Ranking the Valley’s professional franchises

Look, let’s face it. We are spoiled here in Phoenix.

We have top-tier men’s franchises (and one second division franchise) in five of America’s most popular sports.

The Arizona Cardinals, our National Football League franchise, moved from St. Louis to Phoenix in 1988. The Arizona Diamondbacks have been in the valley since it’s inclusion into Major League Baseball in 1998 as an expansion franchise. The Arizona Coyotes, of the NHL, have been here since 1996, when they moved from Winnipeg. Phoenix Rising, seeking an expansion bid into Major League Soccer, has had it’s own spot in the professional sports scene in Arizona since 2014.

Finally, the Phoenix Suns have been a Phoenix mainstay since 1968.

We certainly have enough variety to make everyone happy.

Your hockey fan uncle up in Glendale? The Coyotes have got him covered. Your baseball loving cousin over in Tempe? Check out those Diamondbacks. Your football fanatic brother from Gilbert? Cardinals all day, baby. Your soccer loving son out in Scottsdale? The up-and-coming Phoenix Rising are ready and waiting.

And you? The basketball fan of the family? You are a Suns fan through-and-through.

So, we have established just how well the Phoenix area satisfies all. But how do the individual teams compare with one another? Well, by exploring some key criteria, we are going to attempt to rank the valley’s sports teams.

Here are the criteria:

Ownership

Management

Longevity

Success

By using these categories, hopefully we will be able to identify the most efficient and well established franchises and contrast them with the least efficient and established ones.

Without further ado, let’s get right into it!