What city is the best sports city? (City. Not state. U.S.only) | Page 4 | The Boneyard

What city is the best sports city? (City. Not state. U.S.only)

Scottobot said:
I agree with Husky Hawk. I have lived in Oakland for the last 25 years and most people don’t give a crap about sports. We lost all three of our professional sports teams, because no one cares, and no one wants to give them a dime to help them stay. The one exception is everyone goes bonkers about the warriors when they win. The bandwagon gets absolutely crazy. However as soon as they start losing, meh no one cares. I love the Oakland A’s and routinely there would be less than 5000 people at games. Just a completely empty arena. Far more people in Bay Area have the attitude pro sports teams are evil entities that are stealing money from cities than there are people who like sports. But I will say the couple thousand As fans who still went to games were some of the greatest fans and great people to hang out with at a game.
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Just to add to my previous comment, the people who are sports fans here are really into it. Raiders and A’s fans are pretty die hard, but there are people from all over the world and all over the country here. A lot of people here came from somewhere else. People from other countries are not always into American sports.
 
Tough to beat Chicago. Nothing better than a Saturday day game in the bleachers of Wrigley. When they are good the city goes nuts. When they are bad it's still the place to be. As bad as the Sox are, they've still won some ships, and the food is titz. Bulls, yeah post MJ... people still show. Blackhawks had a hell of a run in the 2010's.. Still arguably the toughest ticket, people show. DA Bears Stink - but godamitt the city still rides them. Chicago might not have even above average teams overall right now but everyone cares and i'll be damned if you come from out of town in the summer and act like you don't want to hit up Wrigley
 
I think the best sports cities have at least 4 teams that matter locally and lots of fans who follow multiple sports. They have a storied history or unique sports culture and teams with a strong identity/brand. Bonus points if college athletics are also a big deal.

1. Boston: championships and legendary history; also loyal fans who've lived through title droughts
2. Philadelphia: fans have a well-earned reputation as fanatical and hostile
(I consider it in Boston & Philly's favor that they have only 1 pro team per sport and are smaller cities. Fan bases in NYC and LA are divided and more spread out across their metro areas)
3. NYC: historic venues, sports celebrities, iconic moments, a tough mass media market to play in
4. Chicago: passionate fan bases, lots of history

Honorable mention to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Seattle.

LA would make the list but I'm annoyed by all the fake celebrity and fair weather fans who show up late and leave early. Also the number of orgs that have left or relocated there.
 
HooperScooper said:
Aren’t you a Mets and Jets fan? I don’t know how anyone could go through life like that. At least you have UConn though.
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I know, imagine being a Mets, Jets, Nets and St John's fan?

You can throw in the Knicks and the Rangers too

The Islanders and the Yanks keep the city relevant

Should we count before the war titles?
 
LA is the best answer, but it’s really between NYC and LA.

San Francisco would be on the next tier with Philadelphia. Miami, Boston, and the rest of the middling cities are well below the Top 4.
 
UConnTrumbull said:
If we go by titles across all sport it’s Boston.

For best live experience it’s hard to beat NY when the Knicks, Yankees/Mets, Rangers, Giants/Jets are good.

Yes, I may be northeast biased.
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As a fellow NY fan, its diluted somewhat with all the duplicate sports team. Sure the city is big enough for both, but imagine if there were only the Yankees, Knicks, Rangers and Giants and how fanatical the fan base would be.

Mets, Nets, Islanders and Jets coexistence splits city loyalties but do offer alternatives during droughts and bad times.

I'm sure there are fans who like the whole NYC lineup of teams.
 
willie99 said:
I know, imagine being a Mets, Jets, Nets and St John's fan?

You can throw in the Knicks and the Rangers too

The Islanders and the Yanks keep the city relevant

Should we count before the war titles?
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Islanders? You know Mike Bossy doesn't play for them anymore, right?

I also think Giants fans may have an issue with your post.
 
Deepster said:
Islanders? You know Mike Bossy doesn't play for them anymore, right?

I also think Giants fans may have an issue with your post.
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Let them make the playoffs first :)

Hey, some people think UCLA is a "blueblood", so there's that



PS: I was thinking about titles in the post segregation era
 
LA loses football teams on a regular basis

The Charges play a road game every week. The Rams play road games 75% of the time

The Dodgers and Lakers are legit, although the Dodgers crowd shows up for their sushi in the 6th inning

I do still love Vin Scully
 
Underrated despite rubbish team performances, Detroit. One of very few cities with all 4 major sports playing within city. Zero Super Bowls ever nor NFL championships nearly in forever. Last hoops title a few decades ago. No World Series wins in over 4 decades. No Stanley Cup wins in Hockey Town since early 2000s. Weird enough for band wagoners in many cities, Detroit sports fans surprisingly remain loyal.
 
