As the calendar officially ushers in summer across America, a pair of traditional winter sports are reaching the crescendo of their seasons.  In this 2024 iteration, teams from the Dallas, TX region made it to the conference championships in both men’s professional basketball and ice hockey.

Neither the Stars or Mavericks were ever favored to win the title, according to betting lines.  However, as the 2nd and 6th ranked teams in their league, for hockey and hoops respectively, these are impressive playoff results.

The city of Miami, FL achieved the desirable dual Finals feat last year.  Dallas proper was trying to extend the streak, which would have marked the first time that a different metropolitan area reached the pinnacle round of both NHL and NBA in consecutive years.  The Mavericks did their part, with a 5-game series victory, but the Stars came up just short, in 6 hard-fought contests. 

Considering this recent background, it’s interesting to explore other times when the same town has chased multiple titles simultaneously.  It’s also instructive to look back through history at the other major sports leagues, to see which location and year can take claim for the fielding the best fleet of squads simultaneously.

The format for the NBA and NHL seasons are eerily similar.  An 82-game regular season, both starting in October, with hockey always beginning earlier, due to additional rest days required.  An identical playoff format, 4 rounds of best-of-7 series, whittling the top 16 teams down to the lone champion.

The playoff schedule in the NBA and NHL almost perfectly aligns on the calendar, making it an ideal candidate for multi-sport cities to be entertained nearly every night of the week.  And offering up some substantial scheduling challenges. 

As a result of this overlap, both leagues’ planning departments must coordinate closely.  Another consideration are the TV coverage windows, which requires that games be played at certain times, to accommodate peak viewership slots on both weekday evenings and weekend afternoons.

Another challenge is that the bracket outcomes are, by definition, unknown.  Thus, specifics on which cities are still involved is sometimes determined only a few days in advance of the next match-up.  Then there’s the confounding factor that many of these popular venues book other entertainment acts, like concerts and shows, theorizing the local team will have already been eliminated from contention.

This is a complex, tangled, and dynamic web of scheduling logistics. 

Sometimes a pro team moving on to the next round displaces a famous musician from playing in town.  Such conflicts are a hassle, but the more sports hosting activities a city is juggling in early June, the better their teams are doing, and happier the local fans become.    

9 urban zones in the United States, as well at Toronto, Canada, use the same venue for both their professional basketball and ice hockey teams.  Many of these stadiums are iconic:  TD Garden in Boston, Madison Square Garden in New York City, United Center in Chicago.  The location and amenities of these hallowed halls makes them popular for all sorts of events beyond their traditional athletics usage.

But, the king of versatility is the Crypto.com Arena, formerly known as the Staples Center, in downtown Los Angeles.  As the home to a pair of NBA squads, an NHL team, and a WNBA franchise, this 20k seat facility must be able to change signage, colorways, and even the floor surface, very quickly.

A fairly modern facility, built in 1999, this site has executed over 10 doubleheaders per season since opening its doors to fans.  These arena flips can be executed in just 2.5 hours, using a crew of 50 skilled technicians, for same day contests.  Understandably, hockey games are generally scheduled second, due to the high propensity for lengthy overtime extensions, especially in the playoffs.

Sure, two high-profile games in a single day, at the same venue, is impressive.  But what about the ultimate individual city elite athletic competition viewing opportunity?

Based on current regular season schedules, there’s no time where all 4 major U.S. sports overlap.  Fortunately, in true American overstimulation fashion, there’s also not a single week on the calendar when at least one professional league isn’t in full swing.

Conveniently, commissioners and owners invented the playoffs, to settle contentious debates about their assembled squads, and make some supplemental income to line their pockets.  The length of these tournaments has continued to expand over the years.

Augmenting the essentially identical NBA and NHL calendars, MLB is currently added from the Opening Day at the beginning of April to mid-June, with the NFL overlapping the other winter sports seasonal starts in October, and extending to the Super Bowl culmination in mid-February.

And yes, there are occasionally quad sport days, based how the MLB World Series, and the beginning of the NBA season, scheduling plays out.  This alignment is so unique and rare that it’s earned a special moniker, at least amongst dedicated observers online.  A “sports equinox”.

Last fall, the perfect confluence occurred just once, on Monday, October 30th, 2023.  That evening, the Texas Rangers played the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the World Series, while the Las Vegas Raiders battled the Detroit Lions on MNF.  Meanwhile, a full slate of NBA and NHL games went off without a hitch.

The pair of well-endowed cities both had 3 professional sports contests to flip back and forth between during the evening.  However, only the Detroit Pistons and Dallas Stars were at home that night, for those fans who prefer their entertainment live and in person.  And, neither metropolis was able to achieve the desired trifecta of concurrent victories.     

Ironically, while offering the only potential overlap days, October is by far the leanest month on the calendar, with baseball in the playoffs, football on its normal mostly weekend cadence, and both basketball and hockey just getting started. 

