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American sports fans have been known to get carried away if their teams win a championship – or, in fact, if they lose.

Rioting broke out in Philadelphia last night after their Eagles team won the Superbowl for the first time and the city is bracing itself for more chaos after Thursday’s parade.

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Despite shops, lampposts and street signs being trashed there have yet to be any casualties in Philly’s ‘celebrations’ unlike other American sporting riots which have claimed nearly 20 lives in the last forty years.

And Canadians have been known to trash a city or two if their beloved ice hockey teams win, or don’t win.




In 2011 the Vancouver Canucks lost the 2011 Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins, and fans trashed parts of the city, causing millions of dollars of damage.

Here are five US cities which rioted after sporting championships.

Detroit – 1984 and 1990

This was the iconic picture of the Detroit 1984 World Series riot when Tigers fans trashed the city (Picture: AP)

When Detroit’s basketball team the Pistons won the 1990 basketball championship eight people died in the rioting which followed the celebrations.

The final game win was quickly followed by gunfire, stabbings and fighting. Police arrested 35 people and that was before fans started looting shops and overturning emergency vehicles.

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Four people were killed, three children, when a crazed driver mowed down fans celebrating in the city’s East Side. Two pedestrians, one a four-year-old boy were killed ‘during street celebrations’, a 21-year-old fell off a roof and died and a 19-year-old man was killed when someone fired a gun at revellers.

In 1984 the city also rioted when its baseball team The Tigers won the World Series one person was killed, there were nine reported rapes and 80 people were injured.

Millions of dollars of damage was caused, police were attacked and cars were overturned.

Boston – 2004, 2007 and 2013

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After being starved of success for decades when the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series after 86 years fans rioted after the winning game and the celebration parade. They had also rioted the week before after defeating the New York Yankees, which left one fan dead when police started firing pepper into crowds of fans.

When the Red Sox won the World Series won again three years later there was yet more rioting, fans hurled rocks at police in riot gear, smashed shops windows and lighting fires. Police made 37 arrests and authorities promised lessons had been learnt.

In 2013 another Red Sox win sparked riots when unruly fans flipped cars, fought police and scaled lampposts near the Red Sox iconic Fenway Park ground.

Some folks posed atop an overturned car outside of Fenway Park.(Jessica Rinaldi For The Boston Globe) pic.twitter.com/UU7ZVAlkn5 — Andrew Ba Tran (@abtran) October 31, 2013

Chicago – 1991, 1992 and 1993

Chicago Bulls fans trashed taxis throughout the city in 1992 (Picture: NBC)

Michael Jordan’s brilliance leading the Chicago Bulls to multiple basketball championships in the 1990s had a downside, the Windy city rioted nearly every time they won.

The worst outbreak of civil disorder was after the team’s third consecutive championship in June 1993 when two people died. A woman standing on her balcony was shot and killed by a stray bullet and a man was pulled from his car at an intersection and shot to death.

Nearly 700 were arrested as fans and police fought pitch battles. There was ‘random gunfire’ heard across the city when the Bulls beat the Phoenix Suns.



After rioting in 1991 and 1992 (1,000 arrests, $10million dollars damage) the authorities decided to flood the city with police officers in 1993 but this did not stop the rioting.

However, the city might have learnt its lesson. When the city’s baseball team The Cubs won their first World Series since 1908 over a million people turned out to be one of the biggest congregations of humans in history, and it passed of peacefully.

The Chicago Cubs victory parade of 2016 was the seventh largest gathering in human history. pic.twitter.com/yM7wtgS1Fg — Did You Know? (@Know) November 18, 2016

Denver – 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001

Denver Broncos fans riot after their first ever Super Bowl victory in 1998 (Picture: CBS)

The Mile High city’s worst ever riot happened after NFL team Broncos won their first Super Bowl in January 1998, when over 10,000 fans went on a rampage.

Drunken fans overturned cars, looted and vandalised buildings in the city. Damages ran into millions of dollars. A year later after another victory 1,000 Broncos fans rioted in a smaller scale disturbance.

Icy Hockey fans also rioted when The Avalanche won their first Stanley Cup in 1996 and again in 2001 when they won their second when 63 fans were arrested.

Cleveland – 1974

The 1974 10 cent beer riot in Cleveland (Picture: ESPN)

Now, other cities including Los Angeles, Baltimore and San Francisco need to get honourable mentions for rioting fans. However, the final city in our five is Cleveland, mainly because of how an incredibly stupid idea by the baseball team The Indians led to the riot.

In 1974 times were tough in Cleveland, the river which snakes through the city, regularly would be ablaze due to pollution. However, the Indians thought it would be a great plan to introduce 10 cent beers.

Fans obviously got very drunk, very quickly on their 10 cent beers and it did not take long until firecrackers were lit, bottles were thrown and then hundreds of drunks stormed the field.


They ransacked the field and then chased the baseball players away before stealing anything they could get their hands on.

Opposition manager Billy Martin, of the Texas Rangers, said: ‘That was the closest you’re ever going to be to seeing someone get killed in this game of baseball.’