The WGOM

I think those Cleveland fans would be pretty delusional. Without doing exhaustive research, I'm going to say that they've never had these things happen simultaneously:

NBA team finishes 20-62, 2nd worst in the NBA essentially forfeiting the season while stockpiling draft picks for the future--and then leaves for Oklahoma City, after 40 years in Seattle, 1 NBA title, 3 conference titles, and 6 division titles.

MLB team finishes 61-101, 2nd worst in MLB, despite gigantic payroll and public expectations that they would compete for the division title. (These were delusional expectations, but still.)

NFL team currently 2-8, 4th worst in the NFL, with a ton of injuries taking them out of contention for an otherwise winnable division. 5 of their remaining 6 games are against winning teams.

And on top of each and every of their professional teams being either a complete mess or having been outsourced to OKC, Huskies football, which has 2 national titles and 5 conference titles in the last 20 years, and a generally proud tradition, has precisely *zero* wins in 10 games so far this year and looks to be one of the worst teams in the country.

Maybe Cleveland has a year like that out there if you look farther back, but I'm skeptical. Browns fans were told in '95 that their team would be leaving town, but hell, the Indians were a 100-game winner that year in a 144-game season, kicking off a stretch of 7 straight seasons where they were competitive for a championship every year. And the Cavs made the playoffs 6 times in the '90s, including '94-'95 and '95-'96.

I have a feeling that a lot of the "suffering" in Cleveland has to do with playoff losses. At this point, any kind of playoff appearance in Seattle would be a major victory compared to how things have been going.

Cleveland has no championships in any sport since 1964.

The Browns have never gone to the Super Bowl, but had their heart cut out twice by Elway's Broncos in the AFC title game. They gave up a 98 yard drive to miss the Super Bowl ("The Drive") in one of those games and had one of their best players fumble as he was about to cross the goal line and clinch a trip to the Super Bowl in another ("The Fumble"). Despite selling out every game, their team leaves town and then wins a Super Bowl in Baltimore. Replacement team is absolutely putrid.

Indians haven't won the World Series since 1948. They went 41 years between playoff appearances from 1954 to 1995. The 1954 team won a then record 111 games and got swept in the World Series. They never finished better than 5th in a seven team division (and then only once) over a 12 year stretch from 1978 to 1989. A pre-season pick in 1987 to win the World Series (by SI), they finished 61-101. The Indians were absolutely pathetic for forty years. 40! In three World series over the past sixty years, they got swept (1954), gave the Braves their only championship of the 90s (1995) and blew a lead in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game (1997).

The Cavaliers have been a decent club, but their playoff success has been about as good as the T-Wolves. A 57 win club goes down in the first round in 1989, shot through the heart by a buzzer beater by Jordan in the deciding game five over Craig Ehlo. Jordan pretty much destroyed the psyche of that club in subsequent years. It's not like they haven't had rough times, too, with 14 seasons of 30 or fewer wins, with a pair of 15 win seasons and a 17 win season. Plus, their greatest athlete ever is homegrown and he comes to playoff games wearing Yankee hats and to a Browns/Cowboys game wearing a Cowboys jersey. He's also likely to bolt for free agency as soon as he possibly can. One appearance in the NBA finals and one division title in 38 seasons.

Their NHL team was merged into the Minnesota North Stars. They didn't fold, the team didn't move, it merged into another team. Despite the fact that the Cleveland ownership group retained ownership and the team played in Cleveland's spot in the league, the team itself was located in Minnesota.

Oh, the indignity of it all.

Cleveland has a solid case.

Seattle fans get to live in Seattle. Cleveland fans get to live in Cleveland.

Cleveland suffering >> Seattle suffering. Q.E.D.

Are we really just going to leave Buffalo out of this discussion? We are losing our football team in the not too distant future, our basketball team became the Clippers and we, too, have not won a Championship worth championing (of course, I don't include Buffalo Bandits and their domination of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League) since the mid 60's with the AFL Buffalo Bills.

I understand that Seattle has it quite bad right now, and Cleveland has had a rough go of it for the past 60 years or so, but gees, Buffalo at least deserves a mention.

our basketball team became the Clippers...
That's actually a win for the city!

(In all seriousness, ask an older Buffalonian about Bob McAdoo and Ernie D. That was a dynamic duo.)