Da_Aisijimo_Gou said:
Underrated despite rubbish team performances, Detroit. One of very few cities with all 4 major sports playing within city. Zero Super Bowls ever nor NFL championships nearly in forever. Last hoops title a few decades ago. No World Series wins in over 4 decades. No Stanley Cup wins in Hockey Town since early 2000s. Weird enough for band wagoners in many cities, Detroit sports fans surprisingly remain loyal.
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Final 4 is in Indy this upcoming season and then it's in Detroit.

Detroit has the best sports complex with all 4 stadiums right next to each other in the city.
 
superjohn said:
Final 4 is in Indy this upcoming season and then it's in Detroit.

Detroit has the best sports complex with all 4 stadiums right next to each other in the city.
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If you've been there, you understand they have NOTHING else going.
 
willie99 said:
LA loses football teams on a regular basis

The Charges play a road game every week. The Rams play road games 75% of the time

The Dodgers and Lakers are legit, although the Dodgers crowd shows up for their sushi in the 6th inning

I do still love Vin Scully
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Even though I said LA as my answer, I remember going to a Dodger/Giants game at Dodger stadium where the division title was on the line late in the season. It was a 1 run game and it was the season where Bonds was poised to break McGuire record. The place was packed. Until they pulled Bonds in the 7th because they weren't pitching to him and the place cleared out. It was a very meaningful game. That left a sour taste in my mouth. (But that may have been the Michelada)
 
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Deepster said:
If you've been there, you understand they have NOTHING else going.
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Was in Detroit for the 2004 motor city bowl. there is literally nothing but abandoned buildings outside the sports facilities, did get to see the old tiger stadium that was cool.
 
I've lived in the NYC area my whole life, so it's hard for me to pick another city since the combination of volume, passion, knowledge is just so rich.

Within the city limits, there are unique epicenters of fandom -- imagine the fandom palette of someone from the Bronx vs. Queens. There's the four key pro sports, college fandom, even flavors from across the world.

Of course, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago have to be up there too. If I had to rank those cities, I'd go Chicago, Philadelphia then Boston. Out of all of those cities, Boston feels the most "bandwagon-y" to me. Maybe because it's the smallest city out of the four mentioned above, but the proportion of true fanatics, to me, feels less proportional than the other three. More objectively speaking, college sports is less impactful in Boston than the other cities. Elite hockey, but basketball and football in Boston is a dud.

More importantly, if you think your city is the best, then roll with that. Plenty of smaller cities with insanely passionate fanbases (I'm looking at you Fargo, ND and Cow Dick, TX).
 
Boston fans are real real quite when their teams lose. Celtics fans talking a whole lot of trash, and now not saying a word after getting their asses stomped last night.
 
Jaydumo20 said:
There is a phenomenon amongst cubs fans that i cant chalk up to coincidence. Compared to NY and Red Sox fans: i can see a person with a yankees hat or a Boston hat and if I start talking baseball there is a chance that they aren't really up on the team, or are casual fans, or they are from the area. But with Cubs fans, if i see a cubs shirt, hat, flag, whatever- i can always launch into a specific baseball conversation and I'll always be knowledgeably engaged. This is also true for many small-mid market teams, but for a huge market, cubs fans seem unique in that regard
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I think that’s more because Red Sox and Yankees caps are more about the city than the team at this point. Everyone wears them, baseball fan or not.
 
Scoe said:
Boston fans are real real quite when their teams lose. Celtics fans talking a whole lot of trash, and now not saying a word after getting their asses stomped last night.
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We lost, it happens, on to next year. Hopefully sans Joe Mazzulla

Winning it all is hard. If Denver loses as expected, there are zero titles in nearly 50 years for the remaining franchises. Over 50 years for the remaining cities. Four finals appearances in that time frame

Enjoy the moment, don't act punch drunk :)
 
Deepster said:
Not gonna lie. I feel the level of celebration for a second round playoff win is a little much in NY. Actually embarrassing.
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I don't love it a lot of Knicks fans who experienced the Ewing don't love it, but it's mostly kids who never experienced the Knicks getting to the ECF and they wanna party and get drunk on a Friday night. 7th avenue is always nuts whether the Knicks win or lose.
 
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Deepster said:
Not gonna lie. I feel the level of celebration for a second round playoff win is a little much in NY. Actually embarrassing.
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Kinda like a Whalers parade after making it to the 2nd round :)
 
Jaydumo20 said:
@HooperScooper I hear what you're saying. There is a very casual Hollywood fan base. But....
I used to go to about 20 Dodgers games/ year maybe more. When I first started going I thought the fanbase was fickle and not very knowledgeable........ that was until I started to talk to the Latino dodger fanbase. Latino Dodgers fans are of the most intense fan bases in the country and they know their stuff.
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My friend in LA just named his new kitten Dodger.
 
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