The Most Successful American Sport Franchises

Patriots. Yankees. Lakers. Penguins. There are some teams that just their name automatically makes you think of success. But most of these famously successful teams also had long stretches of terrible seasons. For instance, the Patriots were notoriously bad before the mid-90s, and the Cleveland Browns were unstoppable in the 50s and 60s. Given enough seasons, every team will go through periods of great success and failure.

Well, at least most teams do. Some franchises just seem untouchable; no matter what happens they find a way to win and win often. Let’s look at which teams have stood the test of time and put themselves atop the leaderboards. These tables are looking at the overall franchise records of each team and do not give extra attention to playoff appearances. These standings are accurate as of February 26th, 2019, 4:00pm EST.

Note: I added an extra team to the NHL table since Vegas is only in their second season, although for an expansion team they have been incredibly successful.

Note: I added two extra teams to the MLS table since Atlanta and Los Angeles FC have had two or fewer seasons.

I think for the most part there aren’t any huge surprises in these tables. All of these teams (with the exception of the Vegas Golden Knights and some MLS teams) are well established and have had years to develop their rosters around all-star players and make successful playoff runs.

Click this link to go to a spreadsheet containing the complete tables for each league if your team wasn’t listed here and you want to see how they are ranked! As always, a huge thank you to Sports-Reference.com for all of the free data their sites provide. If you enjoyed this piece please share it and follow me on Twitter @AdamNelson22_ to never miss a new article!