Some tricky sports trivia for bar bets

1. What is the smallest metro area in North America with a professional sports team?

The trick is “North America.” The Regina, Saskatchewan metro is smaller than the Green Bay, Wisconsin metro, and they have a team in the CFL.

2. Everyone knows that Green Bay is the smallest metro area in the USA with a pro sports team. What is the smallest metro with TWO sports teams.

Buffalo, New York, although New Orleans is very close. The Bills and Sabres are the Buffalo teams right now, but that leads us to a variant on the question. At various times, Buffalo has had a team in all four major sports.

The Buffalo Bisons were a major league baseball team (National League, 1879-85). They employed at least four Hall of Famers that I can recall (Pud Galvin, Jim O’Rourke, Deacon White and Dan Brouthers), but never got closer than 10 games to the pennant winners. They finally disbanded after a disastrous 1885 season in which they finished 49 games out – in a season that was only 112 games long!

The Buffalo Braves were the original location of the franchise that has now become the Clippers. They made the playoffs a few times, but never seriously challenged for a championship. That franchise has now been in the NBA 49 years without a title, or even an appearance in the finals.