ESPN SportsNation recently released its annual “Ultimate Standings” to the public. These rankings combine every team in the four major American professional sports to determine the most successful franchises in the eye of professionals and the public. The teams with the highest mean in overall rankings of the following categories determine where they fall in relation to other teams:

Bang For The Buck (BNG): Wins during the past three years (regular season plus postseason) per revenues directly from fans, adjusted for league schedules.

Fan Relations (FRL): Openness and consideration toward fans by players, coaches and management.
Ownership (OWN): Honesty and loyalty to core players and local community.
Affordability (AFF): Price of tickets, parking and concessions.
Stadium Experience (STX): Quality of arena and game-day promotions as well as friendliness of environment.
Players (PLA): Effort on the field and likability off it.
Coaching (CCH): Strength of on-field leadership.
Title Track (TTR): Championships already won or expected in the lifetime of current fans.

With that being said, these rankings listed the Philadelphia Flyers as being No. 54 overall.  The selection at #54 for the Orange and Black is a huge jump from last season’s mark at the 71st slot, but many will continue to wonder the same thought that was left with them last year: why are the Flyers ranked so poorly once again?  I’ll go through each of the Flyers’ rankings according to ESPN’s “Genius’s”, and explain why the Flyers simply deserve a better score in each category.  Would you have it any other way?

BNG (77th overall)

• It’s no secret with the Flyers: tickets are expensive.  The Orange and Black have become notorious for over-charging fans for tickets, food, and even a single beer.  However, it’s not like the Flyers are alone in this front.  However, they are among the few teams that can get away with it.  Many teams have jacked up prices in recent years and haven’t been rewarded by fans constantly packing the stadium.  The Flyers are an exception to this trend.  Year in and year out, including the ‘06-’07 season which featured a last place finish in the entire National Hockey League, the Flyer faithful consistently pack the Wachovia Center.  The tickets may be pricey (lower level seats run as much as $96 a game), but the fans still come and pay.  To be honest, that’s all that matters.  The fans’ reward for their loyalty?  Playoff hockey has existed in this city 33 of the team’s 42 seasons, and some of the elder fans have even witnessed a Stanley Cup won on the Spectrum ice in the 1974.  Talk about bang for your buck.  Now, ESPN is really going to say that there are 76 other franchises that give the fans a bang for their buck?  Doubt it.

FR (27th overall)

• Although 27th out of 122 teams is not bad by any standards, it’s just unfair to the Flyers to say that there are 26 teams that have better fan relations than they do.  Ed Snider, the owner of the Flyers who I will touch on later in this post, has established some great organizations to give hockey back to the fans.  Most notably The Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, which was established a few years ago by Snider to promote hockey in the more corrupt parts of Philadelphia.  Since it’s inception, the ESYHF has succeeded fruitfully, as has another event started by the Flyers’ wives some time ago: the Flyers Fight For Lives Carnival.  Each year, in February, the Flyers have held this extremely popular event which allows players and fans to interact in the form of picture taking, autographs, dunk tanks, and even just casual conversation.  Between the ESYHF and The Flyers Wives Fight For Lives Carnival, one notices two parts to this franchise that should certainly upgrade it from 27 to one of the closest to #1.

OWN (8th overall)

Ed Snider is a Sports God in Philadelphia

• I can live with 8th, but I’ll argue with anyone until the day I die that Ed Snider is the best owner in professional sports.  Snider brought hockey to this city and made Philadelphia fall in love with “The Coolest Game on Earth”. Snider has created two multi-purpose facilities that both have been and are considered state-of-the-art for given their year of inception, in the Wachovia Center and the Wachovia Spectrum.  The Spectrum, which Snider calls his “baby”, is due to be demolished in the coming year, and Snider has publicly said he does not think he will be able to be in attendance when the implosion occurs.  “America’s Showplace,” as the Spectrum has come to be known, brought the Flyers into the Philadelphia limelight back in 1967, and was one of the first multi-purpose facilities in professional sport.  Along with the Flyers, Mr. Snider also owns the Sixers and is a high-ranking official within the Comcast-Spectacor Corporation.  He has become an icon in Philadelphia and has a place in both the Philadelphia Flyers and National Hockey League Hall of Fame.  Mr. Snider holds a special place in my heart, because the love that I have for the Flyers would not have been possible had it not been for his genius to bring the Flyers to Philadelphia back in 1967.  Like I said before, not many can top Mr. Snider.

AFF (87th overall)

• No secret here: playing in a big market like Philadelphia causes a team to be able to up their prices and not feel all that bad about it.  The Flyers do have, in my opinion, pretty ludicrous prices when it comes to merchandise and food at the games within the Wachovia Center.  However, that doesn’t go without saying that the food at the Wachovia Center and the amenities offered are pretty damn good as well.  I’m not going to argue this fact, just make a simple point:  the two teams in front of the Flyers on this list are the New York Islanders (85) and the Phoenix Suns (86) – both teams that play in large markets with FOUR major sports teams (NY has 8, Phoenix – Cardinals, Suns, Coyotes, Diamondbacks).  Big market = higher ticket prices; it’s just a part of the game.