Experience may vary by year, but in October of 2023, there was ironically just one occurrence, Friday the 6th, with no professional sports match-ups to watch across America.  ESPN had plenty of extra airtime to fill that day.

The official starting dates for each major U.S. pastime are as follows, after the various league mergers and realignments: MLB (1903), NHL (1914), NBA (1950), NFL (1966).  This means there’s less than 60 years’ worth of complete championship data to examine.

Also, the total number of teams per league, assigned home cities, and playoff formats have changed substantially over the decades across the quartet of major sports.  Which makes the achievement of a 2-title town even harder to evaluate and quantify.

Looking back through history, the same city has held multiple Big 4 titles in the same season 18 times.  This randomly happened at the same frequency when analyzing on a per calendar basis, considering the Super Bowl is typically held early in the following year.

New York City accounts 7 of these occurrences, taking a clear lead, though over half of these instances came during a brief 11-year stretch from 1927 to 1938; aided by the Yankees MLB dominance, successful Rangers teams in the NHL, and identically named Giants titles in two different athletic pursuits.

Recent manifestations of multi-sport success are more impressive, considering the increased national competition, and thus more representative of true city dominance.

Amazingly, since the NBA was formed in the middle of the 20th century, well after the NHL, the same town has concurrently reached the Finals 8 times.  However, no city has won both these prized trophies in the same year.

Boston had 3 chances, in 1957, 1958, and 1974.  The first 2 dates correspond with an uncanny run of 10 straight NBA Finals appearances by the Celtics.  However, the Bruins couldn’t capture the Cup either year at the end of the 1950’s, then were upset as the top seed in 1974.

New York City also had a trio of opportunities to achieve this feat of dominance.  With more combinations of teams, it seems like history would yield a favorable result.  In 1972, the Knicks and Rangers both fell during the Finals, in 5 and 6 games respectively.

A different Metropolitan duo, both with New Jersey monikers, had a chance in 2003.  The Devils did their part, winning the Stanley Cup, but the Nets came up short, losing in 6 games, and extending the NBA title drought for NYC, which spans back to 1973, and continues to present day.

New York City also holds the honor of coming closest to garnering both the NBA and NHL titles at the same time.  These pursuits culminated at MSG in Manhattan on back-to-back days in the middle of June 1994.

On June 14th, the New York Rangers earned the Stanley Cup with a Game 7 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.  The following night, with the ice transformed to hardwood, the Knicks beat the Houston Rockets to go up 3-2 in the NBA Finals.  However, the Knicks lost the next two games, thus failing to accomplish the unprecedented double success, which would have incited the entire metropolitan region into a frenzy. 

1980 was the year of Philadelphia.  All 4 major sports teams (76ers, Flyers, Eagles, Phillies) made it to their respective championship round.  Unfortunately, only the baseball squad was able to take home the title.  While Super Bowl XV was held on January 25th, 1981, the 1980 viewing season was clearly an epic one for Philly fanatics everywhere.

Chicago.  1992.  There’s one player which comes to mind for any basketball fan.  Michael Jordan.  This was the middle year of the Bulls threepeat, Version 1.0.  Under the radar, the Blackhawks made the ice hockey finals this year, an achievement which was short-lived, due to a 4-game sweep.  Another town, another failed attempt at double glory.

Considering the dominance of the LA Lakers on the court over time, it’s surprising the Los Angeles metro doesn’t make this list.  Which is a testament of their region’s hockey squad ineptitude.  Granted, the Kings didn’t get going until 1967, while the Ducks, no longer “Mighty”, weren’t founded until 1993.

However, another California city did get their chance, fairly recently, in 2016.  The Golden State Warriors and the San Jose Sharks both made it to their respective Finals that year.  This achievement is a little different, as these teams play in namesake facilities which are 50 miles apart.  Still, this is a respectable result for the San Francisco metro, even though both squads lost.   

Defying the odds as lowly 8-seeds, both the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers navigated through challenging brackets to the title series during the 2022-2023 season.  These unlikely defeats came at the cost of the same opponent, Boston, which became the first metropolis to suffer Game 7 defeats at home to 8-seeds in both basketball and hockey during the same season.  

However, both Miami-based teams lost their championship battles in uncompetitive 5-game fashion, which culminated on consecutive days, June 12th and 13th of 2023.  The playoff parallels, between this pair of decidedly different athletic endeavors, is uncanny.

To date, no cities have ever matched up in NBA and NHL finals the same year, battling for the Larry O’Brien Trophy and Stanley Cup respectively.  One can only imagine the trash talk which would materialize on social media in this simultaneous series situation.

Supplementing this pair of aligned titles with NFL and MLB glory represents the ultimate accomplishment.  Which has obviously never happened either.

18 times in history, a single city has captured 2 of the 4 major championships at once.  This sporting expansion opens up the possible number cities who can accomplish the feat, based on pro franchise locations.  Still, to date, not even a 3rd concurrent title has been achieved.   

