From Buffalo to Chicago: Are Dormant Sports Markets Waking Up?

Unless we’re talking about Oakland, pro sports towns don’t just fall off the map. Some markets have produced multiple championship teams, in some cases built a dynasty, before becoming irrelevant. 

What have the Chicago Bulls done since Michael Jordan retired the second time? 

Buffalo is home to Bills Mafia, one of the country’s most passionate fan bases with a pregame table smashing ritual. Yet, the upstate New York city has yet to experience a Super Bowl or Stanley Cup championship parade.  

In most cases, great sports towns maintain their passion, but they can go dormant until that next great, uplifting moment happens. We take a closer look at America’s three most dormant sports markets. 

What Makes a Sports Market Dormant?

The lack of league championship titles or multi-year playoff droughts over an extended period of time carries significant weight when comparing dormant sports markets. When teams in that city suffer from sustained losing seasons it can create a domino effect of attendance declines and lack of fan engagement. Plus, these teams are not going to get much screen time on the nightly SportsCenter highlights or national TV dates.

With dormant markets,there is plenty of historical data that shows it can support successful teams. But when things turn bad, it can get so ugly that all of the teams leave town.

The Three Most Dormant Sports Markets

Several sports markets were considered for this dormant sports market list such as Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Phoenix. It’s a topic that could be debated for hours, but Buffalo, Chicago, and the pro sports ghost town of Oakland are the markets that top our list as long championship droughts, poor win percentages, and low attendance figures are factors that have impacted at least one team in each of these cities. 

Oakland

Remember when Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green were winning NBA championships at what is now called Oakland Arena, including back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018? The Warriors now call San Francisco home. 

The Oakland Raiders had an extremely passionate fan base, but departed for brand new digs on the Las Vegas Strip in 2020. The A’s, whom they once shared a stadium with, will be relocating to Sin City for the 2028 season once their new digs open on the former Tropicana Las Vegas site. 

Things didn’t exactly end on a high note with the A’s before the team relocated to Sacramento. Fans were not happy when owner John Fisher made the deal to move his franchise to Las Vegas. Plans to build a massive $12 billion project along the Oakland Waterfront fell apart. 

The A’s final chapter in Oakland was truly a depressing one at Oakland Coliseum as the team couldn’t draw one million fans in its final season. They finished the 2024 season with a 69-93 record, 17 games out of first. 

Buffalo 

The dormant state of Sabres is the result of being associated with a phrase that no professional hockey club wants to hear: longest playoff drought in NHL history. Prior to making the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the franchise dealt with 14 straight seasons of finishing no better than 19th. Their .444 win percentage over the last two decades hasn’t given Sabres fans much worth cheering about. 

The Sabres recent success might’ve awakened the fanbase as the franchise saw an 11.8% spike in average attendance during the 2025-26 season. Only the San Jose Sharks (13.7%) and Utah Mammoth (12.1%) saw bigger jumps. 

Maybe Buffalo is just cursed. Josh Allen and company are still chasing the franchise’s first  Vince Lombardi trophy. Remember the famous “wide right” call from Super Bowl XXV with eight seconds left? That’s the past. NFL betting odds have the Bills priced at +1000. The Los Angeles Rams (+550) are the only team ahead of them on the DraftKings odds board. 

Chicago

With the Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Blackhawks, and Bulls all calling the Windy City home, you would think the city would’ve celebrated multiple championship parades over the last decade. That’s not the case as the Cubs are the last Chi-Town team to win it all, and that happened a decade ago. 

Since the Bulls NBA championship dynasty ended in 1998, Chicago has missed the postseason 16 times, which includes the current win streak of four straight. The team has compiled a .454 win percentage over that period, and last season’s 31-51 record (.378) certainly doesn’t help the Bulls current dormant state. Ironically, even through these down years, the Bulls still led the NBA in attendance last season. However, the franchise is still lacking that national draw as they have only three nationally televised games on the 2026-27 schedule.

Jerry Reinsdorf still owns about a 40% stake in the Bulls and approximately 19% investment in the White Sox. The latter is one of the great turnaround stories of the 2026 MLB season. At the same time, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the Chi Sox hit rock bottom during the 2024 season (41-121, .253 win percentage).  If you’re wondering if things were as bad as it sounds, the 121 losses remains a modern day MLB record. It also doesn't help that Jerry Reinsdorf is universally hailed as one of the cheapest owners in sports.

Is the South Side of Chicago experiencing a revival?

Seeing the Chicago White Sox leading the American League Central in mid-August is a scenario that MLB bettors likely didn’t expect. BetMGM Sportsbook had the White Sox preseason odds to win the division at -3000, by far the longest price among the four teams. If the postseason started this week, Chicago would be the No. 2 seed and face the Houston Astros or Texas Rangers in an ALDS series. 

The White Sox are front and center of the Chicago revival story because the South Side club has been the laughingstock of MLB baseball for the last three seasons. They had a combined 162-324 record - a .333 win percentage - between 2023 and 2025. With 62 wins and counting, Chicago has already surpassed its win total from the last two seasons. 

The fans are slowly coming back. In 2025, the White Sox drew a tab 1.4 million fans for its home games, and that figure ranked 27th out of 30 MLB clubs. 

Through 58 home games at Rate Field, the White Sox have already surpassed last year’s total and are drawing an average attendance of 24,597, good enough for 21st among MLB clubs.  

Sleepy Sports Cities Ready For A Wake-up Call

Dormant sports markets often go through long dry spells, but eventually turn things around. Look at the Philadelphia 76ers who have not won an NBA title since 1983 when Moses Malone and Dr. J were the star players. Now that LeBron James has signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, the buzz is so big you might think Taylor Swift is kicking off a new tour in the City of Brotherly Love. 

Maybe the Bills move into the $2.2-billion Highmark Stadium will finally end Buffalo’s championship drought.