelers had only one losing season during that span. (Steelers Hall of Honor: Kevin Colbert)

That kind of stability fundamentally changes the experience of being a fan. Steelers supporters complain about quarterbacks, offensive coordinators, playoff losses and whether merely finishing above .500 should still qualify as success. But there is a strange privilege embedded in those complaints. Plenty of franchises would happily accept Pittsburgh's disappointing seasons.

For Steelers fans, nine or ten wins can produce frustration. For fans of dysfunctional teams, nine or ten wins can feel like the beginning of a golden age.

The game-day experience adds another layer. The rivers, skyline, black and gold and thousands of Terrible Towels create an atmosphere that immediately feels connected to Pittsburgh. The fan base also travels exceptionally well, to the point that some road games can appear almost neutral.

There is a legitimate blemish. Pittsburgh's recent postseason results have not matched the franchise's historical standard, and the Steelers' last playoff victory came following the 2016 season. (Steelers playoff history; 2025-season playoff result) For a franchise accustomed to measuring itself against championships, that drought matters.

Still, this ranking isn't measuring only the highest peaks. It is measuring the entire experience. And few franchises have given their supporters a better combination of championships, tradition, meaningful seasons and basic organizational competence.

The fan experience: You enter almost every season believing the team will matter.

The misery tax: Extremely low.

Why they're here: Sustained competence may be the greatest gift an organization can give its fans.

2. Atlanta Braves

Major League Baseball

If this ranking simply counted championships, the New York Yankees would win the baseball category without much discussion. But when the question becomes what it has actually been like to live as a fan of the franchise, Atlanta becomes much more interesting.

The Braves have provided their fans with an extraordinary amount of meaningful baseball over the past three and a half decades. From 1991 through 2005, Atlanta won 14 consecutive division championships in completed seasons. The 2005 club extended the streak while using 18 rookies. (Braves franchise timeline)

That run produced five World Series appearances and the 1995 championship. (Braves postseason results) More importantly from the fan's perspective, it made October baseball feel almost automatic.

Imagine growing up as a Braves fan during that period. Every summer mattered. September mattered. The postseason became an annual part of the calendar. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and Bobby Cox didn't merely create a collection of great teams. They created an expectation that Atlanta baseball would remain relevant.

What strengthens the Braves' case is that the franchise didn't permanently disappear when that generation aged out. Atlanta eventually constructed another contender around players such as Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuña Jr., returned to annual postseason relevance and won another World Series in 2021 by defeating Houston in six games. (Braves postseason results)

That generational continuity is one of the best arguments for Atlanta. Older fans have Hank Aaron. Another generation has Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz and Chipper. Younger fans received Freeman, Acuña and the 2021 championship. Great franchises don't simply preserve their history; they keep adding chapters to it.

The modern stadium experience also helps. Truist Park and The Battery have turned a Braves game into something closer to an all-day entertainment experience, with restaurants, bars and gathering spaces surrounding the ballpark. The location and economics can be debated, but from the standpoint of creating a destination around the team, the concept has worked.

Atlanta's obvious weakness is postseason conversion. A franchise that won its division 14 consecutive times probably should have won more than one World Series during that stretch. Those years generated some painful October exits.

But there's another way to look at it. Braves fans spent most of those Octobers complaining about losing playoff games. Fans of many other teams spent those same Octobers researching prospects.

That's a very different kind of suffering.

The fan experience: Meaningful baseball almost every summer, stars across generations and a strong modern game-day environment.

The misery tax: Plenty of postseason heartbreak, but remarkably little prolonged irrelevance.

Why they're here: Atlanta has consistently respected the fan's investment by giving supporters a reason to care deep into the season.

3. Boston Celtics

NBA

The Celtics aren't merely one of basketball's most successful franchises. They are intertwined with the history of the sport itself.

Boston owns 18 NBA championships, the most in league history, with the most recent coming in 2024. (NBA championship totals) But the real strength of Celtics fandom isn't simply the number hanging from the rafters. It's how many different generations have received their own great Celtics team.

Bill Russell anchored arguably the greatest dynasty in American professional sports, including eight consecutive championships from 1959 through 1966. (Celtics championship history) John Havlicek carried the tradition forward. Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish made Boston one half of the NBA's defining rivalry in the 1980s. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett returned the organization to the top in 2008. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown delivered another championship in 2024.

That matters because some historic franchises gradually turn into museums. The logo remains famous, the old highlights are impressive and fans continue celebrating accomplishments that happened before younger supporters were born. Boston keeps giving new generations something of their own.

TD Garden isn't Lambeau Field or Fenway Park architecturally, but playoff basketball in Boston offers its own kind of intensity. Basketball places the crowd directly around the action, and when the Celtics are playing meaningful games in May or June, the building can feel unusually compressed and hostile.

The downside is that success creates ruthless expectations. A very good Celtics team can win 50 games, make a respectable playoff run and still be remembered primarily for what it failed to accomplish.

But again, that is a favorable form of sports misery. Expectations become unreasonable only because the franchise has repeatedly given fans reasons to expect greatness.

The fan experience: Championship history, generational stars and a team that repeatedly reenters contention.