STX (48th overall)

It's Crush Time, Baby!

• OK, this is where I get heated.  48th overall!?  The Flyers boast one of the best fan bases as well as one of the most successful franchises in all of professional sports and it is a travesty that the Flyers are ranked so high.  There is NO playoff experience that compares to what goes on inside the Wachovia Center walls during spring time and the noise level in that building is off the charts.  In fact, the Wachovia Center and Flyers fans were voted “The most intimidating” in an ESPN Player’s Poll last season.  Now, why ESPN then proceeds to rank the Flyers 48th overall is beyond me.  Perhaps it really shows the most glaring hole in this whole debate: ESPN really just doesn’t care enough about hockey to really even know how to rank these teams.  “The Orange Crush” is one of, if not the most, intimidating fan base in hockey and there aren’t many hockey players that want to come in to Philadelphia for a decisive playoff game with their season on the line.  Before playoff games, the Wachovia Center has the “Flyers Playoff Block Party,” hosted right outside the ‘Center, and the whole event has food, beverages, and live bands – as well as a nice way by the Flyers to cover up what is really a drinking fest that gets the fans indoors all the more rowdy.  The pre-game introductions by the great guys at Arenavision have continuously been awarded by different outlets for supplying some of the best pre-game pump up introductions ever seen in professional sports.  All in all, it’s fairly simple: “The Orange Crush” has been snubbed, ladies and gentlemen.  And believe me, they will not forget it.

PLA (47th overall)

• Another mind-boggler.  The Flyers, as I stated earlier, have been one of the most successful teams in sports during their history.  There is one – and only one – reason for that success: the players.  Flyers players, who have been called everything from “The Orange and Black”, to the “Broad Street Bullies,” have had one ringing mantra throughout their fraternity: Work hard and play hard.  Inside the Flyers’ dressing room, a simple statement is written above the chalkboard, a statement known to Flyers players well before Kurt Russel immortalized it in “Miracle”: “You Play for the crest on the front of the jersey, NOT the name on the back.”  I can’t think of many organizations, besides maybe the Yankees (who don’t actually even have names on their jerseys), that would live by this mantra as religiously as the Flyers do.  Players that come here are all hard workers; Flyers players sometimes have more brawn then brains, but that’s the way the fans like it in Philadelphia.  Great players, as well as characters, have come through this franchise: Bobby Clarke, Reggie Leach, Bernie Parent, Ron Hextall, Pelle Lindbergh, Tim Kerr, Mark Howe, Bill Barber, Jeremy Roenick, John LeClair, Mark Recchi, Peter Forsberg, Eric Lindros, Keith Primeau – the list truly is endless.  The bottom line is that there aren’t many teams that can match up to the Flyers’ historical repertoire of players, and ESPN did a sub-par job of taking notice.

CCH (79th overall)

• For those of you who don’t know me too well, understand this: I am not John Stevens’ biggest fan.  He has done a half-decent job in his two-and-a-half seasons manning the Flyers’ bench,  but he doesn’t really hit home in my opinion as  coach that fits the Philadelphia limelight.  The Flyers have had some great coaches in the past, most notably Fred “The Fog” Shero and Ken Hitchcock, but coaching has never been a strong point in the Flyers repetoire.   Don’t get me wrong – Stevens, and Assistant Coaches Jack McIlhargey, Craig Berube, and Joey Mullen are great guys all around – they just aren’t the best coaching staff the Flyers could ever have.  I can’t really argue ESPN’s opinion on this matter too much; I’m actually somewhat relieved that the Flyers’ coaching staff wasn’t ranked lower.

TTR (69th overall)

Missing Lord Stanley since '75

• I haven’t seen a Stanley Cup come to Philadelphia in my lifetime (20 years), and altogether it’s been almost 35 years since the Cup has been paraded down Broad Street.  However, the Flyers certainly have the pieces right now to make a legitimate run at Lord Stanley.  With the acquisition of Chris Pronger, along with a great offensive core in Claude Giroux, Danny Briere, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Scott Hartnell, and Simon Gagne,  the Flyers certainly have the pieces to the puzzle to make great things happen this season.  Recent history hasn’t brought much glory to Philadelphia – the Flyers haven’t won an Atlantic Division title since 2004, and haven’t been crowned Kings of the Eastern Conference since 1997 – but this season brings new hope to the Flyer faithful, as well as hope to all readers that ESPN will give this category a higher ranking next season.

Overall, it seems the Flyers got the short end of the stick on many fronts in ESPN’s “Ultimate Standings 2009,” as evidenced by the facts presented in this post.  The Flyers, like all of the Philadelphia sports teams, deserve much more credit.  Philadelphia is one of, if not the greatest (some bias, I must admit) sports cities in the world, but Philadelphia continues to be the recipient of tough love from the boys in Bristol, CT.  Here’s hoping to better scores in 2010!