page_title: Sports in Rochester, New York
section_title: Professional sports
hierarchical_section_title: Sports in Rochester, New York / Professional sports
caption_attribution_description: Rochester Americans vs. Binghamton Senators, the Gaustad,Thorburn, Paille line. That's Goose vs. Spezza there in the middle, and Thorburn starting a fight on the far side.
context_page_description: The city and metropolitan area of Rochester, New York has several sports teams.
  Rochester was named the top minor league sports market in the country by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal in July 2005, the number 10 "best golf city" in America by Golf Magazine in 2007, and the fifth-best "sports town" in the country by Scarborough Research in September 2008.
context_section_description: Although Rochester is home territory to the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres, Rochester has several professional sports teams of its own.
  As recently as 1994, there were only two professional sports franchises in Rochester: the baseball Red Wings and the hockey Americans.  Since then, a number of new teams have been instituted (and a smaller number have folded), most of which have been very successful.  In 2007, among cities in North America with at least seven (at the time) professional teams, Rochester was determined to be the only one whose teams all had cumulative winning regular season records.
  A list of current professional teams in Rochester:
  The Rochester Red Wings  baseball club, the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, are one of the oldest existing franchises in all of professional sports.  They play in the International League and won at least one pennant or championship in each decade of the 20th Century. The Rochester Americans ice hockey team, the AHL affiliate for the NHL Buffalo Sabres, are known as the "Amerks." 
  Lacrosse has seen some popularity in Rochester. The Rochester Knighthawks play box lacrosse in the National Lacrosse League during winter and spring. The current Knighthawks team replaced the former Rochester Knighthawks that played in Rochester from 1995 until 2018. In outdoor lacrosse, the Rochester Rattlers were a charter member of Major League Lacrosse, but the franchise was transferred away after winning the championship in 2008; the Rattlers were then re-established in 2011 before being relocated a final time in 2017. 
  The Rochester Razorsharks, in The Basketball League, have dominated competition and already have multiple championships. The city also has an independent pro-wrestling league: Pier 6 Wrestling.
  Professional soccer, once a popular sport in Rochester has declined over the years. The Rochester Rhinos soccer club played for many years in the A-League, which was the second-highest level American soccer league; the Rhinos even won the U.S. Open Cup against Major League Soccer competition in 1999 and have won league championships in 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2015. Despite the success, the popularity of the club has declined in recent years into dire levels. The Rochester Lancers (2010) started up in indoor soccer in 2011 and folded by 2015.
  In women's sports, Rochester is the home of the Western New York Flash, 2011 Women's Professional Soccer champions. In prior years, the Rochester Ravens have competed in the semi-pro W-League under a few different names. The Filarets were a notable women's basketball team that played in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
  The absence of a major pro sports team has not always been the case. From 1920 to 1925, Rochester was home to the Rochester Jeffersons, a charter member of the National Football League. From 1948 to 1957, the Rochester Royals played in the National Basketball Association, winning the NBA championship in 1951. In soccer, the Rochester Lancers played from 1970 to 1980 in the top-level North American Soccer League and became NASL champions in the 1970 season.
  Since 1877, 29 teams in eight professional sports have represented Rochester, according to The Rochester Sports Project by local sports historian Douglas Brei. In spring 2006, Brei showed that Rochester's professional sports teams were collectively approaching 25,000 games played. That game was played on June 16, 2006, when Red Wings hosted the Indianapolis Indians at Frontier Field. He also reports that only six active franchises in the history of North American professional sports have played in the same city and same league continuously and uninterrupted since the 19th century: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, and Rochester Red Wings.
caption: The Rochester Americans
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