The misery tax: There have been down periods, but Boston rarely stays irrelevant for long.

Why they're here: Few franchises have done a better job of allowing multiple generations of fans to experience their own version of greatness.

4. Detroit Red Wings

NHL

The NHL category is difficult because there are several legitimate choices. Montreal has 24 Stanley Cups. Boston combines enormous tradition with modern success. Pittsburgh fans have experienced Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby and five championships.

But if we're emphasizing the long-term experience of being a fan, Detroit's modern history is difficult to ignore.

The Red Wings have won 11 Stanley Cups, more than any American NHL franchise. (Red Wings centennial history) More important for this exercise, Detroit reached the postseason for 25 consecutive seasons from 1991 through 2016. (NHL: 25 facts about the streak)

Twenty-five straight years is almost difficult to comprehend in modern professional sports. A fan could be born, complete childhood, graduate from college and enter the workforce without ever experiencing a Red Wings season that ended before the playoffs.

And Detroit didn't merely qualify during that period. The franchise won Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. (Red Wings centennial history) Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidström, Dominik Hašek, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and others gave fans an astonishing concentration of elite talent.

"Hockeytown" became more than a marketing slogan because the team gave the city something worthy of that identity. Detroit hockey wasn't simply successful. For a long stretch, it felt permanent.

Unlike the first three franchises on this list, though, Detroit has accumulated a substantial recent misery tax. The 25-year playoff streak ended in 2017, and the rebuilding seasons that followed provided a reminder of just how unusual the previous quarter-century had been. (NHL: the streak ends)

That recent downturn keeps Detroit from climbing higher. Still, when evaluating the full fan experience, 25 consecutive playoff appearances and four championships during the heart of that run are hard to dismiss.

The fan experience: At its peak, almost everything a fan could reasonably ask for.

The misery tax: Much higher since the playoff streak ended.

Why they're here: A quarter-century of uninterrupted postseason hockey represents sustained relevance at an almost absurd level.

5. Los Angeles Galaxy

Major League Soccer

MLS requires a different standard because the league itself only began play in 1996. The Galaxy can't offer the depth of history found in Pittsburgh, Boston or Detroit, so the fairest question is whether the franchise has maximized the history available to it.

By that measure, the Galaxy have an exceptional case.

Los Angeles won its sixth MLS Cup in 2024, the most championships in league history. (MLS Cup 2024 report) Those titles came in 2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2024, giving supporters championships across several distinct eras rather than one isolated dynasty.

Galaxy fans have also watched some of the biggest names in the history of American professional soccer. Landon Donovan became a foundational figure for both the club and the national team. David Beckham transformed perceptions about what an MLS franchise could attract. Robbie Keane became another central figure in the championship years, while Zlatan Ibrahimović brought a different kind of global attention.

The Beckham era in particular mattered beyond wins and losses. The Galaxy suddenly felt connected to the international soccer marketplace in a way few MLS franchises had before. That helped expand the possibilities of what following an American soccer club could feel like.

The franchise's return to the top in 2024 strengthened the argument. Los Angeles defeated the New York Red Bulls 2-1 to capture the MLS Cup and finished the season 17-0-3 at Dignity Health Sports Park, matching the club's 2011 feat of going unbeaten at its primary home venue while also winning the championship. (MLS Cup 2024 report)

The stadium experience is evolving as well. Dignity Health Sports Park is undergoing a multiyear renovation designed to improve seating, concessions, restrooms and premium spaces, with additional upgrades introduced for the 2026 season. (Stadium renovation plan; 2026 stadium upgrades)

MLS history is still young, and Galaxy supporters have experienced some meaningful down periods between championship eras. But if you became an MLS fan when the league began and chose Los Angeles, six championships is a pretty strong return.

The fan experience: Championships, major international stars and a franchise that helped shape the identity of MLS.

The misery tax: Some extended down periods, but offset by more championships than any other MLS club.

Why they're here: No MLS franchise has provided a stronger combination of winning, star power and historical importance.

The Fourth & Value Top Five

What Makes a Franchise Great?

There is an obvious pattern running through this list. Every franchise has championships, but championships alone aren't what separates them.

The common trait is continuity.

The Steelers made competitive football feel normal. The Braves made October baseball feel normal. The Celtics repeatedly gave new generations their own championship teams. The Red Wings once made playoff hockey an annual event for an entire quarter-century. The Galaxy established themselves as MLS royalty almost from the league's beginning.

That gets to something championship counts alone can't measure.

Sports fandom is an investment. Fans invest money, time and emotion. They schedule weekends around games, buy jerseys, travel to stadiums, teach their children the roster and spend thousands of hours watching organizations they have absolutely no control over.

The best franchises don't guarantee championships. No organization can.

What they can do is respect that investment by operating competently, remaining ambitious and giving their supporters a reasonable belief that the next meaningful season is never too far away.

That's ultimately why Pittsburgh sits at No. 1, and why Atlanta belongs so high on this list.

A championship season may provide the greatest moments a fan ever experiences.

But giving your fans a reason to care for 20 or 30 years might be an even rarer accomplishment.