The aforementioned 1980 - 81 Philadelphia run was the closest to winning everything, with all 4 squads making it to the final challenge.  However, there are a few other standouts, both historically, and more recently.

Detroit debatably achieved the feat way back in 1935, an MLB campaign in which the Detroit Tigers won the World Series.  This same year, the Detroit Lions were crowned NFL champions, well before the Super Bowl era.   And, the Red Wings captured the Stanley Cup during the 1935 - 36 season.  With the NBA yet to be formulated, this was an incredibly impressive run of single city sports prowess.

Another recent standout is Tampa Bay, a smaller locale that only hosts 3 of the Big 4 leagues.  These Florida franchises thrived during 2020, which was obviously a tumultuous year, as the COVID-19 pandemic proliferated, resulting in lots of modifications to everyday life, and professional sports planning.

Battling adversity, and waiting out a 6-month NHL pause, the Lightning captured the Stanley Cup at the end of September 2020.  The Rays logged the AL’s best record in a shorted MLB regular season, then lost to the LA Dodgers in the World Series just a month later.  Finally, the Buccaneers won the Lombardi Trophy in February of 2021, which was the first home stadium Super Bowl win ever.

Ironically, this same year, the two-title trick was achieved by another urban region, obviously in the opposite pair of sports.  This metropolis has a lot more options to draw from.  The Lakers and Dodgers, each beloved by Los Angeles natives, were also both champions in their 2020 campaigns.  It was a weird year in many ways.

In the spirit of modern athletics, there are now many more professional sports than there used to be.  Again, sheer population size promoting fan base support, and the resulting number of major league organizations, favors the major metropole hubs. 

The standout city’s run in this more wholistic regard is the 2002 Los Angeles portfolio, securing MLB and MLS titles, along with both the men’s and women’s basketball championships at the highest level of sport.  Angels, Galaxy, Lakers, and Sparks are the specific team names, considering the multitude of famous franchises located in this area.

In addition to Philadelphia being able to stake claim to potentially the most successful season ever, it also achieved a rare sporting feat just a few years back.  Over a brief 24-hour period, starting on the evening of November 2nd, 2022, all 4 of the Philly’s famous squads were playing live at the same time. 

This run started out normal enough, with the 76ers competing at home in the Wells Fargo Center, which forced their shared stadium Flyers to go on the road.  Of more importance, the following evening, the Phillies participated in World Series Game 5, hosting at Citizen Bank Park, with the championship bout tied 2-2.  Simultaneously, the Philadelphia Eagles traveled west to battle the Houston Texans on Thursday night football.

The bars throughout the Philly metro area were understandably packed.  Much to the chagrin of local fans, aside from the Eagles remaining undefeated at 8-0 starting out their NFL season, all three other teams lost, and the Phillies were bounced from the World Series in their subsequent game.

One thing is for sure.  Having a successful sports team, or even better several, can be incredibly exhilarating to a community.  The shared emotions, an entire populous living and dying on every game, play, or detail.  An economic boost, tourists and locals conspiring to pack restaurant, shops, and bars.  Displays of passion; uniforms, flags, stickers, and signage spanning every segment of the streets.

There are a dozen United States cities which host teams for all 4 major sports.  These spots are shown on the United States map below, along with the total number of franchises calling each metropolis home. 

Based on current Neilson Media Research viewership rankings, all the metropolitan regions in the top-10 are accounted for, aside from Houston and Atlanta, who slot in at #6 and #7 respectively.  In terms of punching above their weight, Denver (#17) and Miami (#18) are found well below the #12 spot nationally. 

Both these southern regions yet to complete the quartet are only missing a hockey team; understandable based on the warm climate, which limits popularity of an athletic pursuit requiring a sheet of ice.  ATL did have the Thrashers from 1999 – 2011, before for the franchise moved to frosty Winnipeg in Canada.  Houston has never achieved NHL status, but has fielded both AHL and IHL squads over the years.    

One additional city which could appear on this map with an asterisk is Phoenix, AZ.  While this desert region has encompassed all 4 major sport franchises for a while, as of the 2024 season, the Coyotes NHL team has been halted, with Salt Lake City taking its prized spot.  Another case of warm weather and cold ice not playing nice. 

With the Texas Rangers as the defending World Series Champion, and the Dallas Mavericks headed to the NBA Finals, there’s the potential for 2024 to be a historic year for the Dallas metro area as a collective.  Granted, the Cowboys are going to need a little help to fulfill their end of the bargain, as Jerry World is approaching a 30-year Super Bowl drought, since the era of 1990’s dominance. 

Cross Check

• List of times when same city reached NBA and NHL championships in same year.  [REF]

• Interesting rabbit hole thread on the history and prevalence of the “sports equinox”.  [REF]

• Breakdown of multiple title town times and teams. [REF]

• Details on facility turnover scheme for doubleheaders at fancy sports venues.  [REF]

• Annual championship breakdown by city across a wide range of professional sports.  [REF]